{"id":292051,"date":"2023-12-20T18:31:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T17:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292051"},"modified":"2023-12-20T18:31:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T17:31:47","slug":"audi-hits-brakes-on-ev-rollout-as-enthusiasm-wanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292051","title":{"rendered":"Audi hits brakes on EV rollout as enthusiasm\u00a0wanes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Howard Mustoe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audi will hit the brakes on its rollout of electric car models as consumer enthusiasm wanes in the face of high prices compared to petrol models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gernot D\u00f6llner, the boss of the Volkswagen-owned brand, said that he wants to avoid flooding dealerships and factories with the vehicles as sales slow. The Telegraph<\/strong><\/a> has the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe advantage of EVs (electric vehicles) is becoming visible to consumers step by step,\u201d Mr D\u00f6llner told Bloomberg News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Official forecasts for electric car take-up<\/a> in the UK were slashed by almost half last month. Sales of new battery-powered cars were expected to grow steadily until they accounted for 67pc of the market by 2027, under a prediction issued in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that figure has now been revised down to just 38pc by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which said the take-up of EVs has been slowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr D\u00f6llner, who was an executive at upmarket stablemate Porsche, was hired in the summer to reinvigorate the mid-market brand, on which Volkswagen relies for a large chunk of its profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audi, whose electric models include the \u00a369,480 Q8 e-tron, faces cheaper competition from China, which is also a key market for Volkswagen\u2019s brands.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While electric cars are cheaper to run, their initial price remains stubbornly higher than petrol and diesel models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes as electric car sales fell by the most on record last month following Prime Minister Rishi Sunak\u2019s climbdown on banning petrol models<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales of EVs plummeted by 17pc from November last year, according to the statistics published by industry group the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drop beat a 9.7pc fall in April 2020, when showrooms closed due to lockdown restrictions and a 7.9pc decline in the early days of EV sales in March 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government pushed back a petrol car sales ban from 2030 to 2035 in a move which carmakers warned could knock consumer confidence in EVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the 17pc EV sales drop from last year was due to a glut of deliveries in 2022 following months of supply problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the percentage of electric cars being sold has fallen compared to the rest of the year, according to the figures, with EVs taking only 15.6pc of car sales in November compared to 16.3pc in the first 10 months of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volkswagen is likely to cut jobs in order to protect its profitability, it emerged last month.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, managers told VW brand employees of the plans for job reductions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VW may cut jobs through early retirements, since it has a relatively large number of older workers due to retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Factory output for Germany, Europe\u2019s manufacturing powerhouse, fell to a three-year low in September, dragged down by weak car production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Output fell 1.5pc compared to August, the lowest production since 2020, with carmakers and their suppliers\u2019 production figures dropping 5pc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, Porsche said soaring borrowing costs and rising prices were starting to bite even its wealthy clientele.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full story here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Audi, whose electric models include the \u00a369,480 Q8 e-tron, faces cheaper competition from China, which is also a key market for Volkswagen\u2019s brands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":292060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Audi, whose electric models include the \u00a369,480 Q8 e-tron, faces cheaper competition from China, which is also a key market for Volkswagen\u2019s brands.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691825516,691825519,691821977,691825517,691825520,691825521,691820695],"class_list":{"0":"post-292051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-audi","9":"tag-69480-e-tron","10":"tag-electric-vehicles-evs","11":"tag-gernot-dollner","12":"tag-porsche","13":"tag-q8-e-tron","14":"tag-volkswagen","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/02024-audi-q8-etron-drive-motion-lead-image.webp?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1dYv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":206064,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=206064","url_meta":{"origin":292051,"position":0},"title":"E-car probably sets an entire house on fire in Neuhof (Hesse), Germany","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Tichys Einblick In the garage of a two-family house, an Audi e-tron was on fire. They attacked the residential building and a Smart parked in front of it \u2013 a major alarm for the volunteer fire brigades from four Neuh\u00f6fer districts. Emergency services also arrived from Fulda. In East\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0cf00db2525e49a10e1a39ddc6341f23c41291d4.webp?fit=992%2C558&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0cf00db2525e49a10e1a39ddc6341f23c41291d4.webp?fit=992%2C558&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0cf00db2525e49a10e1a39ddc6341f23c41291d4.webp?fit=992%2C558&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0cf00db2525e49a10e1a39ddc6341f23c41291d4.webp?fit=992%2C558&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":279552,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=279552","url_meta":{"origin":292051,"position":1},"title":"Motor Industry Demands Subsidies for EVs, as Sales\u00a0Stagnate","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"20\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"When will the motor industry and government get the message that the vast majority of drivers don\u2019t want the useless things?","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\u2019s car industry\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain\u2019s car industry","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=britains-car-industry"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0mfrack_realistic_photo_of_future_of_EV_55b41576-f7aa-40d7-ba28-0dbc33178df0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0mfrack_realistic_photo_of_future_of_EV_55b41576-f7aa-40d7-ba28-0dbc33178df0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0mfrack_realistic_photo_of_future_of_EV_55b41576-f7aa-40d7-ba28-0dbc33178df0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0mfrack_realistic_photo_of_future_of_EV_55b41576-f7aa-40d7-ba28-0dbc33178df0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0mfrack_realistic_photo_of_future_of_EV_55b41576-f7aa-40d7-ba28-0dbc33178df0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":188439,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=188439","url_meta":{"origin":292051,"position":2},"title":"BBC Ignore Lithium Battery Fire Story","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"21\/02\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Paul Homewood \u00a0This story has been doing the rounds in the last few days: BERLIN\/LISBON (Reuters) -A ship carrying around 4,000 vehicles, including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys, that caught fire near the coast of the Azores will be towed to another European country or the Bahamas, the captain of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/0image_thumb-119.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/0image_thumb-119.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/0image_thumb-119.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/0image_thumb-119.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":403742,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=403742","url_meta":{"origin":292051,"position":3},"title":"Porsche delays new electric car after demand slump","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"21\/09\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Porsche has delayed the launch of its new electric vehicle (EV) as weak demand forces the German car manufacturer to focus on petrol and diesel engines.","rel":"","context":"In \"Automotive industry\"","block_context":{"text":"Automotive industry","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=automotive-industry"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0AQOY5MCZIZy5tDwsJYmjtX_jJWc3RS5XoKX3OobVAYmWqWGMXRR-xBEpkOE-ejGMZ0VWMcHKzLjXqN-FaHqlLtDsa5ADbk0HY_5oBMU_7pjE6ZDEQX7Q7v389GdJKlVRg99lMvwmTwnvVs8R0CbqhlvZKSWeLg-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0AQOY5MCZIZy5tDwsJYmjtX_jJWc3RS5XoKX3OobVAYmWqWGMXRR-xBEpkOE-ejGMZ0VWMcHKzLjXqN-FaHqlLtDsa5ADbk0HY_5oBMU_7pjE6ZDEQX7Q7v389GdJKlVRg99lMvwmTwnvVs8R0CbqhlvZKSWeLg-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0AQOY5MCZIZy5tDwsJYmjtX_jJWc3RS5XoKX3OobVAYmWqWGMXRR-xBEpkOE-ejGMZ0VWMcHKzLjXqN-FaHqlLtDsa5ADbk0HY_5oBMU_7pjE6ZDEQX7Q7v389GdJKlVRg99lMvwmTwnvVs8R0CbqhlvZKSWeLg-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0AQOY5MCZIZy5tDwsJYmjtX_jJWc3RS5XoKX3OobVAYmWqWGMXRR-xBEpkOE-ejGMZ0VWMcHKzLjXqN-FaHqlLtDsa5ADbk0HY_5oBMU_7pjE6ZDEQX7Q7v389GdJKlVRg99lMvwmTwnvVs8R0CbqhlvZKSWeLg-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0AQOY5MCZIZy5tDwsJYmjtX_jJWc3RS5XoKX3OobVAYmWqWGMXRR-xBEpkOE-ejGMZ0VWMcHKzLjXqN-FaHqlLtDsa5ADbk0HY_5oBMU_7pjE6ZDEQX7Q7v389GdJKlVRg99lMvwmTwnvVs8R0CbqhlvZKSWeLg-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":301401,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=301401","url_meta":{"origin":292051,"position":4},"title":"New Report Shows Electric Vehicles Are Unreliable \u2014 These 3 Are the Worst","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/02\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The survey of over 300,000\u00a0vehicles found electric models\u00a0suffer 79% more maintenance problems than gas-powered cars. Meanwhile, plug-in hybrids fared even worse \u2014 with a concerning 146% more issues reported by drivers.","rel":"","context":"In \"Audi Q5\"","block_context":{"text":"Audi Q5","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=audi-q5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/0EV-Car_0529_2019.jpg?fit=1200%2C861&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/0EV-Car_0529_2019.jpg?fit=1200%2C861&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/0EV-Car_0529_2019.jpg?fit=1200%2C861&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/0EV-Car_0529_2019.jpg?fit=1200%2C861&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/0EV-Car_0529_2019.jpg?fit=1200%2C861&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":265068,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=265068","url_meta":{"origin":292051,"position":5},"title":"Volkswagen: \u201cStrong Customer Reluctance\u201d in the Electric Vehicle Sector","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Volkswagen scales back EV production","rel":"","context":"In \"Electric Vehicle\"","block_context":{"text":"Electric Vehicle","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=electric-vehicle"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0684454_logo-vw-wallpapers_1600x1000_h.jpg?fit=1200%2C844&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0684454_logo-vw-wallpapers_1600x1000_h.jpg?fit=1200%2C844&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0684454_logo-vw-wallpapers_1600x1000_h.jpg?fit=1200%2C844&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0684454_logo-vw-wallpapers_1600x1000_h.jpg?fit=1200%2C844&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0684454_logo-vw-wallpapers_1600x1000_h.jpg?fit=1200%2C844&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=292051"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292062,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292051\/revisions\/292062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/292060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=292051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=292051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=292051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}