According to foreign media Automotive News Europe, Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume recently admitted that the Audi brand product line “lags behind competitors”.
Obermo believes that the Audi brand has great potential, but it has not been translated into concrete products in recent years. Moreover, Audi’s current model lineup is facing an extremely embarrassing situation: not only lagging behind competitors but also lagging behind its own capabilities.
We failed to defend our progressive leadership against our competitors, and we faced serious software issues that delayed the launch of exciting new electric vehicles.
▲ Picture source Motor1.com
In addition, Obermo took the performance of the Audi brand in the Chinese market as an example, saying: “Audi is currently highly dependent on the Chinese market, but in the field of electric vehicles, Audi is not competitive in the Chinese market.” From January to March 2023, Audi delivered 136,416 new cars in China, a year-on-year decrease of 16%.
Obermo still believes that Audi will rely on pure electric models to complete the mission of brand revival. According to the brand plan, the Q6 e-tron, the first model based on Audi’s new electric vehicle platform PPE (premium platform electric, advanced platform electric vehicle), will be officially launched in 2024, and the pure electric version of the Porsche Macan will also come out at the same time.
It is noticed that the PPE platform will support 800V high-voltage fast charging, which can charge the battery from 10% to 80% within 21 minutes. In addition, the platform will provide the new model with SuperVision semi-autonomous driving system from Mobileye.
Previously, Audi, Volkswagen and China FAW jointly announced the establishment of the Audi FAW New Energy Joint Venture in Changchun, which is expected to be completed in December 2024 and will put into production three models based on the PPE high-end pure electric vehicle platform.
