Porsche (www.porsche.com) and Audi — the Volkswagen Group’s main luxury-car divisions — will significantly reduce the development costs for their future electric cars with a joint platform called PPE (Premium Platform Electric).

Audi CEO Rupert Stadler (www.audi.com) said: “By 2025, we are facing a low single-digit billion-euro sum to develop the architecture. If both would act on their own, costs would be 30% higher.”

Meanwhile, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said the company was hiring 300 developers and Audi was hiring 550; starting in 2021, Audi and Porsche want to launch several models based on the joint platform.

Mr Stadler said Audi would build two saloon cars in Neckarsulm and two SUVs in Ingolstadt. Mr Blume said Porsche could build its first model based on the joint architecture in Leipzig, where it already produces the Macan SUV.

In addition to developing the PPE, Porsche has been tasked by VW Group with developing a platform called SPE — for electric sports cars and super-cars — that may also be used by Audi and Lamborghini.