We often hear car companies say that they need to operate more like technology start-ups - to compete with the likes of Tesla and Rivian by copying their Silicon Valley methods of acting fast, speeding through prototyping, and - occasionally - presenting products to customers before they're truly ready... Well, maybe not that last part.
Greek goddess of childbirth
The problem is that big car companies have massive internal corporate structures that work against that kind of agility and speed of decision making. Audi, keen to unlock the secrets of what the future of motoring will look like, has decided to cut through the red tape and establish its own, internal, start-up company - Project Artemis. Artemis was, of course, an ancient Greek goddess, and is the goddess of childbirth. She was also, possibly not coincidentally in this case, also a hunter.
Project Artemis' first, and possibly only, task will be to create a new and futuristic model for Audi. It seems that the company is looking not for yet another motor-show stage concept car (after all, who even goes to motor shows anymore?) but a potential production model, a modern-day Audi Quattro to define and lead the brand into the future.
Swerving around bureaucracy
Audi's new CEO, Markus Duesmann, says that this Skunk Works unit will "develop a pioneering model for Audi quickly and unbureaucratically. The Volkswagen Group's brands stand for excellent technologies - and have potential for much more. With 75 planned electric models by 2029, the current electric initiative at the Volkswagen Group naturally ties up all our capacities. The obvious question was how we could implement additional high-tech benchmarks without jeopardising the manageability of existing projects, and at the same time utilise new opportunities in the markets."
Artemis will focus on new technologies for electric, highly automated driving based around a specific new model. Its first task is to create a highly efficient electric car that is scheduled to be on the road as early as 2024. There will also be an 'eco-system' of digital apps and services set up around this new car. The Aretmis group will be mostly based at Audi's INCampus in Ingolstadt, but will be given the freedom to shift and move around as needed, and call on the resources of any of Audi's global locations. In this, it's rather like Ford's 'Project Edison' team which was separated out from the normal run of things in the Ford Empire, to work specifically on developing the new Mustang Mach-E.
Former Red Bull and Porsche Motorsport engineer
To develop this new car, and the group that will design it, Audi has brought in an engineer steeped in motorsport - Alex Hitzinger. Hitzinger started his automotive career as a development engineer at Toyota Motorsport. At Ford-Cosworth, he was the youngest chief development engineer in Formula 1. Under his leadership, the first Formula 1 engine with a rev limit of up to 20,000 rpm was created in 2006. After Red Bull Technology, Hitzinger joined the Volkswagen Group for the first time and built up the highly successful motorsport team at Porsche that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Endurance World Championship from 2015 to 2017. After three years at Apple in Silicon Valley, where he set up and managed product development for autonomous vehicles, Hitzinger returned to the Volkswagen Group in 2019 to develop autonomous driving and the ID.Buzz at VW Commercial Vehicles.
"I value Alex Hitzinger for his strengths in innovation and implementation. We need both qualities to make major technological advances," stated Duesmann, who also has overall responsibility for research and development at the Volkswagen Group. "I am also relying on his expertise to integrate future achievements into new products together with the development departments of our major Group brands. In the medium term, I expect 'Artemis' to provide a blueprint for a fast and agile development process at the Group, as agile as in a racing team."