| Motors
Q8 SUV is joined by Q4 and three new E-Trons on Audi
2020 roadmap
Audi will embrace the future with two advanced new Q SUVs and three e-tron battery electric vehicles while also
replacing five ‘core’ models
udi is facing up to the
challenges of the present day
but also confidently embracing
the future with ambitious plans.
Following a year that was
impacted by the diesel crisis,
the company intends to continue pushing
forward with its strategic transformation, the
details of which have just been outlined to
shareholders by the Board of Management at
its Annual General Meeting in Neckarsulm,
Germany.
“We are rejuvenating our model portfolio
enormously and will renew five existing core
model series by mid-2018,” stated Rupert
Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management
of AUDI AG. “In addition, we will expand our
successful Q family by 2019 with two new
concepts – the Audi Q8 and the Audi Q4 – and
we will launch our battery-electric e-tron
models.” Audi plans to launch three new
electric models by 2020, after which the brand
will gradually electrify models in each of its core
series.
The focus this year is on top-end models
with the new generations of the Audi A8 and
Audi A7. The premium manufacturer will unveil
the A8 at the first Audi Summit to be held in
Barcelona on July 11. With this new event
concept, the Ingolstadt-based company will
create an exclusive presentation format all
around the Four Rings. “There, we will show the
world everything that defines Vorsprung durch
A
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk
Technik and our brand,” explained Stadler.
Over 30% fully or partially electric sales by
2025
Audi is systematically utilising 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. 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.
“We are financing our transformation out of
our own resources,” said Axel Strotbek,
Member of the Board of Management of AUDI
AG for Finance, IT and Integrity. “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.”
In the first quarter of 2017, the Audi Group
achieved an operating profit of more than €1.2
billion. With an operating return on sales of 8.7
percent, the company clearly met its
profitability target. The net cash flow increased
to more than €1.5 billion.
In full-year 2017, the company intends to
slightly increase deliveries of Audi-brand cars
compared with the number of 1,867,738
automobiles delivered in 2016. Revenue should
also slightly surpass the prior-year level of
€59.3 billion. In terms of operating return on
sales, following the 5.1 percent of last year,
Audi now plans to achieve its strategic target
corridor of 8 to 10 percent once again. In 2016,
operating profit was reduced by €1.8 billion
and operating return on sales by 3.1
percentage points due to special items in
connection with the diesel crisis and Takata
airbags.
June 2017 | Farming Monthly | 59