According to foreign media reports, Audi will stop producing new internal combustion engine models after 2026 and focus on pure electric power systems. Audi CEO Markus Duesmann announced the decision at a management meeting at the company's headquarters on June 17.
Although Audi will stop producing new gasoline, diesel and hybrid models, its models released before 2026 will continue to be in production until the early 1930s. Audi will then become a manufacturer of pure electric cars.
It is reported that there will be no follow-up models for the A3 and A4, but will be replaced by the electric version of the A3 e-tron and the A4 e-tron, and the company will also launch the electric version of the A5 and A6. Audi's last internal combustion engine model is likely to be the Q8, and the last internal combustion engine version of the Q8 will be available in 2026. In addition to the internal combustion engine version of Q8, Audi will also launch an electric version of Q8 e-tron. German media quoted Audi insiders as saying that the internal combustion engine version of Q8 will continue production until 2032.
In April, Audi announced that the new internal combustion engine version of the A6 will be available in 2023, when the company will also launch a pure electric version of the A6 e-tron. At the Shanghai auto show in April, Audi showed off the A6 e-tron concept car, which carries a battery with a capacity of 100 kWh and has a range of more than 700km. This is Audi's second model based on the PPE platform, and the company's first PPE model is the Q6 e-tron large SUV, which will go on sale in the second half of 2022.
Duesmann said in March that Audi plans to increase the number of its all-electric models worldwide to 20 by 2025. Audi and its sister brand Porsche plan to sell a total of 7 million PPE-based cars by 2030.
Audi has gone further on the road to pure electricity than its German rivals, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. BMW and Mercedes-Benz are more cautious about the transition to all-electric models. In March, Mercedes-Benz said it would accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, but the company did not disclose details about the speed of its electrification. BMW said it expects half of its sales to come from pure electric models by 2030.
