Audi’s current CEO rent, Markus Duesmann, has launched his first large initiative, known as Project Artemis. The plan’s marquee part is “to implement a brand new lighthouse venture for Audi in report time,” being “a extremely environment friendly electric car scheduled to be on the highway as early as 2024.” To pull this off correctly, the trail is as necessary because the purpose — Duesmann needs the Artemis group to marshal all of the forces accessible throughout the Volkswagen Group “to present blueprint for future agile growth of vehicles all through Group.” That means Project Artemis is charged with creating a brand new manner to develop higher applied sciences and processes because it develops a greater electric car extra shortly, after which it’s going to share its data with the opposite manufacturers within the group in order that they’ll all produce higher tech and higher vehicles extra shortly.
Perhaps it is a coincidence, however the U.S. area company NASA additionally has an Artemis program. In collaboration with different nationwide area businesses and business entities, the Artemis program needs to put the primary lady and subsequent man on the moon by 2024 as step one to creating sustainable exploration — learn: A moon base to function an middleman step to a Mars base. NASA selected the venture title as a result of Artemis is a sibling of Apollo, and one in every of her symbols is the moon. Duesemann’s ground-based targets may very well be simply as lofty as NASA’s, therefore the mythological connection. Or he may similar to the bow-hunting goddess of deer and cypress bushes.
Anyway, Alex Hitzinger will run Artemis and construct a group to perform the mission. Hitzinger spent years with motorsports heavyweights like Toyota, Ford, Cosworth, and Red Bull Technologies. He ran Porsche’s World Endurance Championship group from 2015 to 2017, placing Le Mans and WEC silverware on the cabinets at Weissach. The subsequent cease was Apple, the place he constructed and ran a gaggle creating the autonomous car rumored beneath the Project Titan banner. Hitzinger returned to VW final 12 months to oversee autonomous driving packages and the ID.Buzz idea in VW’s Commercial Vehicles division.
With the VW Group plotting 75 electric fashions throughout all of its manufacturers by 2029, VW needs to grow to be “as agile as in a racing group,” eradicating the bureaucratic molasses and bottlenecks that intervene with getting one of the best product on the highway in one of the best time. Its issues getting the VW ID.three launched make the priority much more pressing and have led to a CEO shuffle on the VW model and Porsche as nicely. Electric vehicles and autonomous driving are the priorities for Artemis, the group additionally plotting “an in depth ecosystem across the car, thus designing a brand new enterprise mannequin for your entire utilization part.” The preliminary success (or not) of Artemis can be seen within the electric car that might come to market in 4 years.