128th Annual General Meeting of AUDI AG - Audi Forum Neckarsulm
At the Audi's Annual General Meeting last week in Neckarsulm, the company announced that it intends to launch three new electric car models by 2020, beginning with the battery-electric e-tron SUV next year (that the company is already taking deposits on in Europe).
Following the Audi all-electric SUV, is the e-tron Sportback concept, recently debuted in Shanghai (see full details/video from the launch here).
Over the longer term, Audi set a goal to achieve one third of its sales overall to be plug-in electric models by 2025.
"Audi is systematically utilizing Group synergies in order to implement topics of the future even faster and more efficiently. In April, the brand agreed on new development cooperation with Porsche for future vehicle architectures. This will result in potential cost savings across the brands in a three-digit million amount each year. Part of the cooperation is the development of shared premium architecture for electrification – an effective lever to enhance the competitiveness of electric cars. By 2025, Audi intends to achieve a proportion of one third fully or partially electric models in its unit sales.
In addition to the traditional car business, the premium brand will expand its range of digital services in the future. With myAudi, the company aims to create a consistent entry into the brand’s digital world and establish a platform for a wide range of online services, which will be open also for third-party providers to offer services. Audi is also expanding its mobility services for urban areas and intends to offer them in more than 15 markets worldwide by the end of this decade.
With a subsidiary founded in March 2017, Audi will take over the leading role within the Volkswagen Group in the development of autonomous driving. Autonomous Intelligent Driving GmbH is working on the technology for driverless vehicles in urban environments, which will be applicable in models of various brands. The technology is to be ready for application in a first small series of cars early in the next decade."
Arriving in 2018: the Audi e-tron quattro
Axel Strotbek, Member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG for Finance, IT and Integrity said:
“We are financing our transformation out of our own resources. Our business operations are robust also in the currently challenging situation. On the side of expenditure and investment, our ‘Speed up!’ program is helping us to achieve a high level of efficiency and thus a maximum focus on the topics of the future.”
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