Audi is moving back to Vorsprung Durch Technik, says boss

Audi is moving from emphasising mostly a premium 'experience', back to one that also puts priority on Vorsprung Durch Technik. Gernot Döllner, who is both the CEO and the head of R&D, explains to TopGear.com what that means.

"Four pillars: design, dynamics, aerodynamics and the digital experience including the HMI." This acknowledgement that a car maker actually has to make great cars – not just do great branding – seems to hark back to Audi's purple patch in the 1980s and 1990s. Back then its quattro drive, low-drag bodies, galvanised and aluminium construction, DCT transmissions and clever TDi engines all led the industry.

For instance, the new A6 e-tron's Cd of 0.21 is remarkable even for a flat-floored electric car, and it means up to 466 miles WLTP range. The new PPE electric platform, shared with Porsche, has 800V architecture, super-fast charging, efficient motors and lots of advanced options.

Is putting many eggs in the expensive electric car basket the right strategy at the moment? Audi has announced it might close the plant that makes the Q8 e-tron because of soft demand.

"The growth rate in electric vehicles has slowed down," Döllner acknowledges, "but is still positive." Perhaps part of the trouble with the Q8 e-tron is it's expensive but not that efficient or roomy. The Q6 e-tron, on the new PPE platform, will doubtless be better.

Döllner's predecessors said Audi would stop making combustion cars altogether by 2033. Now he talks of 'flexibility'. "Legislation now says the car has to be locally emission-free, and even e-fuels don't help because it isn't locally emission free. If we as mankind believe we need a change in CO2 – and look at the weather, we have to change – the only way is a battery vehicle. The Paris agreement says we will need CO2 neutrality in 2050."

If local laws change, for instance the 2035 new-car ICE ban slipping back, what happens to Audi's strategy? "We will have to adapt it… slightly. We are flexible. But you have to stick to your strategy, as a model cycle is seven years." For him this means having both competitive EVs and ICE cars. "In 2027-28 we will have the peak amount of models, almost double those we have now." Then the petrols will gradually be pruned.

A new generation of combustion cars is launching, with the new A5 and related cars. He calls it the Premium Platform Combusion (PPC), a replacement for the current Modular Longitudinal Platform Evo (abbreviated to MLB Evo). He says it has greatly revised engines, new plug-in systems, the same electrical architecture and digital systems as the PPE, and new chassis and body.

"All combustion cars will have plug-in hybrid versions. We thought PHEV would be a bridging technology. Now we see the bridge is longer than we thought."

The software of the new electric architecture, he says, is "future proof for the next 10 years". He admits the VW Group has lagged. "We stuck too long to legacy processes. We used to develop modules and then integrated them in the vehicle. The interdependency of systems is now so high, you need a clear software-first approach as Chinese competitors have done, starting with integration."

Small cars are out though. He confirms the A1 and Q2 won't be replaced. "We see a strong future in A3-sized cars. We've just decided on a battery car at the lower end of thet segment, made in Ingolstadt." It uses a development of the group's ubiquitous MEB platform.

Döllner claims even when every rival has twin-motor EVs, the Quattro thing still matters. "We know how to manage torque, with two motors or even three. This is the next step for Quattro: four-wheel drive for efficiency, stability, driving fun."

If getting out of small cars, he says there will be a new range topper. "We see room to develop to higher segments." There was the Grandsphere concept, promoted by his predecessor as R&D boss Oliver Hoffman. "In that area the portfolio changed before I arrived, and changed again in autumn," says Döllner declining to go further except to say it will be "emotional", not a conventional luxury saloon.