Audi Works To Recover From Shaky EV Launch

Earlier in 2019, Audi launche

d its first series production electric vehicle, the e-Tron SUV with some fanfare. While the e-Tron got generally favorable reviews for its driving experience, it suffered from some early issues and a disappointing range. With the debut of the e-Tron Sportback at 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show, Audi is starting to address some of those issues as it hopes to grow plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) to 40% of its sales by 2025.

I spoke with Matt Mostafaei, manager or e-Tron and connected vehicles at Audi of America during the auto show.to learn more about how the launch of the e-Tron is going and what comes next. 

Back in October 2018 at the global reveal of the e-tron in San Francisco, Audi of America spokesman Mark Dahnke tried to tamp down some of the expectations for the e-Tron. As a premium electric SUV, the presumption was that Audi was directly targeting the Tesla Model X. However, unlike Ford which has now basically copied the Tesla playbook with the Mustang Mach-E, Dahnke explained that the German automaker was really aiming to create a vehicle with all of the characteristics of a modern Audi that happened to be electric. 

Given the driving range that turned out to be just 204 miles per charge on the EPA test cycle, this was a reasonable argument. The e-Tron has generally received fairly positive reviews for its driving characteristics and overall experience. But with one-third less published range than a Model X with a similar sized battery, existing Tesla owners were likely to turn up their nose at the Audi. 

As it turns out, through October 2019, Audi has sold about 17,500 e-Trons globally, compared to about 21,600 for the Tesla. According to Mostafaei, here in the U.S. market, e-Tron sales are hitting their target market with about half of customers coming from outside of the existing Audi base. 

“Our target buyer for this was really the the wide range of existing traditional ICE (internal combustion engine) SUV buyers and that’s exactly what we’re seeing with people who are buying the e-Trons presently,” said Mostafaei. “They’re coming out of traditional SUV so whether it be our Q5 or Q7 and switching to the e-Tron or BMW X5, Mercedes-Benz GLE, Lexus RX, things like that, those customers are also coming over as well. We’re seeing a smaller portion of existing EV customers actually come into the car.” 

“Given our direct competitors being Jaguar i-Pace and Model X and that, premium SUV segment, both of those cars have only been combined on sale for a few years, so perhaps those customers aren’t quite ready to make the jump to another new vehicle yet, which is why we didn’t want to specifically make this car, one that targeted only current EV buyers because the pool is just so small. So I would say it’s been a success in terms of conquest and new buyers from not only within the brand who were driving ICE vehicles, but also outside the brand.”

With the addition of the Sportback to the e-Tron lineup in summer 2020, it will mostly still be aiming for that same target customer, but it should also be a bit more appealing. The like other Audi Sportback models, this one looks a bit sleeker, with its sloping rear roofline, but it retains most of the utility of the ur-e-Tron. It only loses 2.6 cubic feet of cargo space but retains all of the passenger volume of the original. 

However, it also makes some important gains, most notably in driving range. The current wagon version only utilizes 88% of the 95-kWh battery capacity in hopes of maximizing the durability of that most expensive component of the vehicle. Tesla uses the full capacity for purposes of calculating EPA driving range. However, Tesla also defaults to only using 90% of the battery during normal driving unless the driver selects the maximum range mode. Even at 90%, the current 100-kWh Model X long-range still gets over 292 miles, so that’s a big gap to close. 

The Sportback ups that utilization to 91% of the battery capacity and also gets some upgrades to the thermal management and a new more efficient power electronics unit. Unlike the Tesla’s silicon carbide power electronics, Audi is still using a unit with less efficient silicon switches, but that will likely get an upgrade in future editions as new suppliers of silicon carbide come onstream. Following the auto show, Audi announced that e-Trons for the European market are getting the Sportback upgrades now which should add about 15 miles to its driving range. 

Mostafaei explained that Audi is still studying when to add these changes to the U.S. market e-Tron wagon since it would require costly recertification of the vehicle. Unless current e-Tron sales see a significant ramp up in the coming months, it seems likely that Audi will make this change sooner rather than later. 

Another challenge for every automaker trying to sell EVs that isn’t Tesla is charging and providing customers access to it. While Ford has opted to aggregate multiple charging networks including Electrify America through its Fordpass app, Audi is focused on EA, another division of Volkswagen of America. EA was created as a result of the VW dieselgate settlement which required it to invest $2 billion in EV charging infrastructure. 

At the launch of the e-Tron last year, Audi promised about 500 EA charging locations would be open by now, but the current number stands at about 350, a bit less than half of the 743 Tesla Supercharger stations in North America. It turns out that while EA has been building out the stations, the paperwork required to get many of them commissioned has taken substantially longer than anticipated. A station near Ann Arbor, Mich. had 10 chargers installed and ready to go in early June 2019 but it didn’t actually open until late September. However, progress is being made with the number of EA stations in the LA area growing from 2 to 11 in the past two months. 

“I think some of what we’re seeing in terms of the rejection reasons is the fact that a lot of these phase one electrify America stations were built along the highway corridors so people aren’t seeing those everyday, so their perception of actual charging stations in the wild is much lower than what the reality of it is,” adds Mostafaei. “So now with Electrify America’s phase two, where they’re focusing on more Metro sites, and people are going to see the same stations when they go to the mall or go to the grocery store or wherever I think that’ll help boost that consumer confidence in charging networks, and thus get them even more ready to go.”

By 2021, the EA network should grow to well in excess of 1,000 locations which should help both Audi and the other brands that are selling EVs. 

The ur-e-Tron and the e-Tron Sportback are just the tip of the spear for Audi in electrification. At the Sportback reveal, it was announced that the production version of the GT which we saw in concept form at the 2018 LA show will be arriving by the end of 2020, followed by the smaller Q4 e-Tron in 2021. The e-Tron GT shares the same platform with the recently launched Porsche Taycan including its more efficient 800-volt electrical system. 

According to Mostafaei, despite sharing its base with the Taycan, it will be built at the Audi factory in Neckarsulm Germany rather than in one of the Porsche plants. Audi has a long way to go to reach its goal of 40% of sales being PEVs by 2025. So far through the first 10 months of 2019, the e-Tron has accounted for just 2.2% of sales. However, the e-Tron didn’t begin deliveries until May. With more product coming and hopefully some of the initial stumbles worked out, that may not be an impossible target to hit, especially for a premium brand.