INGOLSTADT, Germany — Audi sellers’ present stock woes might not abate till nicely into subsequent 12 months because the premium model continues to wrestle to safe sufficient microchips to maintain its factories working, although the scarcity in wire harnesses ensuing from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has eased, a high model govt stated.
Oliver Hoffmann, head of technical improvement at Audi AG, mentioned the manufacturing challenges throughout a press briefing on upcoming battery-electric and combustion-powered fashions.
Audi’s U.S. sellers have been scraping by with few new automobiles to promote for a lot of the final 12 months as provide shortages have hampered manufacturing at its factories in Germany and Mexico. Gross sales had been down 35 % within the first quarter to 35,505, and the inventory tracker on its audiusa.com website confirmed simply lower than 16,000 new automobiles in inventory at its dealerships within the continental U.S. midweek.
Hoffmann did say, nonetheless, that wire harness shortages that slowed the model’s manufacturing within the spring had largely cleared up.
In different feedback, he laid out some particulars of an aggressive product plan for the German premium model because it transitions to an all-EV lineup. Audi plans to introduce 20 new EV and ICE-powered fashions by 2025, and 20 new EV fashions are coming to market in 2023-27.
Whereas it’s unclear how particular automobiles and their derivatives had been being counted, the model is predicted to proceed to supply conventional sedans, crossovers and sportback crossover fashions, in addition to its RS and S efficiency variants, because it transitions to EV-only manufacturing (exterior of China) by 2033.
Audi, a part of Volkswagen Group, can also be transitioning its lineup onto a modular platform, developed in partnership with sibling model Porsche. Hoffmann revealed that the model has bifurcated that platform primarily based on powertrain, with the dwindling variety of future ICE-powered automobiles to share a typical platform known as PPC, whereas future EVs would transition to a battery-powered model often known as PPE.
The PPC platform would exchange the present MLB platform which now underlies Audi’s A4 via A8 sedans and coupes, in addition to its current Q5 via Q8 crossovers within the U.S.
Primarily based on earlier ideas and the model’s car life cycles, the primary PPE-based EV is predicted to be a brand new Q6 crossover, which might arrive within the U.S. in 2024. Each new platforms would share some widespread elements, together with infotainment methods, Hoffmann stated.
Requested by Automotive Information whether or not Audi would possibly develop its personal future car or automobiles on the rugged truck platform that VW Group stated it would use to develop a Scout-branded pickup and SUV within the U.S., Hoffmann stated the model was exploring the chance however had not but determined.
