The PPE platform for premium electric cars from Audi and Porsche will debut at the end of the year with the new generation of the Porsche Macan. An architecture designed for high-performance, zero-emission models that will hardly have a market run. We tell you the technical ins and outs of this platform that the two manufacturers have kept secret.
In mid-fall 2019, Audi and Porsche unveiled some of the technical details of the new PPE platform for Premium electric cars that both brands conceived for their most exclusive models. The controversial architecture became a major problem for Volkswagen, as the German brand was not willing to maintain until three structures -MEB, J1 and PPE- when the most recent SSP was pulled out of its sleeve.
Just a few months ago, the German parent company has managed to impose this latest platform for all the German giant’s electric cars, including the most luxurious and sporty brands. The SSP platform will be released in the middle of the decade, so the PPE will hardly have a route that allows to amortize the important outlay that the two firms have invested in it. Four models will be developed on it, the new Audi Q6 e-tron and Porsche Macan Electric that will arrive in 2022, the Audi A6 e-tron in 2023 and the replacement for the Bentley Mulsanne in 2024.
The PPE platform for electric cars from Audi and Porsche, in detail
Although the two German manufacturers released some technical details more than a year and a half ago, it is now that the one with the four rings has discovered in an internal document the characteristics of the PPE architecture, a platform specially designed to conceive saloons and SUVs with a wide variability of the width – specifically the expansion of the rear axle – and of the distance between axles. For example, the first dimension can range from 1,641 millimeters to 1,714 millimeters, and the second from 2,890 millimeters to 3,080 millimeters. Even the height of the body to the ground can also increase from 152 to 217 millimeters.
Solutions that allow a wide flexibility in the development of new models. But it is also a structure loaded with technology. Batteries equipped on this platform will have a dozen of modules, with which the maximum capacity will reach 100 kWh and the maximum autonomy will be greater than 700 kilometers according to the model. Some accumulators that can also be recharged with 800V systems and a charging power of 270 kW. One of the highest figures on the market – the new EQS supports 210 kW – so In just 10 minutes you can recharge energy for 300 kilometers, and from 5 to 80% in less than 25 minutes.
These specifications are standard for the PPE platform, common to all models conceived on it, but the electric motors will be specific to each manufacturer. Of course, Porsche has not disclosed any details, but Audi has indicated that its electric motors will be capable of performing. a maximum power of 350 kW -475 adjustable CV- and a torque of 800 Nm. Each one, because the platform has been designed to house up to four units, which far exceeds 1,000 kW that the two brands advanced a year and a half ago.