Audi Australia has made some progress on securing the This autumn e-tron EV, with a neighborhood launch wanting seemingly for early 2024.
That’s the excellent news. The dangerous information is the small electrical SUV will likely be about three years into its life cycle by the point it does arrive, having been revealed in April 2021.
That places Audi at a drawback contemplating it lacks a challenger to the more and more in style Tesla Mannequin Y, BMW iX1, Volvo XC40 Recharge, Lexus UX300e, and Mercedes-Benz EQA.
The Audi will even be overwhelmed to market by the associated (MEB platform-based) Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.5, and the Cupra Born. The Skoda Enyaq is prone to arrives at the same time, in early 2024.
The belated This autumn e-tron and This autumn e-tron Sportback arrivals will give the four-ringed model an entry EV beneath the $150,000-plus e-tron mid-size SUV – one thing it acknowledges consumers are more and more asking for.
“It [Q4 launch] received’t be subsequent yr. Manufacturing might begin subsequent yr – not will, may – however the automotive received’t be launched. I might adore it to be right here early 2024, that’s what we’re pushing for,” mentioned Audi Australia’s new managing director Jeff Mannering.
“It’s reliant on the capability of the manufacturing unit to have the ability to construct the automotive for us… there’s a variety of dialogue, we’re preventing arduous, as a result of there’s a market.”
The European manufacturing unit was smashed by the chip scarcity in addition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which compelled Audi to briefly pause manufacturing of assorted fashions. Demand throughout the continent can be excessive, and provides are being prioritised nearer to house.
Mr Mannering mentioned the corporate was focusing extra usually on shortening the hole in time between a car’s launch in Europe and its eventual arrival in Australia.
He added the Albanese authorities’s push for a nationwide EV technique with a probable gas effectivity normal would assist with these negotiations, echoing feedback from his predecessor within the function Paul Sansom.
Mr Sansom, now head of the broader Volkswagen Group Australia, claimed in March this yr that he was assured the mixed manufacturers would finally turn into the main supply of electrical autos on this nation.
“We’re by far Australia’s main importers of European passenger autos and can turn into essentially the most vital supply of electrical autos on this nation,” Mr Sansom advised the Inexperienced Constructing Council of Australia.
Need to know extra? Learn our current 2022 Audi This autumn e-tron Sportback overview from Angus MacKenzie.
