Audi exec vows to restore 'stability' to R&D division

It’s been a rough few years at Audi. The Volkswagen Group's premium brand has had three CEOs and nearly a half dozen R&D chiefs in less than a decade. It has also slid back to No. 3 in global luxury car sales after challenging for No. 1. Audi’s rise in the 2010s coincided with a companywide commitment to provide Vorsprung durch Technik, German for progress through technology. Playing a key role in VW Group’s diesel-emissions cheating scandal hurt Audi’s reputation for being a technical leader, something that the automaker’s new chief technology boss, Hans-Joachim Rothenpieler, aims to repair. He spoke about Audi’s accelerated push into electrified, connected and autonomous vehicles with Automotive News Europe Correspondent Christiaan Hetzner.