According to the US electric car news site Electrorek reported that Tesla Model 3 into the European market has made some local car manufacturers nervous. It is said that Porsche and Audi have reverse engineered Tesla’s new electric car, which is very unexpected for the cost of the car, and began to adjust its own electric vehicle platform.
Buying a competitor’s car and understanding the relevant technology through disassembly analysis is more common in the automotive industry. But usually, only when a company’s products are considered to be major disruptors, will it be the object of analysis by other vendors.
Model 3 seems to meet such standards, and its recent sales in the United States exceed the combined sales of other cars of the same class. In the early stage of production rampage, Model 3 was still in short supply, but some manufacturers still managed to get a new car for analysis. It is reported that a German car manufacturer was very surprised after the reverse engineering of Model 3.
Now, Germany’s “Manager Magazin” has in-depth coverage of the views of Audi executives and insiders. It is reported that Porsche and Audi, which are currently jointly developing the next-generation electronic platform, have adjusted their plans because their own cost is much higher than Tesla.
Their next-generation platform, called the Premium Electric Platform (PPE), was approved two years ago and is expected to be operational in 2020 or 2021. According to reports, the cost of the first generation platform is about 3,000 euros higher, Porsche thinks acceptable, but Audi does not agree. They believe that there is a need to reduce costs to compete with other upcoming electric vehicles. Battery cost is the biggest factor in the overall cost of the platform, and Tesla claims to be the industry leader in this field. According to reports, Audi and Porsche may postpone the PPE production plan in order to improve the cost factor and thus strengthen the competitiveness with Tesla.
The importance of PPE has become more prominent due to the failure of Audi’s previous e-Tron project. The last platform e-Tron was not only late, but also did not reach the target value, the cost was too high, and the development cost exceeded 2 billion euros. The company originally planned to launch an e-Tron electric SUV last year, but the release was delayed due to software issues. Before the official launch of the PPE platform, the German car manufacturer is still considering launching several other cars based on this platform.
Although it often complains that Tesla has not yet delivered the $35,000 Starter Model 3, it should be acknowledged that it has become the only car manufacturer to produce attractive long-distance battery-powered vehicles and to make money. This is where the Audi and Porsche are surprised, leading them to imitate Tesla’s approach on the PPE platform. The industry believes that when we look back at the current situation in 10 years, we may not only appreciate the promotion of Model 3 to the electric vehicle industry, but also the impact it has on other manufacturers.
Audi and Porsche’s platform Bitsla is two years late, but the cost is still 3,000 euros, which is enough to show Tesla’s lead.
