"""Platform sharing."" Sharing anything suggests altruism or ecological benevolence."

"Sharing an automotive platform or architecture therefore seems like a good thing, while the closely related phrase, ""badge engineering,"" is loaded with negative baggage."

"American automakers classically defined ""platform"" as a set of critical shared dimensions between the front axle centerline, the cowl, and the driver's hip-point; ""architecture"" connoted the hardware placed within those dimensions (chassis, floor pan, powertrain, etc. )."

"The basic motivation for sharing an automotive platform or architecture is to maximize return on engineering investment. Leveraging the expense of developing the unseen structural elements—everything that supports the bodywork, mounts the powertrain and suspension, and provides the vehicle's crash protection—across several different vehicles allows manufacturers to generate sufficient sales volume to deliver economies of scale."

"Commonizing assembly-plant equipment simplifies workforce training and can improve product quality, too."

"Unibody Platforms: In the middle of the last century, manufacturers started integrating the chassis structure with the body, which generally improves structural rigidity and can reduce weight."

"Today, generalized hardpoints get shared—attributes like the front-wheel centerline, cowl-point, driver hip-point—plus the general powertrain location and drive wheels."

"Modular Platforms: Today many manufacturers talk about modular automotive platforms, which generally refers to a platform architecture designed to accept widely differing propulsion system modules."

"Lee Iacocca's ""New Chrysler Corporation"" emerged from bankruptcy in the 1980s largely thanks to having developed myriad K-car automotive platform variants for dirt cheap."

"The second-gen 2022 Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 remain unabashed identical cousins bearing minimal design differentiation inside or out (sales volumes for each are too small to justify retooling much more than the front fascia, grille, and lamps)."