Audi modular design to spawn next-gen VW Phaeton, Bentley Continental GT and Arnage

Development work for the second generation Volkswagen Phaeton is already well underway with the new model expected to share the same platform as the next Audi A8, due one year prior to the release of the VW flagship. The new Phaeton should hit the market in 2010 and will once again be produced at VW’s high-tech glasshouse factory in Dresden.

Sharing the A8’s underpinnings, modular longitudinal component sharing in Audi speak, the new Phaeton will feature shorter front and rear overhangs so as to distance itself from the more expensive A8. The current Phaeton had several pitfalls going against it. Unlike its aluminum constructed Audi A8 sibling, the Phaeton weighed too much, lacked performance and was very thirsty. VW will be hoping to avoid the same mistakes with its next model.

In 2011, we should see the release of the next-generation versions of the Bentley Continental GT, and according to Germany’s Automobilwoche, the British coupe will also utilize the same component sharing formula. In that same year, Audi will release the new A6 sedan and by 2012 we’ll see the release of an all-new Bentley Arnage. Though most cars based on the new architecture will be AWD, the Arnage will remain RWD only as this is seen as more befitting for the luxury marque.