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Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr
Or maybe keeping the "outdated" platform since it's already compliant, or mixing some of its elements to the newer one.
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That is what they are doing with the Spark and Sonic - at least for now.
However keeping an old platform cost money too. You lose economy of scale as other vehicles move to new platform which increases piece prices for the old vehicle. You also lose savings that come with the new platform because every redesign includes cost savings through reduced assemble time and part design. A redesign is when the big savings come. A rule of thumb, about 80% of the assembly hours in a vehicle are based on the design and can’t be changed. Example - a part is installed with 5 bolts instead of 4. That extra bolt costs $.06 and it takes 10 seconds to install. A minute of labor is about $1 so that is $0.17. So total savings are $0.23 per bolt. That part is used on all the vehicles in the platform which can be 5 million per year. So that tiny change from removing 1 bolt saves the company $1.15 million per year
Pretty much every car manufacturer in the world has the goal to build all of their vehicles on 3-5 platforms. (Total globally) That doesn’t allow for old platforms to stick around. GM’s VVS is to build all of their vehicles on 4 platforms by 2025. That is down from 28 when the plan was announced. GEM is a middle step in the plan.
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