Audi And Porsche To Collaborate On Electric And Autonomous Vehicle Development

The agreement comes as Volkswagen Chief Executive Matthias Mueller, who previously worked as Porsche's CEO and Audi's head of product management, finalises a proposal to step up development of autonomous cars, electric vehicles and digital services.

Audi and Porsche will collaborate to design and develop a next-generation vehicle platform, one ready to meet the challenges of the automotive landscape of the future in mobility.

Joint teams will prepare the particular areas of cooperation and outline the roadmap as far as 2025. The focus will be on the joint development of a platform along with various modules and components. Each area of collaboration will be jointly developed by a representative from both the brands.

Porsche was taken over by Volkswagen in 2012 and has risen as a strong competitive engineering centre to Audi.

Porsche's MSB platform, which underpins its four-seater Panamera model, has been chosen for VW group's next-generation Bentley Continental model although Audi had developed a similar platform.

Volkswagen Group's emissions test cheating on diesel engines was unearthed in September 2015, since then, Audi has lost two R&D chiefs and the head of its automotive electronics division, who were known for their work in the area of autonomous driving and battery technology.

While Audi has also worked on its electric car, Porsche has developed the J1 electric cars platform.

With the collaboration, Audi and Porsche will look to bring the best of innovation especially in the field of autonomous mobility.