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Audi's 2025 goal for 25% EV sales? It's already happening

We were pleasantly surprised by Audi's full-throated support for plug-in vehicles at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show. That support took the form of the surprising claim that between 20 and 25 percent of new Audis sold will have a plug by 2025. The encouraging electric love fest continues in a new press release that's all about the brand's European sales. Now, US sales of the A3 E-Tron will start at some point in the next two months, so we don't know how the excellent plug-in hatch will fare here but as you can see, things are going extremely well in Europe: A year after its market introduction, the sales figures for the Audi A3 e-tron are also extremely encouraging: In Western Europe, it conquered top spot among the electric cars in the premium compact segment over the past few months. In Norway and the Netherlands one in four Audi customers is already opting for an A3 e-tron. So, after being available for 12 months across the pond, the numbers are impressive. Perhaps Audi of America CEO Scott Keogh knew that the 25 percent threshold is already a reality in two countries when he spoke to us in LA. In any case, Audi's got something to point to today when people ask if selling 25 percent of its cars as EVs is possible. If you'd like to add your dollars to Audi's plug-in sales figures, the A3 E-Tron's configurator is live. AUDI AG: European sales up six percent in November Audi remains on track: With around 147,750 deliveries (+1%) in November, the company reaffirmed its strong sales result from the prior-year month. In Europe, the Ingolstadt-based carmaker increased sales by 6 percent to around 62,300 units, despite the model changeover for its bestseller, the Audi A4. Since the start of the year, more than 1.64 million customers worldwide have chosen the brand with the four rings, up 3.4 percent. "In light of extraordinary effects in China and the model phase-out for the first-generation Q7 in the United States, we are satisfied with our sales performance in November," says Dietmar Voggenreiter, Member of the Board of Management for Sales and Marketing at AUDI AG. "The sustained high demand for Audi models in Europe and our good global order situation continue to provide momentum for the months ahead." Most recently, the brand's growth in Europe was driven particularly by the latest models: Sales of the Audi Q7, with the latest generation launched in summer, quadrupled to around 3,300 units in November.

Mercedes may be working on a new electric car dubbed 'Ecoluxe'

Automobile has a lengthy piece this month on how the four German mass-market luxury manufacturers each plan to go after Tesla with their own electric vehicles. It was written by Georg Kacher, the magazine's European bureau chief, and the English version came a month after he wrote the German-language original for Autobild. Tesla isn't exactly a threat to the Germans, but, according to the report, the Model S is planting the right kinds of seeds in niches that are important to the luxury players. The thinking is that - in addition to needed electric vehicles anyway for stricter US regulations - it's better to start designing the machinery now. The article posited Porsche's attack would rest on the coming Panamera platform, but a big hurdle would be battery placement. Unable to find one large space for a lithium-ion pack, engineers would instead put batteries everywhere they could, for a supposed tally of some "108 battery pouches" throughout the body. A few days after the Automobile piece, however, Porsche publicly said it had no intention of challenging the Model S, because the enthusiastic driving the brand is known for doesn't jive with useful range. In Kacher's retelling, Mercedes' plans are even more ambitious, supposedly taking aim at the Model S and the coming Model X. It would do this with an investment in excess of $2 billion in a program called "Ecoluxe" – Mercedes has no brand division akin to BMW's i and Audi's e-tron. The new brand would create a four-strong family of bespoke electric vehicles: a smaller platform with a wheelbase around 106 inches and a larger one with a wheelbase around 118 inches. In addition, the range would have "provisions for rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, and rear-wheel steering." The numbers are impressive: seating for seven in the larger vehicles, both longer than 16 feet, front and rear storage areas, ratings of up to 610 horsepower and production capacity of 80,000 units per year. When would we see such creatures? Perhaps as soon as 2019. We do know that if Tesla can knock the Model X over the outfield fence, automakers are going to have to do something. We don't know what the chances are that Ecoluxe is Mercedes' first move - but such a plan could help explain the weird Mercedes concept spied in October.

Audi CEO Stadler gets 5-year contract extension

Audi CEO Rupert Stadler will keep his seat at the top thanks to a contract extension. Volkswagen didn't divulge the length of the new contract, but German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said the term is five years. Stadler took over the current position in 2007 when current VW CEO Martin Winterkorn left it. That year the brand sold 93,506 in the US and 964,151 in total worldwide; last year it sold 158,061 in the US and 1,575,480 in total worldwide.
Even though the brand has managed only about half the US sales of its two main rivals, it led the charge globally through the first two months of this year. Over the next few years we'll see its US efforts increase with a $30.3-billion investment, 11 new models and the opening of its first North American plant. And right now it can make hay with its World Car of the Year award winner, the A3.
In addition to Stadler, VW sales boss Christian Klingler is said to have received a five-year contract extension, and VW China head Jochem Heizmann has earned another two years on the job.