Audi has announced the launch of a new division called Artemis, which will be in charge of developing an "efficient electric car" to be made available by 2024. The new group was born out of the efforts of the German automaker's new CEO, Markus Duesmann.
According to Duesmann, Artemis will be "given a large degree of freedom" to "develop a pioneering model for Audi quickly and unbureaucratically." The new team will largely put its focus on electric vehicles, with the CEO giving emphasis on "a highly efficient electric car."
As with other established automakers, it takes a lot of time for Audi to get a new model to production, and you have to jump through many bureaucratic hoops to make it happen. It's safe to say that Audi was doing well, better than several of its competitors, but there's a current electric revolution in the auto industry, thanks to Tesla. Now Audi needs to keep up and develop new technologies.
It's clear that Audi is aware of the change and implementing a solution.
The new Artemis team will be helmed by Alex Hitzinger, formerly in charge of Audi's Autonomous Intelligent Driving (AID), the subsidiary that debuted in 2017 to integrate autonomous vehicle technology for the Volkswagen Group. AID was absorbed into the European headquarters of Argo AI, a move that was made after VW invested $2.6 billion in capital and assets into the self-driving startup.
On June 1, Hitzinger will take his new position at Audi and will report directly to the company's new CEO. Artemis will be based at the company's tech hub of its INCampus in Ingolstadt, Germany.
Hitzinger and his team of experts will have access to technologies and resources offered by the VW Group but will operate under the Audi banner. Its aim is to develop innovations that will benefit its parent company and the brands under it.
VW's plans remain colossal despite the pandemic, with a goal to sell 75 electric car models across its brands by 2029. The creation of Artemis hasn't changed Audi's plans to produce 20 new all-electric vehicles and 10 new plug-in hybrids by 2025.
That being said, Artemis is a brilliant move for Audi and is a great marker for the brand's positive outlook in spite of the global health crisis.
"The obvious question was how we could implement additional high-tech benchmarks without jeopardizing the manageability of existing projects, and at the same time, utilize new opportunities in the markets," Duesmann said.
