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Audi CEO says brand's EVs are almost as profitable as its other cars

After, oh, a hundred years or so of building vehicles primarily powered by internal combustion engines, automakers around the world have been and still are pumping billions of dollars into the development of electric vehicle technology. Everything from platforms and batteries to motors and the software to control it all requires untold hours of development, and that takes time and money. Fortunately, it's not going to take long for that massive investment to start paying off, at least according to Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, who told Reuters in an interview that "The point where we earn as much money with electric cars as with combustion engine cars is now, or ... next year, 2023. They are very even now, the prices." As a brand, Audi contributed more than a quarter of overall profit for the massive Volkswagen Group, which has such powerhouse brands as Volkswagen and Porsche among others. Under the Audi umbrella are Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati, and it seems those high-end branches aren't going anywhere, at least for now. "These brands ... are very valuable very profitable brands, where we can even expand the synergy level in the future," Duesmann said in the interview. "There are no plans whatsoever to get rid of them." Despite the overall profitability of the brand, the ongoing global chip crisis is causing headaches. "We had a very strong first half in 2021. We do expect a much weaker second half," said Duesmann, who added, "We really have trouble." In fact, so serious is the trouble that the brand is forced into "a day-to-day troubleshooting process" to limit the chip-shortage damage. The good news for the automaker is that Audi has been able to boost its profit margin from 8% prior to the pandemic in 2019 to 10.7% in the first half of 2021. The bad news is that various chip shortages aren't expected to get a whole lot better over the rest of the year. Related video:

Infographic: Comparing the Veneno, LaFerrari and P1 supercars

This year's Geneva Motor Show served as the launch platform for three of the world's latest and greatest supercars. The Italians brought us the Lamborghini Veneno and the Ferrari LaFerrari, while the British unveiled the production version of the McLaren P1.
To put the three in better perspective - as if any of us will ever fully comprehend trio of million dollar coupes - the Aussies at Motoring.com built an infographic (click above to enlarge) that outlines what makes each of these cars so spectacular. Using unique colors to represent each of the vehicles, the team put together a variety of charts that focus on vital statistics, pricing, total production run and other parameters all designed to ease the process of digesting an overabundance of exotic goodness. We have uploaded the graphic full size in this link.

Lamborghini Aventador SV gets more, less weight [w/video]

Following Lamborghini's recent tease, we were pretty certain that the Italian supercar brand would unveil its Aventador Superveloce at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show. Sure enough, during the Volkswagen Group Night event, the supercar with more power and less weight made its grand debut. Technically dubbed the Aventador 750-4 SV, Lambo revised the valve train and added a new four-exit exhaust with less backpressure. The result is a redline now at 8,500 rpm and a boost to 740 horsepower and 509 pound-feet of torque. Grunt still gets to all four wheels via a seven-speed gearbox. The changes help reduce the sprint to 62 miles per hour to just 2.8 seconds, and if that's not enough, 124 mph is just 8.6 seconds away from a standing start. The top speed reportedly rises to 217 mph. The other major factor in helping this improved performance is a 110-pounds reduction in weight to tip the scales at 3,362 pounds, which comes thanks to copious amounts of carbon fiber. On the outside, the door panels, side sills, fenders and new fixed rear wing are all made from the lightweight material, and the upgraded parts for the body reportedly increase downforce by 170 percent. The interior even features Lambo's Carbon Skin fabric for the headliner. Beyond the lighter weight and extra power, customers get magneto-rheological dampers, carbon-ceramic brakes and variable ratio electric power steering. All of this Italian performance comes at a price of 327,190 euros before any value-added tax when the cars go on sale in the spring. Official US pricing isn't announced yet , but that figure equates to about $366,000. Check out a video of the car being unveiled at VW's Group Night festivities in Geneva.