Nos adentramos con Fermín Soneira en las entrañas de Audi para subirnos al Audi Q8 e-Tron

It's in my heritage, Fernando. My father was a car mechanic; he had a workshop in my hometown of Gijón, and I think he passed down the passion for cars in my DNA. From a young age, what always thrilled me most was seeing the result of our work — the presentation of a car, like the Q8 e-tron we're debuting here — and seeing the reactions from our customers and the automotive press with positive reviews. I'm very happy about that because I'm the one debuting this car. You're the first journalist to get in. It looks really good.

We have a very clear plan. We've communicated it: in 2026 we'll build our last internal combustion engine car, and from 2033 we won't build any more. We want to launch 20 electric modules between now and 2026 — right now we have eight on the market. So things are moving fast, but we're meeting our plans regardless of legislation or international agreements. It's clear that electric technology is here to stay, and what we need is to put more resources into making it evolve as quickly as possible. If we're talking about electric cars and motors, to continue increasing efficiency, the chemistry of batteries in terms of range and charging speed — the big leap expected is with solid-state batteries. Here too, within the Volkswagen Group, we have operations with external companies. The technology is very promising but not yet mature for mass production, and that's where we expect very large gains, especially in range and charging speed. Outside the car, we see that charging infrastructure is fundamental — having enough points with sufficient charging power. We see this varies greatly by country. I'd say those are the two areas where the most investment is needed, and we're a bit behind, to put it mildly, because with 280 million cars circulating daily in the EU, we'd need almost 7 million charging points. It's very heterogeneous depending on which country we're talking about. There are countries like Norway where 100% electric vehicle sales already exceed 70% annually and the infrastructure covers all that demand without issues. If we talk about Spain, it's well known that it's currently behind on the plans and what we need. But the good news is that this transforms relatively quickly when enough investment comes from administrations, the energy sector, and manufacturers — it grows very fast.

We are, with IONITY, investing heavily. As you said, right now there are almost 2,000 chargers in Europe from IONITY at 350 kilowatts, and the plan is to reach 7,000 by 2025 with an investment plan of 700 million euros. What we're doing as Audi is creating exclusive Audi charging points — there are also pilot projects in Nuremberg and Zurich with very good results. And this same concept of exclusive Audi charging points we'll also use in Spain.

There are studies that say, if we're talking about fast and ultra-fast charging, the ideal is a charging point every 60 kilometers. Then, of course, the question of how many chargers per location and what power they should have — given that we're currently at 170 kilowatts of charging power with this car and we keep growing, I believe 350-kilowatt chargers will be the standard. Electric cars with 1,000 kilometers of range or more will arrive — today they're possible, but we'd be carrying a lot of weight for a range we don't usually need. When we talk about new technologies, we should first talk about increasing energy density considerably — that is, having much more range in the same volume and almost the same weight. I do think we'll see those figures in the future.

What will coexist for the next 10 years, maybe 15, is the electrified combustion engine alongside 100% electric cars. In the medium to long term, from Audi and from the Volkswagen Group, we are 100% convinced the solution is the 100% electrified vehicle. I know there are other technologies that are talked about a lot and that other competitors are investing in, like hydrogen as an energy vector. For other sectors and heavier transport, probably yes. But for cars it's not efficient because we go through the process twice — we produce hydrogen by electrolysis and then have to convert it back into electrical energy, and a lot of energy is lost along the way. So for now it's not sufficient. We don't have flying cars either, nor cars with spherical wheels like in the movie. As for the car of the future, if we're talking about autonomous driving, it's a longer process than was initially thought — not just technologically but also legislatively and in terms of customer acceptance. As you know, Fernando, there are different levels, a classification from Level 1 to 5. Right now all manufacturers are at Level 2. Levels 3 and 4 will arrive in the coming years, and we'll see truly autonomous cars. For those of us who like driving, the future of autonomous driving won't leave us without a steering wheel — well, there will be cars without steering wheels, but I think that's a really long timeline, like in the movie I, Robot. It's on the horizon but very far away. Audi is a premium brand where emotions count a lot, including the emotions of driving. We understand autonomous driving as a support for the customer that gives them the possibility, in certain circumstances, to distract themselves, relax, or rest — but it's not our goal to replace the driver 100% and make driverless cars.

If we're talking about autonomous driving, it's a longer process than initially thought — not just technologically but also legislatively and in terms of customer acceptance. There are different levels, from Level 1 to 5. Right now all manufacturers are at Levels 2, 3, and 4 will come in the coming years. We'll see truly autonomous cars. For those of us who love driving, autonomous driving won't leave us without a steering wheel — well, there will be cars without steering wheels, but I think that's a really long timeline, like in the movie I, Robot. It's on the horizon but very far away. Audi is a premium brand where emotions matter a lot, including driving emotions. We see autonomous driving as support for the customer, giving them the option in certain situations to relax or rest — but it's not about replacing the driver 100% and making driverless cars.

That's a tough question, Fernando, because this is passion and profession at the same time. I like everything that has to do with creativity, and I think I'd like to be sitting in that chair over there as an automotive journalist and have the opportunity to test many cars very often — that must be really fun. Of the cars we have here, two are present and one is very much the future — the one we have behind us. It's a member of a family of three that we've presented. Urban is a design exercise, mostly to show what the proportions of the future will be and what concepts lie behind those proportions. But it doesn't mean we're showing a car here that will be exactly the basis for a production model.

Now I'm going to show you the future, but the thing is, only you and I can go in — no cameras.