Audi CEO Markus Duesmann told a German paper that his company is looking to get back to pre-COVID19 sales levels within the next two or three years.
The carmaker is betting everything on the rising demand for electric vehicles, which benefit from government incentives. With that in mind, Audi hopes to sell some 40,000 e-tron models this year, after parting with 17,000 units in the first six months of 2020, reports Autonews Europe.
“We certainly expect the coronavirus crisis to have longer-term effects,” Duesmann told Handelsblatt. “We have had a very difficult second quarter. Things are slowly picking up, but not as a sharp ‘V’ as one would wish for,” he said, while adding that some countries (like China) have rebounded quicker than others.
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While the e-tron stands as a very important model for the Ingolstadt-based brand, Duesmann admitted that Tesla continues to have a significant technological lead in several areas.
“Currently, Tesla has larger batteries because their cars are built around the batteries. Tesla is two years ahead in terms of computing and software architecture, and in autonomous driving as well.”
More changes for the VW Group
Separately, it is now being reported that Volkswagen sales boss Juergen Stackmann might be leaving his post as part of a larger management reshuffle. So far, we’ve seen Skoda chief Bernhard Maier, Traton head Andreas Renschler, commercials vehicles head Thomas Sedran and software head Christian Senger all step down.
Speaking of the latter, Duesmann is now overseeing the Group’s Software Unit, and has already replaced Senger with Dirk Hilgenberg, a former senior VP of manufacturing engineering at BMW.
