Audi is committed to contributing to the Paris climate goals and has launched a series of emission reduction actions in order to achieve the vision of carbon neutrality for the entire company by 2050 and help protect the environment.

Audi's Mission:Zero plan includes measures to reduce the carbon footprint in manufacturing and logistics, and the plan has begun to show results. In addition, Audi has also formulated a corresponding strategic plan to focus on achieving carbon neutrality in the automobile production process and help achieve this goal in all Audi production sites by 2025.

As part of the carbon reduction plan, Audi and its suppliers jointly explore the emission reduction potential in the supply chain, focusing on the production of high-energy-consuming materials such as aluminum, steel, and battery components. On the other hand, Audi has also launched a study on chemical recycling methods for automotive plastics in cooperation with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Yesterday (November 23), Audi AG issued a statement saying that Audi is committed to contributing to the Paris Agreement climate goals and has launched a series of emission reduction actions in order to achieve the vision of carbon neutrality for the entire company by 2050 and help protect the environment. To this end, by 2025, Audi plans to achieve carbon neutrality at all its production bases.

"Most of the emissions in the life cycle of a car are generated during the use phase, but with the popularity of electric vehicles, these emissions will gradually shift to the manufacturing phase," said Peter Kossler, member of the board of management for production and logistics at Audi, at the "Audi Brand TechTalk Carbon Neutrality Technology Lecture Global Live" event held recently. "For automakers, this is a key link. Achieving carbon neutrality at production bases and running this goal through the supply chain ensures that our cars have a lower carbon footprint when they reach customers."

In 2019, Audi produced approximately 1.8 million vehicles worldwide. In this scenario, achieving sustainable product manufacturing as much as possible has become a grand vision for the company. At present, Audi has set itself a "small goal": by 2025, Audi plans to reduce the carbon footprint of the vehicle's entire product life cycle by about 30% based on 2015.

Compared with products with simpler manufacturing processes, high-tech, high-energy-consuming automotive products face greater challenges in decarbonization during the manufacturing process. In terms of "clean" production, the Audi e-tron production site in Brussels was certified carbon neutral in 2018. The main measures taken by Audi Brussels include the transition to green electricity, the installation of a large-scale solar photovoltaic system (107,000 square meters), the use of certified natural gas and other renewable energy sources for heating, and the launch of a carbon credit certification program to offset the current unavoidable emissions. Although the situation varies from place to place, these three core measures, together with other emission reduction and decarbonization measures, provide a decarbonization blueprint for other production sites.

Recently, the Gyor plant has become Audi's second carbon neutral production site. Since 2012, the Gyor plant has made full use of its geographical advantages and uses geothermal energy to meet 70% of its heating needs. This makes Audi Hungary the main user of industrial geothermal energy in Hungary. The remaining 30% of heating needs are met by natural gas, which has been certified as biogas. Audi Gyor also has a carbon neutral footprint thanks to the 160,000 square meter rooftop solar photovoltaic system (the largest in Europe). The rooftop solar photovoltaic system consists of 36,400 solar cells, covering an area of about 22 football fields, generates 9.5 gigawatt hours of energy per year and avoids 4,900 metric tons of CO2 emissions.

¡°We are continuously improving the environmental footprint of our production sites in order to achieve our vision of carbon neutrality by 2050 and contribute to environmental protection,¡± said R¨¹diger Recknagel, Chief Environmental Officer of the Audi Group. ¡°At this critical turning point, we have taken action at sites such as Ingolstadt, Neckarsulm, San Jos¨¦ Ciab¨¢ and our plants in Mexico to reduce carbon emissions by 70 to 75 percent.¡±

Audi has always been committed to environmental protection, both inside and outside the company. Audi has been using environmentally friendly rail transport to transport its vehicles since 2010, and since then this "green train" has been running from Ingolstadt to the loading port in Emden. In 2012, the connection between Audi Neckarsulm and Emden was also converted into a "green train".

Since 2017, Audi Rail Logistics has been working with Deutsche Bahn on its carbon neutrality goal. By using DBCargo's "Dbecoplus" service, Audi is reducing CO2 emissions by more than 13,000 metric tons per year, and in places where rail transport is not possible, Audi is also using climate-friendly alternatives such as compressed natural gas (CNG) tractors and liquefied natural gas (LNG) trucks.

In addition, Audi has identified significant CO2 reduction potentials along the entire value chain together with its suppliers - lean and prudent use of resources can save raw materials and reduce energy consumption in material processing. Efficient use of resources can therefore help reduce emissions. "The efficient use of resources is crucial for reducing emissions in the manufacturing process," said Marco Philippi, Audi's Senior Director of Purchasing Strategy. "So we pay special attention to resource efficiency in the manufacturing process, especially in areas that consume a lot of energy and materials."

With the increase in electric mobility, the proportion of CO2 emissions in the supply chain has increased, because the production of batteries emits a lot of CO2. According to the forecast fleet average, by 2025, almost a quarter of Audi's carbon emissions will come from this. Therefore, Audi is taking action in the early stages of manufacturing together with its suppliers.

As early as 2018, Audi launched the "Carbon Reduction Program" in the supply chain and explored with its suppliers how to reduce emissions. In the material life cycle, the secondary use and recycling of materials has increased significantly, such as the recycling of plastic components and the use of green electricity. The implementation of the above actions will have a significant result in 2025, with an average reduction of 1.2 metric tons of CO2 per vehicle.

The emission reduction potential is reflected in the "aluminum closed loop" recycling, the pilot project for chemical recycling of plastics, and the resource-efficient use of the Ingolstadt production site. Audi is a pioneer in lightweight design and has been using aluminum since the 1990s. With the implementation of the "aluminum closed loop" in Audi's stamping plant, 150,000 tons of CO2 emissions were saved in 2019 alone. It is reported that compared with the original aluminum, the secondary use of aluminum can save 95% of energy. At present, the Ingolstadt plant and the plant are implementing the aluminum closed loop project, and the Gy?r plant will start implementing it in 2021. At present, recycled aluminum is used in the body of Audi A3, A4, A5, A6, A7 and A8, as well as Audi e-tron and Audi e-tron Sportback parts. At the end of 2020, recycled aluminum will also be used in the Audi e-tronGT produced in the Neckarsulm plant. In the future, more plants and models will use recycled aluminum.

On the other hand, Audi cooperated with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) to develop a chemical recycling method for automotive plastic parts. This method can recycle mixed plastics. Mixed plastics can be widely used in the automotive engineering field due to their safety, heat resistance and quality characteristics. After recycling, pyrolysis oil is produced, which can be used to produce automotive plastic parts. In the future, this technology is expected to become an environmentally friendly alternative to mechanical recycling.

In addition, Audi also worked with the city of Ingolstadt to repair the former Bavarian Oil Refinery. Instead of putting the targeted greenfield area into commercial use, the two companies worked hard to meet environmental requirements, eliminate damage caused by past resource utilization, and use the latest technology to repair the original refinery. The project, called IN-Campus, covers an area of 75 hectares and is one of the largest restoration projects in Germany. It is scheduled to be completed in 2022, of which 15 hectares are natural compensation areas. "Through this environmental restoration project, we are very proud to have completely restored the Bavarian refinery campus for the first time." Rüdiger Recknagel added, "Through this plan, we have contributed to both society and nature-the project pays great attention to the efficient use of resources, and in this case, space is a resource."

It is understood that the future construction of the campus will meet sustainability requirements, and the project has been certified by the German Sustainable Building Committee for Business Districts (Sustainability Label for Business Districts). In the future, one of the German office addresses of Car.Software, the in-vehicle software department of the Volkswagen Group, will also be selected here to develop standardized software architectures for all brands, digital ecosystems and retail customer functions under the group.

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