e.GO Mobile granted access to Volkswagen’s MEB platform

e.GO Mobile, an electric-car start-up company, will be the first outside company to use Volkswagen's MEB platform, after the German brand signalled its intention to share its new architecture with third parties.

MEB will be used to build larger versions of e.GO Mobile's 80bhp electric city car, and the company could eventually build low-volume production vehicles on behalf of Volkswagen as well.

Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess was joined by e.GO Mobile's founder Dr Gunter Schuh at the Geneva Motor Show to confirm the deal, with the latter telling our sister title Auto Express: “We have the capacity to run three shifts, with up to 30,000 cars in total. That means if I end up building 20,000 of my own cars, there is in theory capacity there for 5,000 to 10,000 Volkswagens.”

Production of the firm’s rear-wheel-drive four-seater – the e.GO Life – began earlier this year, and MEB could be used to manufacture a larger version of that car in 18 months’ time.

According to Schuh, this vehicle could borrow other components from Volkswagen in addition to the underpinnings.

The German carmaker has previously said its electric-car platform could be used for both mass market cars and niche vehicles, such as the Volkswagen ID. Buggy concept – revealed at Geneva this week – or the ID. Buzz microbus.

Outsourcing the production of such cars to another company would make sense for Volkswagen, which would struggle to accommodate low-demand vehicles into its mass-market production lines.