Audi is the first premium manufacturer to have a CO2-neutral car plant, where the German brand will soon begin production of its new all-electric SUV – the e-tron.
The Audi Brussels site has been awarded a certificate by the Belgian testing company Vinçotte, which found that 95 per cent of the emissions came from renewable sources, while the other five per cent of harmful emissions were covered by environmental projects.
With 37,000m2 of solar panels and biogas energy supplies used for powering and heating the buildings, only the company cars used on site were producing harmful emissions.
Rüdiger Recknagel, head of environmental protection at Audi, said: “In 2014, we were the first premium manufacturer to measure our CO2 footprint and have it certified. Since then, we have been working steadily to reduce it further.
“We are also installing new technologies at all our plants to reduce water consumption, prevent air pollution and improve recycling.”
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The e-tron will be the brand’s first fully-electric vehicle and will be on sale later on in 2018, following on from the plug-in hybrid A3 e-tron and Q7 e-tron models.
Peter Kössler, member of the board of management for production and logistics, said: “At the same time, our first electric car is also the first car in our core competition that is completely climate-neutral in production. We avoid any waste.
“In addition, we are working hard to make all our factories in the Group even more sustainable. We intend to gradually supply our plants with green electricity. And last year, we were the first company in Germany to make all domestic rail transport climate-neutral.”
