Brands Battle To Become Volkswagen Group’s Centre Of Engineering Excellence

The Volkswagen Audi Group, one of the largest automotive groups in the world, is about to witness the biggest battle within the company.

The group is about to pit its latest acquisition, Porsche against Lamborghini in the boardroom as well as the show room.

You see, in the world of platform sharing and economy of scale, the Volkwagen has set a deadline at in end of the year to lock in centres of engineering excellence across its brands.

Porsche’s new CEO, Matthias Muller insists his company has got the upper hand to develop future mid-engined sportscar architecture for all group brands.

This of course is disputable as Lamborghini already has two highly accomplished mid-engined supercars, the Gallardo and the Murcielago, and has donated one to underpin Audi’s acclaimed R8 sportscar. Porsche, on the other hand has only one architecture, which the Boxster and Cayman sisters are built on.

“Porsche is pure performance, exclusivity and uncompromising performance on the road”, Muller told our source.

“The group is very keen to have an engineering centre for premium cars and for big limos, mid-engined cars and high-performance sportscars,” he admitted.

“With what we do for the small [sports]car, the group could use it for other VW group mid-engined chassis, but the decision will be done at the end of the year.”

An ambitious Porsche also sees itself as the potential centre of excellence for large passenger cars and SUVs as well.

Lamborghini, on the other hand, is also fighting with parent company, Audi, to claim centre of excellence status for carbon fibre development. This is now reinforced substantially with the successful debut of its carbon-focused Sesto Elemento concept car which premiered at the Paris Motor Show.

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