Audi confirms more than 10 EVs by 2025, including entry-level model
Audi has revealed plans to launch more than 10 electric models by 2025 and has confirmed for the first time an entry model about the same size as the A3 hatchback.
The model rush will be include the Q6 e-Tron mid-size SUV, which launches globally in late 2023 and is the first Audi EV to be based on the new PPE architecture.
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“We are on the verge of the biggest product initiative in our history,” claimed Audi CEO Markus Duesmann while delivering the VW Group’s luxury brand’s annual results.
“By 2025, we will have launched around 20 new models, more than 10 of which will be all-electric.
“By 2027, we seek to offer an all-electric vehicle in each core segment in our portfolio. According to the current product planning we will then have a line-up of over 20 electric models.
Audi will launch no new combustion engined models after 2026 and plans to phase out ICE engines by 2033.
Duesmann only briefly referenced the new entry-level model.
“We recently decided to launch an additional electric entry-level model below the Audi Q4 e-tron as well,” he confirmed.
Audi offered no detail about its new entry model, but it comes the same week Volkswagen revealed its new ID.2all concept and declared its intention to launch a production version in 2025 in Europe with pricing less than €25,000 ($40,000)
The ID.2all and other entry-level EV models will be based on a new front-wheel drive version of the VW Group’s BEV architecture dubbed MEB Entry.
The Q6 e-tron is expected to arrive in Australia in 2025 along with the A6 e-tron passenger car.
The renamed and updated Q8 e-tron will get to Australia in 2023, while the MEB-based Q4 e-tron, which is proving a major success for Audi overseas, isn’t expected to arrive locally until at least 2024.
Limited production, overseas demand and the lack of regulatory encouragement for BEVs has slowed Audi’s move to electrification in Australia.
The e-tron GT has only recently launched nearly a year after its pricing was first announced.
New local Audi chief Jeff mannering has gone on the record promising such lags won’t be as pronounced in the future.
“Our aim is to be much closer to European launches not just in electric cars but all our cars,” he said during the e-tron GT launch.
Mannering said shortening the launch gap would be possible because of the Albanese federal government’s positive attitude toward EVs, pointing to both the FBT concessions and forthcoming emissions mandates.
“In two sentences Albanese changed everyone’s perception,” he said.
