Audi to cull internal combustion engines by 2032

Audi has announced it will introduce its final combustion-powered vehicle in 2026, ahead of the last petrol and diesel cars rolling off the production line six years later.

According to German newspaper Handelsblatt, Audi will continue to manufacture petrol- and diesel-powered cars up until 2032, but the last all-new vehicle to be introduced with a range of combustion engines will be the second-generation Audi Q8 SUV.

Other reports suggest that following a decision by Audi chief Markus Duesmann, the current Audi A3 hatch and A4 sedan, plus the bigger A5 and A6 models, will all be replaced by pure-electric models.

Despite not offering petrol or diesel powertrains with next-generation models, combustion engines will live on under the bonnet of updated versions of the current range to ensure a seamless transition to pure-electric power.

Porsche has already announced that its next-gen pure-electric Porsche Macan SUV will be sold alongside a facelifted version of the current car for the same reason.

Audi has already declared it will introduce 20 pure-electric vehicles before 2025. It also plans to sell as many as seven million cars per annum based on the PPE architecture it has developed with Porsche.

The switch to a pure-electric brand by 2032 is a similar timeframe to Volvo, which has already declared its full range will be battery-powered by 2030.

Jaguar, meanwhile, has committed to a 2025 date to go full-EV, but Audi's closest rivals, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, have both been careful not to specify a date when combustion engines will no longer be available.

Instead, BMW says by 2030 it only expects half of its sales to be pure-electric.