For Audi CEO Markus Duesmann (photo), the battery-powered electric motor is the drive of the future in cars. With autonomous driving, he announces a step forward, and explains why Audi are so cautious about this.
Duesmann sees no future for hydrogen and fuel cells as motorcar fuel strategies: “We will not be able to produce sufficient quantities of the hydrogen required for propulsion in the next few decades in a CO2-neutral manner. I therefore do not believe in hydrogen for use in cars,” he told the weekly newspaper Die Zeit; “the solution for the car is the battery”.
Audi are likely to take a major step forward in automated driving in 2024. Duesmann says Audi “have the technology, but we haven’t activated it yet. If an Audi model made serious mistakes because the autopilot did not work reliably, we would endanger the entire company with almost 90,000 employees. That is why we are so cautious”. Duesmann’s prudent approach stands in contrast to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has a reputation for his insouciant attitude toward safety concerns and regulations in his cars and factories.