Audi Gets Serious and Diverts One-Third of its R&D Budget to Advanced Technology

Audi Q7 2.0 TFSI e-tron (Credit: © Audi)

Audi—a subsidiary of Volkswagen—has been feeling the heat of the dieselgate scandal, but this doesn’t mean it’s just tossing its hands in the air and giving up on green technology. Instead, Audi will divert one-third of its R&D budget toward advanced automotive technology, including electric powertrains, according to a report from Reuters.

Also included in these advanced technologies are digital services and autonomous driving. Audi didn’t mention how much of the budget each technology would get, but given the automaker is shooting for 25 percent of its sales to be EVs by 2025, I would expect to see the majority of the cash going toward developing these cars.

Given Audi hits its mark, it would invest around an incredible $1.55 billion into these technologies as its total R&D budget in 2015 was $4.69 billion. Even more impressive of a goal to reach would be its total EV sales, which would amount to 450,000 units by 2025 by 2015’s numbers. If Audi hits its latter goal, it would give Tesla, which plans to sell around 500,000 EVs per year by 2020, a run for its money.

To hit these goals, Audi will need to cut some spending in other places. The report indicates that Audi plans to cut money flowing into its internal-combustion engines—including its country-specific engine configurations.

We should learn more about this new business plan soon as a meeting regarding it is planned for Wednesday, July 20th. We’ll bring you updates as they become available, so keep it locked here.