Audi is planning to take back some of the thunder from plucky Silicon Valley upstarts with the announcement that it will be releasing a new electric vehicle every year from 2018 onwards.
The Volkswagen Group might still be reeling from the fallout of its emissions scandal but its luxury brand Audi is doing better than ever and is bullish about its future plans. Taking the stage at the company's Annual General Meeting in Germany last Thursday, Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG, gave stakeholders and the press an inkling of what to expect from the four-ringed brand in the next few years. Audi’s future plans, filled with optimism and forward ideas, represent the German company’s defiant stance in the face of fellow carmaker BMW’s move towards increasingly high technology and forward thinking automobiles. It also gave us an idea of Audi’s future product roadmap and some deeper insights into the company’s alternative energy-propelled future.
Skipping matters a year ahead, the next-generation version of Audi’s luxury flagship, the A8, will make its way to dealerships in 2018. Already loaded to the brim with cutting edge innovations, the next generation A8 will be able to drive itself ‘temporarily’ on motorways at speeds of up to 60kmph, making it the first audi to boast of this increasingly popular tech. This kind of technology is already available in cars like the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class, so it remains to be seen what Audi’s flagship will do to move the game on. Stadler added that “by 2025, we will see fully automated driving.”
But even more significant was the revelation that, starting from 2018, Audi plans to produce one new electric vehicle each year. The first EV to come from this will likely be the Audi Q7 e-Tron Quattro "fully electric SUV" that Stadler says will arrive in 2018. He commented that the plant in charge of assembling this new vehicle will also be the location where its batteries are constructed, which we believe will most likely be in Belgium. With a claimed range of ‘more than 500km’ Audi’s electric SUV will boast even more range than the Tesla Model S, which according to the US Environmental Protection Agency has a highway range of 488 kilometres.
In his statement, Stadler also emphasized on the need for a global fast-charging network for electric vehicles, something that Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk has also been championing for a while now. He also stressed that Audi’s upcoming range of EVs won't be limited to unique badges, “but also in high-volume segments, in our successful Q family for example."
Audi had a great year in 2015, delivering 1.8 million vehicles globally and making €4.8 billion. This year, the luxury carmaker is aiming for further growth and is currently on track to achieve this with the delivery of 620,100 cars in the first four months of this year, 4.9 percent higher than last year.
Source: CarDekho.com
