They kept calling it Trinity… Is VW’s electric flagship just late or won’t it come out?
Volkswagen's electric (and electronic) motor hiccups: the Trinity project, announced in 2021 and now postponed to a later date, is at risk. Blame, again, the software. But that's not all: Blume would have written to employees that he had started examining "all projects and investments to verify their economic feasibility"
It is not easy to follow Tesla, for those who have reigned in the endothermic sector so far. Volkswagen is discovering it at its own (high, very high) expense which, from 2021, promises the world its answer to Elon Musk 's electric cars, or Trinity, but nothing has been seen yet. And we won't see anything for quite a while, given that, according to the German press , everything has been postponed once again, perhaps to 2030, if not even indefinitely.
WHAT IS THE TRINITY PROJECT
Volkswagen had announced its intention to put no less than 2 billion euros on the plate. In fact, many would have been needed to build a gigafactory for electric cars nearby in the historic Wolfsburg factory, with work starting date in 2023.
The Trinity project for the production of a range of battery-powered cars on an unprecedented platform would take shape in the new plant. All of this, in fact, inaugurated by a flagship, the futuristic electric sedan animated by the futuristic SSP (Scalable Systems Platform, a "mechatronic" platform that blends mechanical components and software at unprecedented levels), which, it is clear, in Volkswagen's projects should have compete directly with Tesla. The release date was supposed to be 2026. But…
BLUME'S CHANGE OF PACE
This was under the past leadership, which had imposed a race on electrification which, it is known, led to Herbert Diess ' defenestration. With Oliver Blume at the helm, the Wolfsburg House seems to want to proceed much more calmly, even going so far as to suspend the entire project due to delays in the development of the IT architecture. Moreover, the recent decision to postpone the autumn meetings of the management and supervisory boards called to approve the five-year investment plans had made him suspect that the strategic plans are undergoing a restyling.
At the basis of the postponement or cancellation of Trinity there would be software problems, the same ones that have been chasing the brand for a while and that VW is trying to solve by relying on external Chinese companies . As anticipated, the German press speaks of a Trinity project postponed by a good four years compared to the original indications on a start for 2026, with chain consequences that could even overwhelm the make-up of the Wolfsburg factory, as requested and obtained by the fierce president of the works council, Daniela Cavallo, in the very bitter contrast with the past CEO which led to the latter's departure from the scene.
THE CEO'S WARNING TO EMPLOYEES
If this were the case, the German automotive would lose one of the strategic reference sites of the country's new industry 4.0, designed not only to assemble the electric ventures of the range, but above all to follow in Tesla's footsteps, given that it would have to contemplate production processes at the avant-garde. As a result, the development program for the new flagship assigned to Wolfsburg would also be at risk. But the new CEO's ax could have an impact on other projects already announced by VW: the German press reports a message sent by Blume to employees to warn that he has started examining "all projects and investments to verify their economic feasibility" . Brinda Musk who, despite all the problems that the Berlin gigafactory gives him , now sees more and more VW in his rear-view mirror…
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/continuavano-a-chiamarlo-trinity-lammiraglia-elettrica-vw-tarda-solo-o-non-uscira/ on Fri, 18 Nov 2022 11:31:02 +0000.