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NEWS
Audi officially kills electric cars
Ingolstadt disbands EV program in favour of plug-in hybridsAudi has put years of work and millions of euros of development on the shelf by officially halting production plans for its electric car fleet.
The German carmaker has had journalists, customers and its own test team driving a fleet of R8 and A1 electric cars since 2009, but board member Wolfgang Durheimer has now pronounced the electric program dead... For now.
Instead, he explained that Audi believed the short-term future of its e-tron program would be in plug-in hybrids, starting with the A3 later this year.
“Business wise from our point of view it is not wise to produce and sell (an electric) car to customers because the technology is fairly expensive,” Mr Durheimer explained.
“With the battery technology, it’s difficult to develop and sell a battery (that can live) for the lifespan of the car that doesn’t deteriorate.
“Even with the R8 e-tron, there is still the range-anxiety feeling and it’s like flying out to the sea and being worried about the point of no return.
“The customers loved the cars but the customers thought it was always a hassle to worry about the range. They wanted a no-hassle car.”
With major engineering and technical efforts already spent to bring their prototypes to the road (Audi has 10 R8 e-trons on its test fleet in Ingolstadt), Mr Durheimer explained Audi could see nothing but massive losses on pure electric cars in the foreseeable future.
“We are a manufacturer that always needs to feed the families of all employees and the shareholders and now we have to be responsible with the projects.
“With the R8 e-tron you can take a drive from the Spaceship Enterprise with a performance sound and technology that you don’t experience in a car with an internal combustion engine.
“For families that have one car, it (electric) is not the right choice yet. We will build it as soon as we think we have a volume-to-price ratio that works for the customers and the battery degradation issues have been resolved.”
While disappointed that Audi’s immediate electric future has been shelved, Mr Durheimer refused to call the decision a disappointment, much less a disaster.
“I think for e-tron we need to put the answer in two compartments. Chapter one is technology. It’s developed very rapidly and very successfully. To give an accurate statement of our position, Audi contains all the necessary technology to develop the production of such a car.
“The other part is that we can use basically everything we have developed so far. Plug-in hybrid is one of the systems that heavily benefits from our experience we built from e-tron and now will introduce the first A3 plug-in hybrid in 2013.
“I think that plug-in hybrid is more than just a transit step. It will be with us for a long time.”
While Audi’s position may seem odd, given that BMW is about to launch its electric i3 this year, it’s not that out of step. BMW insiders insist the i3 will have an electric base model but expects the optional plug-in hybrid, which gets help from a two-cylinder scooter engine, to be by far the biggest seller. Also, its i8 eco-supercar will be a plug-in hybrid rather than a full electric car.
But Audi refuses to write off electric cars forever, insisting it will keep developing and testing its electric technology into the future.
“We don’t believe electric mobility is gone forever,” Mr Durheimer said.
“It will come and the systems will make their way. Plug-in hybrids will follow us for a fairly long time but in the long term, electric cars will take over."
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Written byMichael Taylor
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