Audi slashes e-tron production

Just as it needs its electric car (EV) sales to boom to meet new European emissions rules, Audi has had to handbrake production of its e-tron crossover.

The German premium brand has been forced to temporarily stop production of its first mainstream EV in Brussels until tomorrow as it tries to overcome a raft or hiccups, including supply of its lithium-ion batteries.

On the eve of production of its sportier, Porsche Taycan-based e-tron GT and the sloping-roofed e-tron Sportback, the e-tron itself stopped production last Thursday after the company had sold 26,400 of its five-seat EVs.

It hasn’t been plain sailing for the e-tron, with the car’s original launch delayed in 2018 and then the car was recalled last year over fire risk.

Its batteries are supplied by South Korea’s LG Chem and are pieced together in Poland, and a shortage of them is hampering Audi’s efforts to ramp e-tron production to 80,000 this year.

But Belgian newspaper L'Echo reported that LG Chem could only promise 40,000 of its prismatic battery packs this year and is trying to outsource supply from other battery companies.

The same LG Chem plant is the culprit in Jaguar Land Rover’s production reduction for the Jaguar I-PACE, which won the World Car of the Year award when it launched.

While the Porsche Taycan has snaffled the lion’s share of EV headlines in Europe, greater volumes will come from the premium end of the market, which already has the e-tron, the I-PACE and Mercedes-Benz’s EQC, though only the Audi and Jaguar sit on dedicated electric-car platforms.

Benz has also been forced to deny German media reports that it had halved its production targets from 60,000 EQCs this year because of battery shortages.

In the meantime, Volkswagen is confident it has battery supplies locked down for its high-volume ID.3 five-seat hatchback, which will be in showrooms this year, along with its ID.Buzz kombi, its ID.Vizzion limo, its ID.Buggy and its ID.4 crossover.