Audi will not design any new combustion engines

Audi has stopped the development of new combustion engines. In an interview, Audi CEO Markus Duesmann justified the decision with the EU plans for a stricter Euro 7 emissions standard.

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Duesmann said: “We will no longer develop a new combustion engine, but will adapt our existing combustion engines to new emission guidelines.” The plans for the Euro 7 standard are “technically a huge challenge with at the same time little benefit for the environment”. “This places extreme restrictions on the internal combustion engine,” Duesmann said.

Duesmann did not specify a date as to when Audi would sell the last new car with an internal combustion engine. Instead, the Audi CEO referred to regions of the world where energy supply and charging infrastructure are less well developed. For this reason, Audi will continue to sell combustion engines for many years to come, but will not develop a completely new generation of petrol or diesel engines.

Audi is thus on a similar path to its premium rival Mercedes. About a week ago, Markus Schäfer, the board member responsible for development at Mercedes, also confirmed that no new generation of internal combustion engines would be developed. Schäfer told the Handelsblatt that all development expenditure had been completed for the “FAME” engine family, which was launched in 2016. “This means that the bulk of the investments can now really go into electromobility,” Schäfer said.