Audi Racing Drops Le Mans and Turns to Electrics

Audi AG will end its 18-year run with the 24 Hours of Le Mans race at the end of this season to compete instead in the all-electric Formula E racing series in 2017.

Chairman Rupert Stadler says the move reflects the company’s shift to electrified powertrains for its mainstream vehicles. “As our production cars are becoming increasingly electric,” he explains, “our motorsports cars, as Audi’s technological spearheads have to even more so.”

Stadler says there will be no layoffs for Audi’s 300-member motorsport department. Reports estimate the move to electrics will save the company about €100 million per year.

The company said previously that it will introduce its first all-electric models in 2018 as part of what it describes as “the greatest transformation stage in the company’s history.”

Audi cars have won the Le Mans race, the crowning event of the FIA World Endurance Championship series, 13 times. Among the brand’s firsts in the series was winning with a TFSI engine in 2001, a diesel in 2006 and a hybrid sports car powertrain in 2012. The company also won the American Le Mans Series for prototype cars nine times in succession.

Audi says it will continue to compete with piston power in the German Touring Car (DTM) racing series. But its plans for continued participation in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, which the brand has already won this year, are not yet determined. The company says it may extend its support of the EKS racing team and is exploring the idea of electrification for rallycross cars.