Software slowdown could delay VW EVs

BERLIN — Audi, Porsche and Bentley could be forced to delay key new electric vehicles because of continued problems at parent Volkswagen Group's software subsidiary Cariad.

Audi's new flagship EV, previewed last year with the Grandsphere concept and being developed under VW Group's high-tech Artemis program, will now not launch until 2027, three years later than planned, sources told Automobilwoche, a sibling publication to Automotive News Canada in Germany.

Bentley's plan to sell only EVs by 2030 is looking doubtful, the sources also said.

Porsche's new electric Macan and a sibling model, the Audi Q6 E-tron, are also threatened with delays. Both are scheduled to launch next year.

Cariad is far behind schedule in developing software for the models, according to Automobilwoche.

Audi's Artemis project was supposed to adopt and introduce second-generation software, capable of hands-free Level 4 automated driving, as early as 2024. Now, the first production Artemis car, internally called Landjet, will launch after Volkswagen's Trinity electric flagship sedan, according to company sources. VW is building a factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, to produce the Trinity starting in 2026.

Audi's production car from Artemis will launch at the end of 2026 at the earliest, and more likely 2027, according to sources.

Audi now plans to launch a slimmed-down vehicle, code-named Landyacht, in 2025 that will serve as the electric flagship in the meantime. It will have a higher body but not the autonomous technology that was supposed to help the brand counter Tesla, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Instead of 2.0 software, a further development of the intermediate 1.2 version is planned. The 1.2 version was supposed to be completed in 2021, but it is also far behind schedule, according to sources.

Porsche has begun pre-series production of the electric Macan at its factory in Leipzig, Germany. "The hardware is great," a Porsche source told Automobilwoche. "But the software is still missing."

Cariad will be streamlined in an effort to step up the pace of software development, Dirk Hilgenberg, the head of the unit, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper this month.