The e-tron is the much-vaunted electric SUV from Audi that is positioned to steal market share from EV market leader Tesla and other newcomers like Jaguar’s I-Pace, but first it has to actually reach dealer showrooms.
Reuters cited a report by the German paper Bild am Sonntag that the Audi e-tron was facing delays as it requires regulatory clearance for a piece of software that was modified to iron out some bugs during the development process. The paper went on to say that Audi was also having to renegotiate pricing with its battery supplier, LG Chem.
The South Korean battery manufacturer apparently wants a price increase of 10 percent due to high demand and what we can only assume must be a limited supply.
Clearly, there is more to the negotiations than we are aware of and neither Audi nor LG Chem officials would comment on the discussions when questioned by Reuters. What we do know is that LG Chem are no small concern, they also supply batteries to Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen Group, as well as Daimler.
The battery pricing negotiations may not unduly affect delivery times but the need to get the software issue sorted may mean that the e-tron could reach showrooms a month later than planned.
Bild am Sonntag said that the delay could be as long as several months. In a market that is changing as rapidly as the EV segment, this could count against the e-tron when it does finally go on sale. It will certainly bring some interesting new tech to the segment so let's hope the production delays are short-lived.
