Manufacturers have stopped off high-tech initiatives because of the Covid-19 epidemic if they remain only tested in displays at the end of the day.
Audi determined in 2020 that it will no longer focus on hydrogen power for any future vehicles, putting an end to the Audi H-tron SUV idea.
According to Markus Duesmann, Chairman of the Board of Audi AG, producing enough CO2-neutral hydrogen at scale for passenger cars in the next decades will be extremely difficult. The only sustainable answer for passenger automobiles, according to the CEO, is an electric vehicle with a battery.
The auto sector has been struggling this year as a result of the epidemic, and Volkswagen Group’s views on hydrogen cars have remained constant. In a message on Twitter in February, Group Dr. CEO Herbert Diess criticized governmental attempts to get hydrogen vehicles into the market. Green hydrogen is better for the steel, chemical, and aerospace sectors, and it “should not wind up in automobiles,” according to politicians. Green hydrogen, according to Diess, is “far too costly, inefficient, sluggish, and complex” to manufacture and transport. He ended the message by stating that the corporation has no plans to build hydrogen automobiles.
In a tweet in May 2021, Diess stated that hydrogen cars had not proven to be a climate answer. Meanwhile, Duesmann told Welt am Sonntag (via Welt) that if nations disagree, the transition to zero-emission vehicles will be tough. He believes that if one country supports hydrogen, another encourages e-fuel vehicles, and a third promotes battery electric vehicles, the transition will be more difficult.
Duesmann told Auto Zeitung in October 2021 that “there is no big area of applicability for fuel cells in automobiles.” He even went so far as to dub the hydrogen fuel cell powertrain cycle “absurd.”
“You’ll need a lot of green power, which you’ll convert to hydrogen, then back to green electricity in the automobile, where it’ll be converted to kinetic energy. That is just ludicrous to me as an engineer.” Audi CEO Markus Duesmann (Auto Zeitung interview October 15, 2021)
To repeat, the Audi H-tron was a concept SUV presented at the 2016 NAIAS in Detroit, Michigan. It was marketed as a highly efficient and athletic hydrogen SUV, requiring only 4 minutes to fill the tank and consuming 2.2 pounds of hydrogen each 62 miles. The Audi H-tron had a range of 372 miles between tanks of hydrogen and a Cd (coefficient of drag) of only 0.27, which was very low for its day.
Audi will make tremendous progress in this area until 2025, with its whole focus on sustainable mobility aimed towards the battery-electric vehicle. The Audi e-tron GT, Audi Q4 e-tron, and Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron were all introduced this year. A special Audi Q5 e-tron was also sent to China. It will debut the Audi Q6 e-tron in 2022, as well as a new Audi e-tron and Audi e-tron Sportback. Audi has stated that the production version of the Audi A6 e-tron will be available in 2023.
All of Audi’s forthcoming (EV) cars will be built on VW Group common platforms (MEB, PPE, or SSP). In the current economic climate, a production Audi H-Tron does not appear to be possible.
