Audi’s annual shareholders’ meeting took place today in Berlin, and the German automaker used the occasion to present its plan for the coming decade. A central component of that strategy will be to develop its roster of electrified vehicles to include over 20 models, so that the company can reach a target of 800,000 annual sales of electrified vehicles by 2025.
Audi specified as well that the majority of those 800,000 units would be fully electric vehicles, with only a small percentage running on plug-in hybrid powertrains.
“Our goal is to revolutionize mobility. Also in electric mobility, we want to become the Number 1 among the premium manufacturers – with full suitability for everyday use, no compromises, top quality and driving pleasure for the customer. With our technological excellence, we are utilizing our Vorsprung and lifting electric mobility to the next level.”
- Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG
The company explained that the road to 2025 will start with the beginning of production of the Audi e-tron Quattro concept, followed by over 20 more models.
Second in line to join the company’s roster as an all-electric model will be the e-tron Sportback; it will be followed in turn by the e-tron GT in 2020. That same year should see an all-electric compact model be introduced as well.
The company’s announcement does not come as a surprise, given that parent company Volkswagen has been busy introducing electric-powered vehicles of its own in recent months.
Added perspective on Audi’s stated goals can be had by looking at present-day sales figures. Audi currently makes nearly two million vehicles per year, which makes the 800,000 number seem less exorbitant – it would represent about one-third of the company’s sales.
Another safe bet in all of this is that predictions of this sort are likely to change. Given the furious rate at which electric models are going to be introduced to markets worldwide in the coming years, consumer response will ultimately be the factor that most influences the direction each manufacturer takes.
Meanwhile, announcements like Audi’s, and like Volvo’s, and Toyota's, and BMW’s, and Volkswagen’s, as well as Honda's, GM's, Ford’s and others, do serve to satisfy shareholders, the press and consumers at large. And of course, Audi and the others are to be saluted for working for the benefit of the planet.