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Audi Reveals Future Investment Plans, Will Spend Three Billion Euros in 2016

Audi has released a statement regarding its future investment plans and it turns out they involve a capital expenditure of over three billion euros in 2016 alone.
Audi e-tron quattro Concept 1 photo
Photo: Audi
The Ingolstadt-based manufacturer wants to continue its push on future technologies to strengthen its position on the market. The investments planned by Audi also go hand-in-hand with a cost optimization process, so that the company doesn’t waste money in its quest to become the world’s number one premium car maker. Therefore, Audi will also employ a hiring spree targeted at experts in various domains relevant to the company’s future.

According to the brand’s latest press release, half of the three billion euro investment will go to the company’s German factories in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm. These will be upgraded to become more cost-effective and more eco-friendly.

Naturally, the company wants to further push its quality of manufacture. Obviously, any cuts will be carefully examined before they’re done. The first of them is postponing the construction of a new wind tunnel for one year.

The press release announcing Audi’s new plans reconfirmed the launch of the next generation Q5 for 2015 and the official name of the company’s smallest SUV so far, the Q2. Until recently, the name of the smallest SUV planned by Audi was supposed to be Q1, but a trademark dispute with Alfa Romeo made the Germans make a deal and market their car as the Q2. The solution is unexpected, as the Italians also used the Q2 name in some of their cars.

The second half of Audi’s 2016 three-billion-euro investment is focused on alternative drive systems. These range from hybrids and alternative fuel solutions to full-on electric vehicles. One of these cars will be the Audi Q6, scheduled for launch in 2018 with a design inspired by the Audi e-tron Quattro concept.

The range expansion from the brand with the Four Rings will eventually lead to a portfolio of 60 different automobiles. That’s impressive, to say the least, when it comes from a premium brand and not from a manufacturer of volume cars.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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