The major challenge the European automotive industry is currently faced with is the 2020 CO2 fleet emission target of 95g/km and the envisaged further reduction of the CO2 emission limits in the European Union for the period after 2025. The European OEMs are also challenged by meeting Euro 6 tail pipe emission standards while already developing powertrains that need to fulfil future Euro 7 emission limits. In addition, the change of the emission test drive cycle from NEDC to WLTP and the implementation of real-driving emissions (RDE) imposes additional challenges onto the European car industry. The effort to meet the future fleet CO2 emission limits has been leading to the need for introduction of a broad range of electrified vehicle configurations into the portfolio of the European OEMs. Besides the increased development effort related to the electrified powertrain system itself, electrification also results in more derivatives from the standard platforms and vehicle models, which further increases the development effort and costs. An electrified powertrain is a highly complex mechatronic system, and meeting all functional and performance requirements efficiently demands a highly integrated development approach. Micro- and mild-hybrid architectures add moderate complexity to the conventional powertrain, however, the further step towards heavy electrification, aimed at a largely improved overall energy efficiency and unconditional emission legislation compliance under RDE conditions, requires advanced design and optimization methods and tools to master the related development challenges. This is exactly where the VISION-xEV project aims at providing its scientific and technical contribution: to develop and demonstrate a generic virtual component and system integration framework for the efficient development of all kinds of future electrified powertrain systems.