Interesting, but nothing new except scale and perhaps some scope. There's a key quote in that article: Now, with the implementation of MQB, "they're being asked for quotes on 35 million parts," says a senior European industry executive.
That's kind of interesting. Anyone would be fool to rely on a single source for that. So you have multiple sources. With multiple sources you have all kinds of issues with maintaining identical quality from parts made in Germany say, and those made in South Africa, Brazil, China and India. Materials and labor vary greatly, and thus it is challenging to maintain an identical product across such a broad base. And yes, the threat of a massive recall (something that no automaker regardless of reputation, domicile or quality is immune from) is frightening when lots more zeroes follow the number...
As Alfred says, I guess we'll find out how viable the massive concept is...
