Audi started the Artemis project

Audi started the Artemis project on which the hopes of the VW group rested. The ambitions with which the project started last year under the name Artemis could hardly have been greater: The team is supposed to develop the long-awaited Tesla hunter for the VW Group ready for series production and an entire "ecosystem" including charging infrastructure. A model above the Audi flagship A8, which should also be adopted by the corporate luxury brands Bentley and Porsche for their own versions. With the ability to drive largely autonomously at level four and a battery range of at least 650 kilometers, the car, internally known as the "Landjet", should not only overtake the great role model and competitor Tesla, but finally overtake it. And all of this should be ready for series production by 2024. It was said last year that such an ambitious schedule could not be achieved within the structures of the VW Group, which is why Artemis was spun off as an "agile" subsidiary of the VW brand Audi. "We're building a rocket," said Artemis boss Alexander Hitzinger to the "Business Insider" last summer. After all, the inspiration for the name is also the NASA mission, which is to bring astronauts to the moon again in 2024. Audi boss Markus Duesmann described Artemis as a "speedboat" that could help the tanker Volkswagen to catch up with Tesla, especially in the areas of software and autonomous driving. The aim of Artemis is much more than the development of a single future-oriented car, but rather the establishment of appropriate structures as a model for the entire VW Group. It was said at the time that Artemis was inspired by the extremely fast development cycles of motorsport teams. Both Duesmann and Hitzinger gained experience as developers in Formula 1. Thanks to its independence and a startup corporate culture, Artemis should not only be more creative and faster, but also be able to attract IT talents from Silicon Valley, for whom a traditional car manufacturer might not appear to be an attractive employer.