BODY BEAUTIFUL
‘We needed an all-new architecture, Premium Transverse Architecture [PTA], developed to support hybrids from the outset [the irst Evoque had no hybrid capability],’ explains engineer Peter Simkin. ‘The only carry-over parts are the door hinges and two brackets. With the new mid loor section for the batteries, it’s a new body-in-white.’ It’s claimed the new structure comprises 90.1 per cent new parts by volume, and Evoque’s a ive-door only – at least for now.
Largely mild steel, PTA deploys high-strength steel in
key elements of its loorpan and ultra-high-strength steel in the A-pillars and loor spars. Torsional rigidity is improved and this, coupled with the new Evoque’s stier suspension mounts, gives both increased re inement and the promise of taut and responsive driving dynamics.
With hybridisation comes engines endlessly chiming in and cutting out, an NVH challenge. ‘We’re fundamentally transverse-engined, for compactness, but on the irst Evoque the rotational axis of the engine was not well aligned with the engine mounts – we’ve redesigned those mounts, so start-up doesn’t thump into the cabin,’ says Simkin.