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Platform Sharing
Platform Sharing By Royal Ford, Contributor
2008 Volvo C30
Time was, especially among car enthusiasts, this was the common question: “What's under the hood?” Time was.
2008 Chrysler 300 
2008 Chevrolet TrailBlazer
Today, across an increasingly broad sweep of drivers – from enthusiasts to those for whom a vehicle is only a here-to-there appliance, a more proper question is this: “What's under your car?”
It’s a great question and a consumer-friendly one, because even as manufacturers cut the number of platforms on which they build their cars, it means that carmakers will be able to build many more choices, since each model does not demand a full and costly research and development program for its underpinnings. It is also a boon to an auto industry looking to become more efficient, more global, more flexible and scratching to save money on research, development and manufacturing.
The result is a global sharing of platforms, sometimes called architecture, within companies and between competitors. Alliances are being formed across both oceans to share platforms beneficial to all sides and today's shared platform is not yesterday's.
What is a platform?
Most people think of a platform as the basic pan of a car, but it's far more than that. When you talk platform or architecture today, you not only speak of the belly of the beast, but also a system that allows various engines, transmissions and suspension systems to be mounted, or tweaked, on different vehicles that are not recognizable as kin from the outside.
Most Americans who drive Ford Fusions , for instance, don't realize that their cars' platforms were developed in Germany, by a Japanese company, Mazda, for a Sweden-based company aligned with one from Michigan, Volvo and Ford. They also don’t realize that the cars are built at a Ford plant in Hermosillo, Mexico or that the tollbooth lineup of the Mazda 3 , Volvo S40 , Volvo C30 , and the upcoming Ford Focus - a string of very distinct cars - all share the same architectural DNA, Ford's C1 platform. The C1 is a compact class platform, adaptable for front or all-wheel-drive. It will underpin certain Ford, Volvo and Mazda products at least through 2011.
Ford, however, is certainly not alone. Nissan, for instance, is teaming with Chrysler to produce cars and trucks.
“We have been investing massively in global operations,” says Nissan's head of global marketing, Simon Sproule. “We are going to develop cars that can be sold anywhere.”
This has already led to an interesting pas de deux, between Nissan and Chrysler. The platform of the Nissan Versa will sit beneath a Chrysler design for South America, according to Sproule. The Dodge Ram pickup truck platform will anchor a Nissan redesign attempt to come up with a replacement for the Titan , which did not sell well. Also, a platform being developed by Nissan will be shared with Chrysler to give the American company ...