Audi plans large electric sales by 2025 as it expands digital platforms

9 May 2018

Audi plans to sell 800,000 battery-electric and hybrid-powered cars in 2025, as it also expects to generate an operating profit from digital services of €1 billion by that time.

The German company will launch more than 20 electrified vehicles by 2025 using Volkswagen Group’s (VW) new MEB modular platform and vehicle underpinnings. Audi’s 800,000 goal would be about one-third of projected deliveries in 2025, exceeding the target range of 15% to 25% of competitors BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

The announcement was made at the company’s annual general meeting. ′2018 is a key year for Audi with an enormously high speed of change that will gradually put us back on the offensive’ said Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG. ′We will continue clearing up the diesel crisis and will restructure large parts of our global organisation for the course we have set for the future. At the same time, we are approaching the climax of the biggest model fireworks in our company’s history and are entering the age of electric mobility with the Audi e-tron.’

Audi’s first pure EV will be launched in August. The e-tron SUV will go up against the Jaguar I-PACE while other manufacturers are also developing models in the market. The automaker, which delivered 1.88 million cars globally last year, currently offers three plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Connected future

Audi is also developing an integrated IT platform for vehicle connectivity and digital services. Using a shared high-performance backend, the models from Audi and the other brands of the Volkswagen Group will be usable compatibly; this means, for example, that customers’ settings and content will be smoothly transferred between the automobiles of the various Group brands.

′We want to have premium electric cars and digital services that are also attractive in economic terms. That is our clear ambition for the mobility of the future,’ points out Alexander Seitz, Member of the Board of Management for Finance, IT and Integrity. ′To that end, we are utilising Group synergies significantly more effectively and are releasing resources for strategic projects with our Action and Transformation Plan.’

Audi is also rejuvenating and expanding its model portfolio this year, with more than 20 new market launches. The new Audi design language and the new, fully digital operating concept in the interior will be introduced in all segments, starting with the premium full-size class. Following the launch of the new A8 in late 2017 and the A7 in March 2018 in first markets, a new top model will come onto the market as of the middle of this year: the new generation of the A6. To reduce costs, Audi is ceasing production of some models, including three-door versions of its A1 and A3 vehicle lines, as well as cutting component and administration costs.