VW's electric car project "Trinity" to be postponed further into the future

Volkswagen could postpone the electric car project with the working title "Trinity", which has already been postponed several times, even further into the future. According to a newspaper report, Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume is now planning to start production of cars based on the "SSP" technology in 2032. Volkswagen is not commenting on this process and is not commenting on the Handelsblatt report, which was apparently based on insider information.

The production start-up for the successor to the current VW ID.4 is also up for discussion, according to Manager Magazin. The reasons given are the ongoing difficulties with the vehicle software, as well as falling demand for electric cars.

When "Trinity" was still a prestigious project of the predecessor Herbert Diess, who was replaced in September 2022, it was supposed to lead to the production of marketable electric cars as early as 2026. Blume already scrapped the original goal of electric car production on this basis at the end of 2022. This also affected the new factory planned in the Wolfsburg district of Warmenau for cars on this basis, which was given its abbreviation after the name "Scalable Systems Platform".

Production costs as for the combustion engine

In future, it is intended to reduce costs and thus help improve margins by enabling as many models as possible to be produced with as few identical parts as possible at Volkswagen's VW, Audi and Porsche brands. In contrast to the current "MEB" electric modular system and its successors, SSP is intended to bring costs down to a level similar to that of cars with combustion engines.

A range of 700 kilometers, fast-charging capability and autonomy at SAE level 4 were also targeted. The main reason for the delays were problems at VW's Cariad software division and the resulting costly delays to other model launches. In order to use the technical basis even more efficiently, it is also to become the basis for new developments with the cooperation partners Rivian from the USA and Xpeng from China.

The individual models are to go into production in stages and, above all, have leeway in terms of deadlines "in order to be able to meet market demand", as VW employees are quoted as saying. The successor to the VW Golf, which will only be offered as an electric car, in 2029, the electric Audi A4 at the end of 2028, the large SUV model T-Sport at the end of 2031 and the ID.4 successor at the end of 2030.

(fpi)