Audi opens Incampus for future mobility - Söder insists on internal combustion engines
Audi has inaugurated the extensively remediated Incampus on the site of a former refinery in the southeast of Ingolstadt, a 75-hectare technology park dedicated to the transformation of the automotive industry. A few years ago, it was an industrial wasteland with heavily contaminated soil; today, it is a technology park with a wide range of possibilities, the VW subsidiary promotes. The site, with three large facilities, a tank farm, and an Italian pipeline, has undergone a profound transformation over the past seven years.
With facilities such as Audi's new vehicle safety center and the largest location of the software forge CARIAD in the project house, the future of mobility is being worked on here, according to the brand with the four rings. The extensive soil remediation and the innovative and well-thought-out energy concept are intended to make the site a model project in terms of sustainability.
Söder: Focusing on e-mobility is a mistake
Among the guests at the ceremonial opening on September 15, 2023, were Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, Ingolstadt Mayor Christian Scharpf, and the CEOs of Audi and CARIAD. Söder was the only speaker who did not focus solely on the future but also aimed to extend the fossil age further. He emphasized that he considered the focus on e-mobility a mistake and once again called for "technology openness." There are now synthetic fuels that can keep the combustion engine, which he described as "outstanding technology," from being written off. Additionally, new oil and gas deposits are being developed globally.
"Whether this fossil age is automatically over in ten years, I don't know," declared the CSU politician, who also described the reduction of the e-car premium as a mistake and recommended further state support for German manufacturers in the face of strong Chinese competition. The car is Germany's "most important economic asset."
However, Cariad CEO Peter Bosch emphasized that the German automotive industry is in danger of falling behind China and the USA. The transformation in the sectors of digitalization, autonomous driving, and e-mobility has already been completed there, Bosch warned. "Data is the oil of today's era," explained the Cariad CEO. The new Audi CEO Gernot Döllner stressed that each of these developments is so "disruptive that it fundamentally changes the industry." He appealed to the government to support the industry, for example by expanding the charging infrastructure for e-cars.
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