German automaker Audi says it plans to deliver more than 20 fully electric models by 2025 in addition to sweeping sustainability shifts across the company’s operations.
It was reported earlier this year that Audi would abandon the development of new combustion engines and in June the company’s CEO Markus Duesmann told the media that the company’s last combustion engine would be launched in 2026, and that the last combustion engine vehicle would roll off the assembly line in 2032.
Over the longer term, Audi has committed to becoming a net zero emission company by 2050, and has already begun transitioning its production sites, with its Audi Hungaria and Audi Brussels locations already carbon neutral.
Much of what has been unofficially spoken of by Audi officials to the press over the first eight months of the year has now been made official, as the company’s waxed poetic on the theme of “Sustainability” at its Audi Media Days last week.
Among other things, Audi presented its vision of a climate-neutral factory and also showed how sustainability is being implemented in the company’s supply chain.
Audi also promised to offer more than 20 battery electric vehicles by 2025, while also aiming to reduce the ecological footprint of its fleet by 30% as compared with 2015, also by 2025. Audi will also look to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in its upstream production process, as well as at lower levels of the supply chain.
“We are convinced that our suppliers play a key role in our success with respect to sustainability,” said Marco Philippi, Head of Procurement Strategy at Audi.
In view of this goal, Audi will begin gradually increasing the use of secondary materials and recycled materials – such as using recycled PET bottles, old textiles, or residual fibres to produce interior materials such as seat covers, floor mats, and carpeting.
Audi is also targeting increased use of renewable energy across its supply chain, like at its Brussels factory, which switched to green electricity and installed a 107,000-square-metre solar PV system and heating supplied through biogas certificates.
The long list and pats-on-the-back of Audi’s accomplishments and plans can be read here.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.
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