By 2020, 10 major OEMs (GM, Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Honda,

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Renault, Fiat, and Daimler) will reduce their platforms by about a third from over 175 platforms in 2010, and will concentrate mass production across a few key core platforms. Take GM. By reducing its vehicle platforms from 30 in 2010 to 14 in 2018, it hopes to save about $1 billion annually, primarily contributed by product development projects.

With the global automotive industry moving towards more efficient products, vehicle firms are increasingly embracing universal platforms with common core engineering, standard manufacturing practices and common parts. These companies will be re-jigging their existing and new platforms towards serving mainly the emerging markets such as China and India, the two countries to consume higher proportion of global car sales in the next few years.

Innovative and flexible platforms are being preferred because of the dimensional and functional flexibility they offer. Such platforms can support different brands as well as price segments, because they are made up of basic components used in all types of vehicles. According to an automotive industry study by Evalueserve research firm, the two most evident developments that are likely to dominate platform consolidation during this decade include inter-segmental collaboration in platform development and adoption, and region and market-specific platform development and adoption.

At present, small and mid-size cars dominate the platform standardisation landscape in the passenger vehicle segment worldwide. For instance, Renault, Nissan, General Motors, Ford, Toyota, and Volkswagen leverage their small and mid-size platform capabilities by extending the application of these platforms to SUVs and compact multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs). Most other major OEMs have also started using their compact platforms (used mainly for sedans) for crossovers, one of the emerging vehicle segments across the markets globally.

In 2010, the top 20 passenger car platforms accounted for about 40 per cent of the global production. The use of a set of select global platforms by most manufacturers will mean that almost half the passenger cars made in the latter half of this decade will use one of the top 20 global platforms. A realistic projection suggests that by 2015, such a development will lead to the top 20 platforms accounting for 45–47 per cent of passenger cars launched globally.