Volkswagen optimises vehicle development through 3DExperience

Volkswagen Group has inked a long-term partnership Dassault Systèmes to advance its digital infrastructure for state-of-the-art vehicle development.

Headquartered in Wolfsburg since being founded in 1937, Volkswagen Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of automobiles and commercial vehicles and the largest carmaker in Europe. It has 10 strong core brands that are said to meet every mobility need. They are divided into the core, progressive and sport luxury brand groups and work independently of each other.

With 114 production facilities in 17 European countries and 10 countries in North and South America, Asia and Africa, the company believes its global presence enables it to respond to the needs of different markets and drive forward innovative and sustainable technologies for the mobility of the future. Indeed, the company says it is committed to shaping the future of mobility through investments in electric and autonomous driving vehicles, digitisation and sustainability.

As it goes forward to meet the modern needs of manufacturing, Volkswagen Group has chosen 3DExperience in the cloud from Dassault Systèmes as a main engineering and manufacturing platform. The 3DExperience platform is designed to help automotive manufacturers streamline collaboration and deliver data-driven approaches to manage complexity in the electric vehicle market.

Engineers, designers and other professionals across the Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche brands will use virtual twins to streamline vehicle development. This is intended to enable teams to simulate, test and refine every aspect of vehicle development in a collaborative virtual environment before physical production begins, while ensuring compliance with global regulations and sustainability standards.

“We are advancing the development of our next-generation IT system landscape, and the decision to partner with Dassault Systèmes marks an important milestone,” said Hauke Stars, board member at Volkswagen Group for IT. “With consistent data streams and AI [artificial intelligence] solutions built on them, we are creating a true technological leap for our teams in development and factory planning. At the same time, we are sustainably reducing IT costs and accelerating processes by streamlining our system complexity and utilising virtual twins.”

Volkswagen Group will rely on four Dassault Systèmes industry solution experiences based on the 3DExperience platform: Global Modular Architecture; Smart, Safe and Connected; Efficient Multi-Energy Platform; and On-Target Vehicle Launch.

“After four decades of partnership rooted in innovation and trust, we’re now embarking on the next chapter with Volkswagen Group with the 3DExperience platform at its core,” said Dassault Systèmes CEO Pascal Daloz. “Our AI-powered virtual twins and the strength and resilience of the cloud will unify Volkswagen Group’s hardware and software innovation and unleash the knowledge and know-how to accelerate its software-driven transformation.”