According to the German daily Süddensche Zeitung, relayed by the Reuters agency, the brand with the rings would no longer introduce a combustion engine on the market from 2026.
The news has yet to be made official, but is getting enough attention not to be overlooked: Audi would no longer market new internal combustion engines from 2026. Suffice to say tomorrow.
According to the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, subsequently relayed by the Reuters press agency, Markus Duesmann, member of the board of directors of the firm with the rings, would have announced it to the executives of the company.
This does not necessarily mean that no new Audi will be equipped with a thermal block by this time. But no new petrol or diesel mechanics would be introduced on the market from that date.
To the point that consequently, even hybrid and plug-in hybrid engines would also be threatened, the strategy of this subsidiary of the Volkswagen group moving towards all-electric.
In this process, Audi would be significantly ahead of its two other main premium rivals, Mercedes and BMW. At this stage, the star brand aims to end the heat engine more than a decade later, in 2039, while the propeller brand has not yet communicated a deadline.
In 2026, the United Kingdom, yet at the forefront in this field in Europe, will not even have banned the sale of new combustion-powered passenger cars, this resolution having been brought forward to 2030.
This position, which could be described as avant-garde by some, unreasonable by others, also contrasts with that of neighboring brands in the Volkswagen galaxy. Porsche and Bentley Obviously come to mind, they who recently communicated on the possibility of prolonging the life of the gasoline engine by the means of synthetic fuels.
The rings would start this forced electrification by the top of the range in general and by the S and RS models in particular. What contradicts the imminent RS3, equipped with a 5-cylinder turbo, as was confirmed a few days ago. But it’s a safe bet that it is one of the last Audi sports cars so equipped, which would make it doubly recommendable.
If the range of battery-powered vehicles is (almost) no longer a subject, the problem of recharging still arises. One of Audi’s responses to reducing the automotive carbon footprint would therefore ultimately raise many other questions.
Before that, and while waiting for the German manufacturer to confirm or deny these elements, we will test very soon its Q4 e-tron, a new 100% electric SUV built on the MEB platform of the Skoda Enyaq and Volkswagen ID. 4. One more…
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