Currently reading: Porsche beats Audi to VW deal
Porsche - not Audi - will develop sports cars and luxury saloons for the VW Group

Porsche has won an internal battle with Audi in the Volkswagen Group to take the lead in developing both sports cars and large luxury saloons for the Group.

Group boss Martin Winterkorn confirmed Porsche’s role within VW after the German sports car firm had feared it would be sidelined within the multi-brand automotive giant.

Porsche resisted plans for a VW-developed platform for its core 911 range and will instead developed the next-generation platform for front-mid- and rear-mid-engined cars from Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini, as well as a “modular standard matrix” to underpin Porsche and Bentley saloons.

Read the full story on Porsche's plans to share with Bentley

Winterkorn’s announcement follows Porsche confirming plans last week to expand its Weissach design and engineering facility and recruit 100 new engineers.

It also confirms comments new Porsche boss Matthias Müller made to Autocar last week about his desire to share platforms and knowledge with Bentley.

Audi had lobbied hard for Porsche’s new role within VW Group, and it will instead by responsible for further development of the Group’s “modular longitudinal matrix” used on the Audi A4, A5 and Q5 models.

VW is currently developing a “modular transverse matrix” that will first appear on the next Audi A3, before going on to underpin around 40 models, selling three million units annually.

See all the latest Porsche reviews, news and video

Join the debate

Comments
10
Add a comment…
Flash Harry 9 December 2010

Re: Porsche beats Audi to VW deal

Grunt wrote:
As long as Porsche is in charge of the chassis development, and not of its looks, all should be well... 'Cause it is strange, to have big Audis look reasonably well but handle well below mediocre levels, while Porsches big cars handle very well but are hideous... Hope that VAG has finally understood that on their own Audi is simply not capable of producing a fine-handling car, nor is Porsche capable to produce something else than 911 looks.
I agree wholeheartedly that Porsche should leave the design to someone else.Porsche design is hideous but Audi design is done by use of a photocopier,so another long term problem arises!

andrepaul999 9 December 2010

Re: Porsche beats Audi to VW deal

disco.stu wrote:
Audi's desire to manage the sports and super-premium saloon platforms was just politics and pride, really. They are hardly going to lose out because their sports car platforms are developed by Porsche - the R8 is spun off a Lamborghini model, anyway.

Lets not get too carried away, i mean dont forget Sports cars is ALL Porsche does.... if they hadnt got that right by now there should be some serious questions being asked!

And if anybody mentions the non-entity that is the Cayene forget it!

Les Paul 9 December 2010

Re: Porsche beats Audi to VW deal

I'd say it's Porsche 1 - 1 Audi, Porsche may have won this debate but Audi are to remain VAG's Le Mans racing expotent, despite Porsche's history with La Sarthe and they may end up burning cash to provide 4 cylinder turbo engines in F1 in the future instead...