Audi had announced that it would only sell electric cars in Europe from 2033. But apparently, the slowdown in sales of electric cars could jeopardize this strategy.
After Ford, Porsche, General Motors and Volkswagen, it is Audi’s turn to express reservations about the switch to all-electric in Europe, at least on the dates set by the legislator.
Yet in 2021, Audi, like many other brands, had shown itself to be very ambitious and had announced a switch to exclusively electric vehicles by 2033. But today, given the context, Audi is now considering keeping thermal and hybrid engines in its range a little longer than planned.
Audi fits the mold
In an interview with the magazine Top GearAudi CEO Gernot Döllner stressed that the brand must remain « flexible »somewhat in the same vein as Porsche. The CEO made this statement in the context of a possible decision by the European Union to postpone its goal of banning the sale of new vehicles with combustion engines until after 2035. However, Gernot Döllner, who also heads technical development in addition to being CEO, added that Electric vehicles were the only possible long-term path.
“The law now states that the car must be zero-local emissions (note the importance of this precision, editor’s note), and even synthetic fuels will not help, because they are not zero-emission. If we, as human beings, think that we must change our CO emissions2 The only solution is the electric car. The Paris Agreement stipulates that we must achieve CO neutrality2 by 2050.”
In the meantime, Audi is placing greater emphasis on plug-in hybrid vehicles. All future thermal cars will be equipped with a PHEV version. Gernot Döllner announced that these partially electrified powertrains will remain in the range longer than expected, as the transition to fully electric vehicles is not progressing as quickly as expected.
Other manufacturers think no less
And as stated above, it’s the same story for all manufacturers. Luca de Meo, the boss of Renault, would like to push back the deadline from 2035 to 2040, while Mercedes is also going to readjust its strategy, while Toyota is expressing more and more reservations (even more than it already had…) about the transition to all-electric.
Manufacturers are going through a difficult period, perhaps the most difficult in their history. On the one hand, stricter regulations are pushing brands to invest in electric vehicles to reduce their fleet emissions and avoid heavy penalties.
On the other hand, electric cars remain considerably more expensive and charging infrastructure is still lacking. The equation is definitely not easy to solve.
Source: www.autoplus.fr
