Whether you're into it or not, car makers worldwide are all adapting for a greener future. This means, more and more brands are working towards becoming fully (or at least mostly) EV focused.
Audi is one of those brands. In fact, Audi CEO, Markus Duesmann, says that extracting fossil fuels from Earth 'has to stop.'
"Climate change is caused by the fossil fuels we're extracting from the ground," Duesmann says. "That has to stop. We need a fossil-free society."
This comment and others were made at the recent Climate Conference panel discussion co-hosted by Speigel and BCG.
And while Audi is pushing towards a fossil-free future for its brand, a fully electric lineup is still more than a decade away. The company announced earlier this year that it wants 20 full-electric vehicles in its global lineup by 2025, with plans to end petrol engine production by 2033.
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We've already seen the beginning stages of this plan, but it won't truly get going until 2026, when the company plans to launch only electric vehicles going forward.
This does mean that Audi will be continuing to use fossil-fuels to power its cars for the foreseeable future. This does include plug-in hybrid tech though, which Duesmann says "bridges the gap" between petrol powered cars and full EVs by "smoothing the transition to all-electric driving." He adds that hybrid vehicles "still has a place for the next few years."
Something that will help EVs go more mainstream is robust charging infrastructure, which Audi is also investing in. "Wherever there are cars, there has to be the charging infrastructure," Duesmann says. "We really can't overdo it…."
