Automakers have long counted on parts-sharing to keep costs down—not just across individual lineups, but even across brands and market segments. Volkswagen Group’s MQB platform became the poster child for modern parts-sharing architectures in the 2010s, and many other automakers have since consolidated their lineups to the bare minimum of fundamental platforms to make manufacturing cheaper and more consistent.
But there are downsides. VW Group has long been accused of offering the same sausage in different lengths, as it were, and commonality across brands tends to invite accusations of cost-cutting and even badge-engineering—sometimes fairly, in both cases, but not always.
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