Volkswagen to cut development times by 25 per cent

Faster model development is now a key strategy for Volkswagen after it announced a 25 per cent reduction in vehicle development times.

As a part of its realigned plans for the Technical Development (TD) division, Volkswagen has shortened its vehicle development timeline from 54 to 40 months, starting at the point where a model's software architecture is first implemented to when it is completed.

The TD team is now the largest in Volkswagen's operations with 11,500 staff on the books, focused on transforming the automotive manufacturer into a technology company alongside its existing business model.

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Thomas Ulbrich, member of the Board of Management responsible for TD, said the investment in the division is essential to help aid Volkswagen's future shift.

“If the car is increasingly becoming an electrically driven software product, then its development must also evolve in all dimensions," said Ulbrich.

"We are making TD more connected and more efficient by focusing our processes and organisation on systems and functions rather than on components. Software first rather than hardware first.

"This will enable us to cut development times by 25 per cent – in the future, vehicle projects will be completed in 40 months from the point at which the basic software architecture is in place, instead of 54 months as before."

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An investment of €800 million (AU$1.17 billion) has also been announced for Volkswagen's Campus Sandkamp within the Wolfsburg base, set to be rolled out over the next five years to support 4000 employees working on the brand's flagship projects.

“This year, the transformation will also become visible outside the Group with the Campus Sandkamp development center [sic] planned for Wolfsburg," said Ulbrich.

"We will spend €800 million on making Campus Sandkamp the most cutting-edge vehicle development center [sic] in the world. In this way, we are highlighting that TD is ratcheting up the pace of transforming Volkswagen into a tech company.”

The next five years will be a booming time for Volkswagen's electric vehicles operations, from the implementation of its Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) across Group brands to the introduction of the Project Trinity EV before 2026.