Audi‘s battery-electric A4 will not go into production at its Ingolstadt plant before 2029, in part because the carmaker asked Volkswagen Group to change the platform the car will use, Autocar reported on Friday.
Audi wanted the Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) adapted to keep the A4’s traditional seating position and cabin proportions, including separate footwells for front and rear passengers instead of a fully flat floor, according to the British magazine.
That required the battery and other high-voltage components under the cabin to be rearranged. Audi also specified a 48-volt onboard electrical system instead of the planned 12-volt one, which meant further changes to the electronics, the report said.
The A4 had been due in 2028 as one of the first cars on the SSP, a group-wide architecture that Volkswagen first presented in 2021 and once planned to put into production in 2026.
A Platform Three Years Late
Handelsblatt reported in September, citing company sources, that production of the electric A4 would start in March 2029 at the earliest, against an earlier plan of mid-2028. Insiders quoted by the German newspaper expected a start in late April or early May 2029.
The newspaper said the SSP was running about three years behind its original schedule, and that the number of planned platform variants had been cut to four from eight.
The newspaper blamed technical problems, lengthy coordination within the group and cost pressure that is forcing Volkswagen to keep existing platforms in use for longer.
Volkswagen declined to comment to the newspaper on a possible SSP delay, while Audi insiders described the change to Handelsblatt as “usual shifts in the development phase.”
Handelsblatt also reported that Chief Executive Officer Gernot Döllner had pushed for the move to a 48-volt system, which it said could pose a challenge for European suppliers.
An Audi insider told Autocar the structural changes add complexity at a time when Volkswagen Group is trying to increase the number of parts shared across its brands. It said the problems were not limited to the long-running software difficulties at the group’s former Cariad unit.
2028 Promised Until the Summer
Döllner confirmed the electric A4 to Autocar in October 2025, saying it “will be a future Audi car on a future platform.” The magazine reported then that it would not launch before 2028.
At Audi’s annual media conference on March 17, Döllner said the first Audi built on the new electrical and electronic architecture developed with Rivian was set to arrive as early as 2028.
The electric A4 is widely seen as the leading candidate, although Audi has not confirmed which model will come first. “It’s 2028 where we’ll see it in the market,” he had told Autocar of the new architecture in October 2025.
As late as June, Rouven Mohr, Audi’s board member for technical development, told GoAuto there was “no need to correct” the 2028 timing, electrive reported. He said the A4 would be one of the first production models with Audi’s new design language, and the first Audi to use the “full potential” of the SSP.
Audi has not disclosed the car’s battery capacity or range.
Rivian Software at the Core
The SSP is the platform on which Volkswagen Group plans to carry the software architecture of RV Tech, its joint venture with Rivian, under a deal worth up to $5.8 billion. Audi is expected to be the first group brand to sell a car with Rivian’s complete software stack.
The 48-volt switch also affects that work. The Rivian-developed electronics were designed around a 12-volt system and must be adapted, according to Autocar.
On Volkswagen Group’s third-quarter call on October 29, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said “the SSP is a very important toolkit for us for next generation BEVs, and it will start in 2029,” according to a transcript. He called it “a highly competitive new toolkit for BEVs, with software from Rivian.”
Volkswagen confirmed in October that it was reviewing Chinese technology for Europe while keeping Rivian’s software for the SSP. Rivian dismissed a report that Volkswagen was weighing a software swap, and said Volkswagen’s ID.1 remained on track for 2027.
Electric Golf on Hold
The A4 is not the only SSP model in doubt. Volkswagen paused development of the electric ID. Golf in October as part of a cost-cutting drive, saying the work would resume once it can “securely allocate the necessary investments.”
“We simply cannot afford this work right now,” Volkswagen brand Chief Executive Officer Thomas Schäfer said, according to Reuters. “We cannot spend money we do not earn,” he said in an internal interview, according to German public broadcaster NDR. The car had been planned on the SSP for the early 2030s. Volkswagen has not said when development will restart.
The ID. Golf and an electric T-Roc, both to be built in Wolfsburg, had been expected to be among the first SSP models, Autocar said.
Rivals Already on the Road
The delay leaves Audi without a direct answer to two German rivals that are already in production or on sale. BMW began series production of its electric i3 sedan, the second model on its Neue Klasse platform, in Munich this summer and has described a “steep ramp-up driven by strong demand.”
Mercedes-Benz opened German orders for its electric C-Class on May 6, with the C 400 4MATIC priced from €67,711 ($74,900), and started production at its Kecskemét plant in Hungary in July. Both target the same buyers as the A4, along with Tesla’s Model 3.
The Audi brand delivered 143,748 fully electric cars in the first nine months of 2026, down 12.0%, while total deliveries fell 11.4% to 1,042,150, the company said on October 30. Plug-in hybrid deliveries rose 103%. Audi adjusted its 2026 financial forecast with the results.
Audi’s closest current electric option is the larger A6 e-tron, built on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) it shares with Porsche. The A4 was at one stage expected to use that platform before Audi moved it to the SSP.
