"VW's secrets for world domination", read the Autocar headline when the Volkswagen Group revealed a new vehicle architecture in all its oily glory back in February 2012.
In the decade since, more than 40 million cars have been built across 70 different model lines sold by seven different brands. By the end of the 2020s, around another 40 million are expected to be built. World domination? In automotive terms, there can be no debate.
The idea for this architecture was both wonderfully simple and extremely complicated at the same time. Its name, Modularer Querbaukasten (MQB), hardly rolled off the tongue, although for non-German speakers, the English translation gave a clue of what it was: Modular Transverse Matrix.
The MQB was designed to underpin transverse-engined vehicles as small as superminis like the VW Polo and as large as three-row SUVs like the VW Atlas. Replacing the PQ25, PQ35 and PQ46 architectures in one fell swoop, it appeared first on the seventh-generation VW Golf (or perhaps the third-generation Audi A3 that was released around the same time; it depends who you ask).
"The idea of the MQB was genius," says current VW boss Thomas Schäfer. "It created the whole platform thinking in the industry, and really pushed us around profitability across the board."
At the time of its conception, the VW Group was in its aggressive growth phase. The ability to build so many cars of different shapes and sizes, across so many brands, in so many factories and in so many different countries was seen as key to unlocking and benefiting from the scale and size of the group.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 08, 2023 من Autocar UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 08, 2023 من Autocar UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
THE DRAMATIC ITALIAN THAT MARKED THE END OF AN ERA
When the Huracán bowed out, the curtain fell forever on Lambo's V10
HOW EV MAKERS CAN WIN THE RACE TO 5.0MPKWH
Manufacturers are honing every detail to close in on big efficiency goal
MASERATI MC20
We bid a sad farewell to a handsome supercar that was easy to live with
The quickening
Instant acceleration is part of the appeal of an EV, but is it all getting a bit much for unwary and inexperienced drivers? JOHN EVANS investigates
Inside track
Watching an F1 race with live access to engineers and telemetry is the stuff of dreams for racing fans. ALEX WOLSTENHOLME makes a day of it
WHOLE IN ONE
The Volkswagen Golf has been all things to all motorists for half a century. At the wheel of a classic Mk1, VICKY PARROTT charts the eight-generation history of one of the world's most successful cars
DACIA DUSTER
Mk3 model gains digital tech, ADAS, slicker looks... Is this mission creep?
MAZDA CX-80 PHEV
Another look at Mazda's hefty SUV, this time in plug-in hybrid form
VAUXHALL GRANDLAND ELECTRIC
Newcomer looks to ease the average family SUV driver into EV motoring
BMW X3 20 XDRIVE
Fourth generation of brand's best-seller arrives with base petrol engine