Volkswagen (VW's) latest vehicle architecture, aimed at emerging markets such as China and India, is likely to incorporate elements of the MQB and PQ platforms, reports the Economic Times. The report says the platform is called "MQB A0" within the company, citing four people with knowledge of the plan. The approach is aimed at saving major investments in a new architecture and achieving fast turnround. The report said the first vehicle to be based on the hybrid platform in India will be the Vento NF, scheduled for 2018/19. The architecture is expected to be used in all the VW Group vehicles sold in India subsequently. However, the report adds that VW India's spokesperson declined to comment "on the future and upcoming plans and products right now".
Significance: The hybrid platform is set to be the German group's answer to rival automakers' approaches of tapping emerging markets. According to IHS Automotive data, the MQB A0 platform will account for nearly 24% of the group's global sales by 2020. China, Brazil and India are expected to be the biggest emerging markets for the platform, although the list of countries also includes mature markets such as Germany and the United Kingdom. While sales of the products based on the new architecture are expected to start in 2017 with Brazil and China as the first big markets, sales in India are likely to start only in 2019. In India, the PQ25 platform accounted for slightly over 90% of VW Group's sales of 59,600 units in India in 2014. However, this will change with the introduction of new platform. Emerging markets present a huge opportunity for global automakers. While General Motors (GM) recently announced a USD5 billion push in emerging markets, its Japanese rival is considering bringing the Toyota New Generation Architecture (TNGA) to India.
