And for many the key is in a word platform

How to generate high margins with cars whose prices tend to CAP, or even to decline in some areas The bulk of the crisis passed, that is the decisive question that major automakers are again confronted. And for many, the key is in a word: platform. Because developing different models, for several continents, from the same technical basement (chassis, suspension, engine cradle, etc.), major general practitioners can play maximum economies of scale, without that customers care about these common warnings.

An example Ford, one of the groups which are more in this area, with the globalization of the intended "segment C" platform, that of medium-sized cars. The new version of the Focus sedan, which will be marketed in a few weeks in the United States and Europe and then in China, 2012 is only the tip of the iceberg: a total Group of Dearborn (Michigan) announced at the Detroit show that he would soon propose not less than 10 vehicles camped on the same technical basis. Next to the Focus and its break, there will be including a Variant 100 electric, a "high performance" (ST) Focus, the new compact MPV C - Max (short and long versions) released in Europe and which will also be distributed in North America, or even a small compact SUV, which will replace him only the Kuga in Europe and the Escape in America. At the time, Ford does not hesitate to abridge the career of some models (four years for the Kuga) to harmonize its lines on all major continents, always the principle of the single platform.

Before him, General Motors had also decided to consolidate its lines around three major families of platforms, although its implementation in bankruptcy in the summer 2009, has apparently slowed and complicated the process. For Volkswagen, he will soon launch a new Passat sedan in the United States which differs widely from the new European Edition in terms of finish and price, but which shares several organs ou modules keys, starting with the engines.

The reason for these "technological crosses" is simple: on average, a constructor performs approximately 400,000 cars per year on the basis of his or her principal (s) platforms (s), according to Daniel Cheng, consultant with AT Kearney. But he might be able to push this figure on the threshold of the million units, and it can reduce the cost of manufacturing of a car for $ 700, according to him. It performs internal development costs savings vehicles, and gets the components price declines by shimmering effect volume with major OEMs. In the case of Ford, platform C same must rapidly reach the cap of the 2 million vehicles a year in the world. Each according to its priority, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroën markets or the Fiat-Chrysler coupling and its scale are the same.

At the time, reports of strength between the players could change in coming years. Not one of the "big three" Detroit is currently in the list of groups with ten main "platforms comprehensive", a ranking in volume so far dominated by Toyota with the architecture used on its Camry sedan number one in the United States. But by 2015, said AT Kearney, Ford should climb to third in the world, with the technical basis of the Focus, immediately followed by GM, with the deployed under the Chevrolet Cruze.

Two pitfalls

Attractive on paper, to inflate the margin by vehicle, this approach leads to at least two pitfalls. The first is to propose a "global" car which, du coup, not please anyone. In the 1990s, Ford was thus grilled wings with the Mondeo, designed in Europe and declined in the United States. Second problem: the effect detonator of the modules used in all plants. If a problem occurs on one of them, recall campaigns can be devastating.