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Audi's Project Artemis woes could delay range of VW Group EVs

Two years ago, Audi's then new CEO Markus Duesmann announced his first big initiative called Project Artemis. The plan's marquee component is "to implement a new lighthouse project for Audi in record time," being "a highly efficient electric car scheduled to be on the road as early as 2024" on a brand new platform that would be shared with Porsche and Bentley. An ex-VW and -Porsche man named Alex Hitzinger, who'd also spent time at Apple working on the tech company's electric car, was brought on board to lead Project Artemis and come up with new ideas. Parent Volkswagen Group said it wanted to become "as agile as in a racing team," removing the bureaucratic molasses and bottlenecks interfering with getting the best product on the road in the best time. However, in any grand venture, failure comes before success. Automobilwoche reports that Artemis is struggling through issues large enough to push the product plans back by years. The issue, as it was with the ID.3 lineup on the eve of that car's launch, is software. Well, that's the latest, largest problem; Artemis has already been through copious struggles before getting to the software bit. Two months after Hitzinger came on, in December 2020, VW raised its EV volume target from 50% to 70% by 2030. That necessitated a rethink of the VW Group's entire platform strategy considering the far greater production scale. Hitzinger only lasted six months in the job, ousted in May 2021, supposedly because Audi believed his ideas were "not suitable for profitable series production" among other reasons. By that time, the pace of software development was already said to be six months behind schedule, with the Car.Software division working on VW.OS 2.0 "not yet running at the speed hoped for." Internal frictions were noteworthy and costly as well. VW's commercial division plant in Hanover was meant to build Artemis vehicles for Audi, Porsche and Bentley, but Automobilwoche reported in January of this year that Porsche paid a ""small three-digit million amount" — like $100 million or so — to get out of the deal mandating its vehicles come from the Hanover facility.    So Audi effectively brought Artemis in-house to lead vehicle development, and Car.Software turned into Cariad to get VW.OS and VW.AC, which stands for Automotive Cloud, to market.  The first Audi vehicle under Project Artemis was planned to arrive by the end of 2024, a production version of the Grandsphere concept.

VW Group to split brands under four holding companies

The Volkswagen Group is planning a tremendous shift in its internal structure that will decentralize operations by splitting its 12 brands into four different holding companies. Here's the breakdown. Things will be split logically, considering the inter-sharing of parts, platforms, and engines. The Volkswagen brand, Seat, and Skoda make up a passenger vehicle division led by former BMW man Herbert Diess. Audi, which is tightly intertwined with Lamborghini and motorcycle manufacturer Ducati, will be managed by current Audi exec Rupert Stadler. Porsche and Bentley, which are already quite close, will be joined by Bugatti and run by Matthias Mueller. Finally, a commercial vehicles division will include Volkswagen Commercial, Scania, and Man. Former Daimler exec Andreas Renschler will take care of the big vehicles. The massive move, according to Automotive News Europe, is part of an internal VAG effort to move away from the structure established by ousted Chairman Ferdinand Piech, who favored a compact, but highly centralized, management structure to oversee the independent actions of the company's brands. Criticism of Piech's arrangement stemmed from the company's slow responses to changes in the market, ANE reports. The new structure should make for a more efficient, streamlined company that's better able to make crucial decisions. What are your thoughts? Should VAG decentralize, or did Piech have the right idea? Have your say in Comments.

Bentley Bentayga will be the world's fastest SUV

Bentley is getting close to unveiling the Bentayga crossover. And this latest preview clip packs a punch. The Bentayga is depicted in the video above and the images below undergoing high-speed testing on an oval test track (albeit still under camouflage). And with it comes some interesting figures. First, Bentley confirms the Bentayga will adopt a new 6.0-liter W12 TSI engine. Revealed this past May in Vienna, the engine still features the same unique layout and twin-turbo setup, but features a new injection system and other advancements to deliver 600 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque. That will make the Bentayga, in Bentley's own words, "the fastest, most powerful SUV in the world." To back up the claim, it's showing the ultra-luxe sport-ute reaching a top speed of 301 kilometers per hour. That's 187 miles per hour to us, or a good 11 mph faster than the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S and 25 mph clear of the Range Rover Sport SVR. In other words, as far as top speed in SUVs is concerned, the Bentayga will be the new king of the hill... for now, at least. BENTAYGA: EXPLORING THE LIMITS OF PERFORMANCE Bentayga reaches 301 km/h, making it the fastest SUV in the world (Crewe, 04 September 2015) The all-new W12 TSI engine is the most technically advanced 12-cylinder in the world, delivering the best combination of power, torque and efficiency of any car in its class. With a top speed of 301km/h, the Bentayga will be the fastest, most powerful SUV in the world. This film provides a glimpse of what is to come: a unique combination of performance and luxury. Performance of this nature is rare in any car. It was unheard of in an SUV – until now.