From January 2024, Audi website in Ingolstadt will be able to boast of the title carbon neutral plant. This is the third House of 4 Rings factory to achieve this important milestone. It will thus join the industrial complexes of Brussels (Belgium), carbon neutral since 2018, and Győr (Hungary), carbon neutral since 2020.
This milestone will be marked by the start of production of the Q6 e-tron, the new electric SUV that we have already talked about several times and which will be based on the new PPE platform developed in collaboration with Porsche. As part of the strategic environmental program Audi’s mission: zeroThe House of Four Rings aims to achieve carbon neutrality in all its factories worldwide by 2025. The transformation of Neckarsulm in Germany and San José Chiapa in Mexico will take place within two years.
To achieve this goal Audi worked in four directions. As its first pillar, Audi has improved energy efficiency of their facilities to avoid emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide. In 2022, the measures taken allowed the Ingolstadt power plant to save more than 35,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy, while avoiding 5,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
Parallel to Audi produces renewable energy in-house, the second pillar of the four rings industrial strategy. To date, photovoltaic modules have been installed on an area of 23 thousand square meters at the Ingolstadt plant.
As the third pillar of the Audi Mission:Zero program, the brand drew energy from renewable sources from outside. Since 2012, Audi has been producing cars in Ingolstadt using exclusively clean energy. As the fourth and final pillar all inevitable emissions (maximum 10% of original CO2 emissions) are compensated by purchasing carbon credits certified to the highest quality standards, such as the Gold Standard. At the Ingolstadt plant, this strategy includes emissions associated with internal logistics.
Mission Zero’s environmental initiatives go beyond decarbonization to include circular economy principles and biodiversity protection and conservation. Audi is committed to implementing closed recycling cycles for highly energy-intensive raw materials such as water, plastic, aluminum, glass, steel and paper.
Source: HD Motori
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