Audi Future Energies: Balancing Business and Environmental Concerns

Abstract

For Audi, sustainability is an important goal in order to continue functioning economically and competitive, protect the environment and guarantee a liveable future for generations to come. For Audi, corporate responsibility is a long-term strategic orientation that runs like a continuous thread through all processes, products and decisions. The goal is to pave the way for eventual CO₂-neutral mobility with Audi products, to use resources sparingly along the entire value chain, and to demonstrate an enduring sense of responsibility for the workforce and for society as a whole. Anyone planning for future sustainable mobility first needs to adopt a new and broader perspective. For example, Audi no longer just considers the CO₂ emitted while driving, it rather analyses the entire life cycle of a car–from its development and production to the phase of customer use and finally recycling. A central issue in this comprehensive analysis relates to the origins of the types of energy used to drive vehicles. In the case of electrically powered cars, for example, environmental impact is only really improved if the electricity they consume was generated from renewable resources. Following this idea to its logical conclusion, it becomes clear that the focus must shift towards new types of fuels. Therefore, Audi is the world′s first carmaker to become directly involved in the development and production of renewable fuels that do not rely on biomass. Audi is addressing the entire range of drive technologies here, and the future fuels are called Audi e-power, Audi e-hydrogen, Audi e-gas, Audi e-ethanol and Audi e-diesel. The first step is the Audi e-gas project, in which the Ingolstadt company is producing an entire chain of sustainable fuels. With this project, Audi intends to provide tremendous impetus to renewable energies. The German energy industry could also benefit from the conceptual approach of the Audi e-gas project over the mid-term, because it must address the open issue of how to store eco-electricity efficiently and independent of location. The Audi e-gas project starts with wind, water and carbon dioxide sourced from a biogas plant. The end products are renewably generated eco-electricity (Audi e-power), hydrogen (Audi e-hydrogen) and synthetic methane (Audi e-gas). Over the mid-term, Audi also wants to create options for replacing liquid fuels by innovative renewable fuels that are no longer energy crop-based and do not compete directly with food production. Right now, the brand is working with a specialist partner from the USA to produce synthetic ethanol (Audi e-ethanol) and synthetic diesel (Audi e-diesel).