Audi TT: How VW Did It

Automotive Industries,  June, 1999  by Christopher Jensen

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By the time the TT was finished, only about 20% of the little coupe's parts could be transferred directly to another vehicle without modification, claims Trahan. Common items include the air conditioning, wipers, rear suspension and switchgear, the latter coming from the A3. Another 40% of the TT's components -- such as the instrument panel's cross-car beam and the floorpan -- were used with some minor modifications. The remaining 40% are new, including the exterior skin and most of the interior.

Trahan admits that Audi would have liked to achieve "more commonality," but the prime corporate directive was to create "an unmistakable product."

Audi declines to discuss the TT's program cost, but the savings from modifying various A platform pieces parts allowed the team to get what it wanted and still save some money. Some of that savings is used elsewhere on things "that the customer sees, feels and touches," like the aluminum trim placed throughout the passenger compartment, notes Trahan.

The TT is now in production at VW's Gyor, Hungary, plant, and VW is moving ahead with its platform smorgasbord. In the short term, Trahan doesn't see the automaker's use of such platforms as changing radically.

"It will continue with optimizations and the evolutionary process," he reports (see sidebar this page). And in doing so, VW Group aims to remain ahead of Fiat, GM, Ford and others in the platform engineering race.

RELATED ARTICLE: AL2 ON TRACK

VW will expand its platform family later this year with the Audi AL2, a competitor to Mercedes-Benz's A-Class. Derived from an aluminum-bodied concept car introduced at Frankfurt in 1997, the AL2 continues Audi's exploration of aluminum space frames begun with the A8.

Audi hasn't announced plans to sell the AL2 in the U.S., but Trahan sees the little sedan as a step to the next, big change in platform engineering, which would be based on a space frame.

"We will have limitless possibilities," he predicts. "By simply putting a few more pieces you can make it longer, higher, wider, whatever, without having to invest a lot of tooling. Then, you are just down to changing the sheet metal and you have basically a whole new car. That is where I see it going 10 years from now. Limitless flexibility."

COPYRIGHT 1999 Cahners Publishing Company
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group