Audi Boss Thinks Gasoline Has A Future – Maybe Even In A New Supercar

As a result, Audi is reevaluating its future product strategy, including developing future internal-combustion cars alongside EVs to ensure its entire customer base has enough choice to make their new vehicle purchase. Speaking to Car and Driver, the company's CEO seems to think that gas-powered cars like the new A5 and Q8 will exist well into the next decade, if not further.

A Comprehensive Global Lineup
Gernot Döllner, the chief executive for the Audi brand, said the automaker would take a more measured approach to a split-propulsion lineup than previously expected. Back in 2021, the Volkswagen Group's mainstream luxury arm said that all new model introductions from 2026 on would be electric and that combustion engines would be completely absent from the lineup by 2033. However, Döllner told Car and Driver that current market conditions – especially in the US – are causing internal combustion to swing back into the limelight. But the CEO stopped short of crediting the resurgence of the gas engine solely to American consumers.

"Markets are so dynamic, and every market has its specialty," Döllner said, continuing that even China, which is generally very EV-friendly, has seen a backswing to extended-range electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. That could present both opportunities and problems for Audi, as well as its Chinese-market, all-electric AUDI joint venture, the company with all caps and no rings on the badge. But Döllner told C+D that he wasn't planning on treating any one market as "an island," instead producing flexible powertrains and model lines that could be adapted for multiple use cases.

For example, as US interest in pure electric power wanes, it could potentially be backfilled by an EREV that has decent plug-in range and an onboard ICE generator that would provide much easier long-distance touring when chargers are hard to find. In that case, the costs of developing such a powertrain could potentially be amortized over markets that are friendly to EVs and markets that prefer internal combustion, especially if it shares elements with existing gas or electric products.

Distinct Platforms For Gas And Electric
Despite the desire for flexibility, Döllner says that Audi will continue to base its gasoline-powered cars on different platforms than its EVs. That runs counter to the logic used by its cross-country rivals at Mercedes-Benz, which will base many of its EVs and ICE cars on the same platform, with the architecture optimized for electrification to minimize compromises.

Audi apparently wants no compromises with its internal combustion and electric vehicles. "We decided to have specific platforms for battery-electric and combustion engines, and I still believe that's the right way to move," Döllner said. Whether that means the automaker will continue refining the Volkswagen Group Premium Platform Combustion architecture well into the future, we aren't exactly sure. The next-generation Volkswagen Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) is expected to underpin both combustion and electric vehicles thanks to a modular design that allows for vehicle flexibility without increasing production complexity, but Döllner's comments make us wonder if Audi will still produce some vehicles on bespoke chassis designs.

Giving Enthusiasts Of All Types What They Want
Speaking of, the CEO also hinted that one of those unique offerings could be a successor to the mid-engined Audi R8 supercar, which exited production in 2023. Car and Driver asked Döllner if rumors of a Lamborghini-based flagship sports car were true, and he didn't refute the claim.

The perfect thing is that I can imagine an Audi from the A2, a very efficient city car, to a super sports car, and from a small SUV to a rugged SUV in the U.S., that would also fit the Audi brand.

He even postulated that the Four Rings would consider building an off-road–oriented SUV that could potentially take on the Rivian R1S, Mercedes-Benz G-Class, and Lincoln's rumored Ford Bronco twin. Such a product, tailored for that uniquely American taste for luxurious off-road capability, would likely be a combustion vehicle, although parent company Volkswagen's partnership with Scout Motors could turn it into an EREV.