Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 5

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

 

TALK FROM THE TOP

Fast mover
Audi exec shares views on adding EVs, cutting big engines, closer Porsche ties

S

ince arriving at Audi from Volvo earlier this year, Peter Mertens has had
to move fast. The Volkswagen Group
subsidiary is striving to take the early
lead in the race to offer autonomous driving technology with the Level 3-capable
A8 sedan. Audi also plans to debut one
full-electric car each year from 2018 until
2020. Mertens explained how Audi plans
to achieve its autonomous and e-mobility
goals and shared how it will deepen ties
with sister brand Porsche when he met
with Automotive News Europe Correspondent Christiaan Hetzner.
You've confirmed three electric vehicles, what else is planned for Audi
under the new Roadmap E?
Models will come one after the other
because we have a target that is somewhat more ambitious than the VW
Group. By 2025, a third of our sales will
come from plug-in hybrids and batteryelectric vehicles.
What can we expect from the Premium Platform Electric, which Audi and
Porsche are developing jointly?
We have the lead for two of the three
model families from the PPE architecture.
We have broken the teams' technical
responsibilities down to the level of individual modules and systems. In the past,
this is something that never really happened between these two companies on
this scale. It shows what kind of potential
we can leverage through the group.
Will Audi focus on the A4 and A6 segments?
Yes, that could very well be.
How much of the platform's volume
will come from each brand?
The split could be about 60 percent Audi
and 40 percent Porsche.
Audi aims to eliminate up to 40 percent of its drive systems in the longterm. What do you have in mind?
We will thin out our engine-transmission
combinations, but entire engine families
might also disappear. Do we really need
a V-10 and W-12 for the next generation of cars? We get questioned about

2017

In Partnership with

Meet the tech boss
❚ NAME: Peter Mertens
❚ T
 ITLE: Audi Board Member

for Technical Development

❚ AGE: 56
❚ M
 AIN CHALLENGE: Taking

the lead in electromobility and
autonomous driving.

the [future of the] V-8, and in particular
the diesel, but I cannot imagine we will
do without it. We have a very important
group of customers that really wants
eight-cylinder engines in larger vehicles.
Will it exist forever? No, but [it will] for a
rather long time.
When can we expect a Level 4 highly autonomous vehicle such as the
Elaine concept you showed at the
Frankfurt auto show?
It's realistic within a time frame of about
five years. It could come a bit earlier or
a bit later. We've made the first step toward Level 3 conditional autonomy with
the A8 and we're working hard on making the jump to Level 4.
What can you tell us about the Elaine's
Personal Intelligent Assistant, or PIA?
Is it like an advanced version of Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri?
Digital assistants already exist and perform well in stationary environments. In
the future, a PIA will be able to learn
what kind of music you listen to or
which restaurants you like and so on.
Cognitive understanding is more complicated, but it will undoubtedly come

-- and sooner than you think. When it
does we plan to make it available for
mobile applications as well.
Will Audi develop this?
With the founding of our Autonomous
Intelligent Driving subsidiary, we are in
the process of expanding our own knowhow and capacities in the area of AI [artificial intelligence]. But I don't believe we
will compete with the Amazons or the
IBMs of the world.
You came as a complete outsider
to a development department trying to overcome an emissionscheating scandal. What changes
are underway?
We're working very hard on several soft
factors ranging from accountability to
ethics. We are defining rules for 8,500
engineers, but you can't do that for everything. You also have to learn what
is OK and what is not and that doesn't
happen from one day to the next. We've
started a process with [Volkswagen
Group Head of Integrity and Legal Affairs] Hiltrud Werner to address the cultural aspect of the company to ensure
this never happens again. ANE

www.autonewseurope.com

5


http://www.autonewseurope.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement

Contents
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 1
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 2
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - Contents
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 4
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 5
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 6
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 7
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 8
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 9
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 10
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 11
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 12
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 13
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 14
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 15
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 16
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 17
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 18
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 19
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 20
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 21
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 22
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 23
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 24
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 25
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 26
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 27
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 28
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 29
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 30
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 31
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 32
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 33
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 34
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 35
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 36
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 37
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 38
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 39
Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 40
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