When it comes to the transformation of luxury brands into new energy, we still seem to be stuck in the stereotype of not thinking of making progress, but in fact, in the face of unprecedented industry changes in the new energy era, the new energy transformation speed of traditional luxury brands may be faster than you think.
Among them, Audi is undoubtedly one of the most radical brands in the transformation of new energy in the traditional luxury brand, at this stage, the light pure electric platform includes MLB evo, J1 Performance, MEB and PPE four, of which PPE is undoubtedly one of the main platforms of Audi for future pure electric models, but there is no actual mass production car, but the first three are different, and mass production has been achieved.
Building a platform so much money-burning thing, even at the same time to get three, and is parallel development, at first glance, this kind of position even Tesla is afraid to shake three times. But don't think that Audi is really so stupid, obviously this move is not a mature practice of a serious commercial company, there must be a certain reason behind it, let's take a look at the origin and characteristics of Audi's four major platforms.
Under the huge brand coverage and product layout of Volkswagen Group, in fact, Audi's electric platform has adopted the idea of sharing technology, that is to say, Audi has 4 pure electric platforms, which is not false, but it does not mean that Audi has 4 platforms, but it is shared with other brands of Volkswagen Group.
Among them, although the MLB evo platform gave birth to an electrification such as Audi e-tron, from the platform level, MLB evo gave birth to pure electric vehicles, but it does not necessarily mean that it is a pure electric platform. Because the number of fuel vehicles born under this well-known platform can be much more than pure electric, such as the Audi Q7, up to the Lamborghini Urus and Bentley Bentayga, all based on the platform, so MLB evo can also be understood as an oil to electricity platform.
In contrast, the MEB platform is much purer, is volkswagen to imitate the fuel vehicle MQB platform to create a pure electric special platform, the biggest feature is that the wheelbase, wheelbase, chassis height can be adjusted according to the needs of the model, behind the strong adaptability represents low specificity, which is also doomed to MEB platform is not an electric platform for high-end products, for example, Audi based on the MEB platform to build Q4 e-tron, can be more obviously seen, this is not a high positioning product.
Suspension form, MEB using the front McPherson rear 5 linkage suspension, also based on the people-friendly positioning, in terms of charging performance, MEB platform supports up to 125kW charging power, but not all models can reach 125kW charging power, taking domestic ID.4 as an example, its DC fast charging maximum power of 100kW, from 30% -80% takes 30 minutes, endurance according to different versions, can provide 400/500/550km three choices.
J1 Performance is obviously different, as the platform used by Porsche pure electric sports car Taycan, the overall specifications of the J1 Performance are much higher than the MEB, compared to the MEB platform, the J1 platform adopts the front double wishbone independent suspension, while can be loaded with air springs, rear wheel steering, corner torque control and other high-end configurations.
However, J1 is essentially a high-performance pure electric platform after the electrification of the MSB fuel platform, that is, the platform used by Porsche Panamera, not the original pure electric platform, so from the strategic point of view of Audi and the entire Volkswagen Group, J1 can never be a platform that has been used for a long time, not as some people think, and the life cycle of J1 will be as long as possible.
At present, only two models are built on the J1 platform, the Porsche Taycan and the Audi e-tron GT, of which the Audi e-tron GT Zero Hundred acceleration time only 4.1s, RS version of the model can be shortened to 3.3s, using the industry's rare two-speed gearbox, this move is mainly to further increase the re-acceleration ability and extreme speed capability of the medium-high speed domain, charging performance can support 800V DC charging, the maximum charging power can reach 270kW, charging 5 minutes can be driven according to the WLTP standard 100km, battery capacity of two versions, respectively, 79.2kWh and 93.4kWh.
PPE platform, is Audi and even the entire Volkswagen Group, for the future of high-end electric vehicles to build a pure electric platform, although there is still a period of time from the launch of the mass production car produced by the platform, but the tide of electrification of PPE has actually been a very large scale of products, ready to go. Only the currently known news, ppE platform will be born including Audi A6 e-tron, Q6 e-tron, pure electric Porsche Macan and many other models. Among them, Q6 e-tron as Audi's first model based on PPE, its 800V DC fast charging power can also reach 270kW, the same as the J1 platform, 100kWh battery pack from 5% to 80% only takes 25 minutes, but according to the official introduction, PPE future fast charging power can be further increased to 350kW.
More critically, the PPE platform will also participate in this new energy tug-of-war in the domestic market as the ace pure electric platform of the entire Volkswagen Group.
In February this year, audi FAW new energy vehicle project was announced by the industrial department of the Jilin Provincial Development and Reform Commission, which also means that the Audi PPE electric vehicle plant began construction, which is expected to be completed in December 2024, with a production capacity of 150,000 units per year.
According to the public announcement, the new factory is located in Changchun Automobile Economic and Technological Development Zone, with a total area of 2.46 million square meters and a total investment of 20.93 billion yuan, the main construction contents include new stamping, welding, painting, assembly, battery-related production workshops and production lines, and supporting the construction of joint power station buildings, logistics distribution centers, etc. After completion, it will produce three pure electric new energy models: B+SUV e-tron/B+SAV e-tron/C Lim LWB e-tron (medium-sized sports multi-purpose car, medium-sized sports multi-purpose car, medium-sized and large-sized car).
In fact, the three specific models put into production by the domestic Audi PPE plant have been clear, namely Q6L e-tron (eQ5), Q6L e-tron Sportback (eQ6) and pure electric sedan E6L Lim, each car will include entry-level, main and main type II three specifications, using the Power Battery of the Ningde Era, the battery capacity is up to 100kWh, the maximum cruising range is 600km, and the fastest acceleration of 0-100km/h is 5.7s.
The above-mentioned pure electric car codenamed E6L Lim, the high probability is pure electric A6L, at last year's Shanghai Auto Show, Audi has released the A6 e-tron concept car, which is also regarded by everyone as the A6L to pure electric evolution model.
As Audi's most important model in China, the pure electrification of the A6L can be seen in Audi's determination and confidence in transforming new energy.