Audi continues to believe that the electric car will overtake the fossil car. In ten years, there will be so few people buying new petrol and diesel cars that anything other than electric cars will not be profitable.
Audi firmly believes that the electric car is the only right thing for the future. For the same reason, the brand is in a hurry to abolish the internal combustion engine.
From 2026, the Germans will only launch new electric cars, and in 2033 the brand will have sold the last car with the internal combustion engine. So both at home, in the rest of Europe and throughout North America.
Audi's new managing director Gernot Döllner says the brand will not deviate from the strategy of offering only electric cars.
That's what Auto News writes.
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At the same time, Audi believes that sales of petrol cars will plummet as early as 2026. At least when it comes to the brand's own model range.
In an interview with Automotive News, Döllner, who took over the job as top Audi boss last year, says that it is still Audi's plan to phase out all cars with combustion engines by 2033.
So a whole two years for the EU, as it looks right now, to introduce a ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol cars that cannot run on synthetic fuel.
In 2033, however, the internal combustion engine is no further away than that Audi can be 'flexible', as Gernot Döllner puts it.
At the same time, however, the director says that Audi has already begun to gradually bury the internal combustion engine and the models that go with it.
In fact, Audi expects already in 2026 that 'significantly fewer' car buyers will be looking for cars with internal combustion engines. And eventually there will be so few buyers for these kinds of cars that it will be a bad business.
– Our last cars with internal combustion engines will be presented in 2026. But they probably won't be out at dealers for the following year.
– And if you count on a life cycle of 7 years for a car model, we will be around the middle of the new decade, says Gernot Döllner.
At the same time, the Audi boss emphasized that electric cars are the only thing when it comes to the goal of reducing the industry's CO2 emissions.
A new right-wing majority in the EU parliament and/or in the US will not change that, believes the Audi boss.
– Even if there is a will to change the laws again, we would not have a new political situation before the end of this decade.
– Until then, the current rules apply, and we can move within them, says Döllner.