European Carmakers platforms policies
- The competition is very fierce in the automotive industry. Many factors contribute to the success or failures of carmakers’ strategies. Control of technologies is a key component of carmakers’ strategies. It contributes strongly to the design/engineering of vehicles responding better to the demand and to the reduction of cost.
- A vehicle is composed of many components grouped together in different manners. In the recent decade a new word has been put on the front of the communication : the platform. Many carmakers communicate today about its new platforms, much more efficient than the previous ones.
- However several questions arise: What is really a platform? Do the carmakers really reduce the number of their platforms?
- Do some carmakers control the design and engineering of platforms better than other ones? And will this control give them significant strategic advantages versus competitors? Or is it mainly communication?
- A complete study has been conducted by Inovev to answer these questions. This document (available in Premium access): explains how the standardisation helps to reduce cost, analyses the VW modular platform strategy with its advantages/dangers and provides details production data by platforms for main European carmakers (VW, Renault-Nissan, PSA, FIAT-Chrysler, BMW and Daimler) for the period 2005-2017.
