Audi A4 will get cheaper production

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The A4, which has its engine placed in line with the car, will enjoy the same advantages as the A3 with MQB.
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Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

2 min read

The lower-cost production is three years away for Audi's bread-and-butter A4 model, but Audi confirmed this week that the A4 will get a similar one-size-fits-all platform from 2015 as Volkswagen Group introduces its MLB system -- the sister design to the radical MQB platform just launched in the Audi A3 and Volkswagen Golf.

MLB is the platform for longitudal engine layouts while MQB is for transverse layouts. The A4, which has its engine placed in line with the car, will enjoy the same advantages as the A3 with MQB - the potential for lower car costs in the future, lighter weight, better fuel efficiency and lower emissions, the simplicity of common components and faster production.

Like the A3's platform - which is now being morphed into underpinning the Tiguan, Q3, Skoda Octavia and Seat Leon plus a raft of future models - the A4's new design will be used on the next Audi models but has direct applications in the Volkswagen Phaeton (effectively an Audi A8); SUV models from Volkswagen, Audi and the upcoming Skoda; Bentley Continental; and even the 2014 Porsche Macan SUV.

Audi is by far the biggest user of platforms with the engine mounted in line with the car and predominantly driving the front wheels. A spokesman says the current Audi A4 has a platform that uses the principles of MLB but that the 2015 model will employ all the common design points that will allow it to be used in other makes and models.

Volkswagen Group plans four distinct platforms - MQB and MLB, one for rear-engined cars and one for mid-engine sports cars - in its quest to boost production, lower costs and maximise profitability on a path to become the world's biggest vehicle maker by 2018.
 

Photo of Neil Dowling
Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

GoAutoMedia Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting. It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail. He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out. In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups. He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally. He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
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