Audi Announces Official End to ICE Development
By Edward A. Sanchez – March 16, 2021
Unity of purpose and “sticking to the script” is important in the corporate world. It’s generally not a good look when different executives are telling the public different things. So in the wake of the Volkswagen Group’s “Power Day” presentation, it appears that Audi chairman Markus Duesmann figured it might be a good time to start rowing in the same direction as the mothership. A story in Germany’s Frankfurter Allemeine Zeitung quotes Duesmann as saying that the upcoming Euro 7 emissions standards will be very difficult to meet with internal combustion engines, and that rather than developing all-new internal combustion engines, current engines will continue to be developed and refined to meet the increasingly strict standards.
You may remember not that long ago, that Duesmann took a more defiant tone toward EVs when he said in July 2020 that the brand would continue to “massively invest” in internal combustion engine development, doubling down by saying that combustion models will still be 60% to 70% of the market by the mid-2020s, and that ICE engines “Have to be top” and that the company “will continue to accelerate regarding combustion engines.”
Markus Duesmann, Chairman of the Board of Management and Board of Management Member for Product Lines at Audi AG.
So what prompted Duesmann’s abrupt change-of-heart? Did Greta Thunberg and her band of eco-warriors corner him in a dark alley in Ingolstadt, or did VW chairman Herbert Diess tell him to get with the program or get out? We may never know. In my experience covering the automotive industry for 20-plus years, the pattern I’ve noticed with German companies and executives is they often take a very absolutist, triumphalist tone on issues and subjects, until they don’t – then they make another absolutist statement.
I’m not exactly sure which stage of grief Duesmann is in; I would venture to say “acceptance,” although certainly not very cheerful. That was made clear in his subtle jab at the Euro 7 emissions standards with the quote, “The EU plans for an even stricter Euro 7 emissions standard are a huge technical challenge with little benefit for the environment at the same time. That limits the combustion engine extremely,” the Zeitung quotes him.
Looking over his bio, it’s clear Duesmann is a lifelong petrol head, being involved in the development of Mercedes’ V12 engine, the main manager for diesel engine development at DaimlerChrysler in the early 2000s, and at BMW as head of Formula 1 powertrain development. It might be devastating to him to see his life’s passion and work summarily swept aside in favor of soulless, sterile electric motors.
Audi’s future will involve a new type of propulsion, but that won’t necessarily make the vehicles any less exciting. Consider, for example, the Audi RS e-tron GT.
I understand how it must feel to work in a certain discipline and specialization most of your life, only to have your world completely turned upside down through technological disruption and societal change. Even in the mid-to-late 1990s, many family members and friends discouraged me from pursuing a journalism degree, despite my love for writing and investigation. Perhaps I should have listened. In my career as an automotive journalist, the companies I’ve worked for went through several major reorganizations, one bankruptcy, and I’ve survived several rounds of layoffs by sheer luck and happenstance. Just after I left my last company, all but three print magazines were unceremoniously canceled, with the majority of articles and content generation going exclusively online. People that once held privileged and prestigious positions as editor-in-chief became little more than content producers.
If there’s one constant in the world, it’s change, whether we like it or not. And whether by persuasion or epiphany, Duesmann seems to have come to that conclusion as well.
(Images courtesy Audi)
- Podcast - Facebook - Google News - Twitter -
