Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume has reiterated the group’s commitment to launching its all-encompassing SSP (Scalable Systems Platform) electric architecture in 2026, despite executives flagging delays to 2028/29 in recent months.
The architecture will span from city cars to sports cars making more than 1700bhp, Blume told investors at the VW Group’s capital markets day held on Thursday. VW had initially planned for SSP to handle around 1100bhp.
“The SSP architecture will balance the need for scale and standardisation with differentiation and speed,” Blume said.
The architecture was first announced in 2021 with a 2026 planned launch date, starting with Audi’s Artemis project. However, delays – especially on the crucial software 2.0 – dragged on development times and the project was pushed back to 2028/29, executives such as VW brand CEO Thomas Schäfer had previously said.
VW Group brands will share architecture modules across 40 million vehicles as the company works to standardise parts to increase economies of scale and help bring down the stubbornly high price of electric cars. “Most” vehicles on the SSP platform will achieve profit margin parity with internal-combustion-engined cars, Blume said, compared with just “some” on the group’s MEB electric car platform.
“Architectures cover up to 75% of all material costs for BEV, compared to up to 10% for ICE,” Blume said. “Therefore, architectures are a key driver for profitability in the future.”
One part that will be shared across all models is the planned ‘Unified’ battery cell built in future VW plants and able to span a range of chemistries, including the cost-cutting LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate).
Blume gave new details on the performance of SSP cars, including a 10%-80% charging time reduced to 12 minutes on average, compared with the existing 35 minutes for MEB models. The software 2.0 and electronic architecture will allow for hands-free driving up to level four.
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1700hp? Utterly, completely idiotic. The average driver can barely handle 300.
Totally agree shift.
A V6 Camry has around 200kW. Not many people would find driving one challenging.
Why do we need a car with 1700hp why are VAG wasting their time developing this? to put this in perspective the Rolls Royce Merlin which powered the Hurricane,Lancaster & Spitfire pushed out that sort of power. Where can you use this amount of power on public road except on the Autobahns? absolutely bonkers
1700hp?, alright, someone please explain why, why the Car needs so much power?, is it because of the weight of the Car?, why all of a sudden huge amount of instant torque and power can be driven by mr/Mrs average driver? and, you can't deploy the performance 90% of the time, there is battery technology coming along than can shorten charge times ICE car fill-up times and the Batteries are getting lighter to, so speeds over 100 mph are irrelevant on the roads, do these speeds on Track?, yeah, that sounds good to me.
Besides, you have to understand that, in general, the higher the battery capacity, the higher the power it can provide. It depends on several factors, such as voltage and amperage, but it's generally true. This is why on many vehicles, with a larger battery you also get more power.
So when they say it will support 1700bhp, they actually mean the battery capacity will be large. But 1700bhp is a better marketing number.