Month: October 2018

Hans-Joachim Rothenpieler was born in Plettenberg (North Rhine-Westphalia) on August 10, 1957.

He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Siegen and has been with the Volkswagen Group since 1986. He initially assumed duties there in the area of engine design for commercial vehicles and technical project management for passenger cars for the VW brand.

Beginning in 1994 Rothenpieler was, among other things, Head of Total Vehicle Development at ŠKODA, Board Member for Technical Development at the premium brand Bentley and Head of Total Vehicle Development for Passenger Cars.

In 2004 he assumed responsibility as Product Line Manager in Technical Development at the Volkswagen brand and thus was responsible for the development of numerous VW models. Rothenpieler became Head of Quality Assurance at Volkswagen AG in 2007.

In 2010 he assumed the positions of Spokesman for the Board of Management and Managing Director for Technology at Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH. He was appointed in 2014 as Board Member for Technical Development of the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand.

From 2016 Rothenpieler was responsible for Group Quality Management at Volkswagen AG.

Hans-Joachim Rothenpieler has been a member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG since November 1, 2018. He is responsible there for Technical Development. 

Audi R8 LMS GT3

Podium and victory in Italy: On claiming victory in the Audi R8 LMS of Audi Sport Italia, Bar Baruch and Benoît Tréluyer pulled off a strong close of the season in the Italian GT Championship. In the finale at Mugello, the Audi duo in round one advanced from seventh on the grid to third position. In round two, Baruch and Tréluyer, who had started from fifth, even took victory with a 5.239-second advantage. As a result, a remarkable maiden season with Audi came to an end for Baruch: Following four wins and four third places with changing teammates, he achieved third place in the championship. No other competitor scored more victories in the course of the season.

Two victories in Australia: The customer teams from Audi Sport dominated the fourth race weekend of the GT-1 Australia in Sydney. Vince Muriti in an Audi R8 LMS ultra won the first race of the club sport series. Theo Koundouris, who was driving an Audi R8 LMS, in third position, mounted the podium as well. In race two, the customers even celebrated a 1-2-3 result: Nick Kelly won ahead of Theo Koundouris and Rio Nugara.

Podium in Thailand: Team B-Quik Racing finished the 2018 season in the Thailand Super Series with its best result. Australian Daniel Bilski and Swiss Audi Sport driver Rahel Frey in an Audi R8 LMS ultra of the team achieved second place in race one on the circuit of Buriram.

After four races on four continents, the 2018 Intercontinental GT Challenge has been decided. In a spectacular eight-hour race, the Audi Sport Team Land with drivers Christopher Haase, Kelvin van der Linde und Christopher Mies swept to victory after 306 laps. Over the entire race distance, a battle for the lead raged on the legendary racetrack. The number 29 Audi R8 LMS took off from pole position but was thrown down the field by two drive-through penalties. A decisive move was made at the six-hour mark when the team made clever use of a safety car phase to snatch the lead. Earning 25 points for the win and 18 points for second place thanks to Audi Sport Team WRT drivers Robin Frijns/Dries Vanthoor/Markus Winkelhock (NL/B/D), Audi Sport customer racing yielded the best possible result and managed to turn the points deficit into an advantage in the manufacturers’ classification. In the IGTC, the two best-placed vehicles of a brand are eligible for points. The third Audi R8 LMS shared by Stuart Leonard, Sheldon van der Linde and Alex Riberas (GB/ZA/E) finished in fifth place.

The three Audi Sport drivers Gordon Shedden, Jean-Karl Vernay and Frédéric Vervisch as well as privateers Nathanaël Berthon, Denis Dupont and Aurélien Panis all agreed: While the Grand Prix circuit of Suzuka is a beautiful and demanding racetrack with avid fans who enthusiastically welcome the teams, the tasks they faced this time were incredible difficult. The Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team earned ten points for sixth place in race one, with the Audi Sport Team Comtoyou finishing on ninth, giving Frédéric Vervisch four points. In the second race, two private drivers achieved the best results out of the fleet of six Audi RS 3 LMS racers. Initially, Denis Dupont from Audi Sport Team Comtoyou defended his fourth position, but with three laps to the flag the Belgian fell back to seventh place and later received a penalty. Aurélien Panis grabbed his chance: In qualifying, the Frenchman from Comtoyou Racing had matched his previous personal best of the season from Portugal as the best Audi driver in sixth position on the grid. In the second race, for which the grid was reversed, he started from fifth and advanced to fourth place. He tackled race three from position six on the grid, put in a spirited drive and improved his position to fifth place. One day before his 24th birthday, Panis achieved his best result so far this season. Taking up the spectacular third race from the 14th grid spot, Frédéric Vervisch battled his way up the order to finish on seventh. Jean-Karl Vernay ploughed from 17th on the grid to take the flag in tenth place. 

Already before the start of the cooperation with Umicore in June 2018, Audi had analyzed the batteries in the A3 e-tron plug-in hybrid car and defined ways of recycling. Together with the material technology experts, the car manufacturer then determined the possible recycling rates for battery components such as cobalt, nickel and copper. The result: In laboratory tests, more than 95 percent of these elements can be recovered and reused.

The partners are now developing specific recycling concepts. The focus is on the so-called closed-loop approach. In such a closed cycle, valuable elements from batteries flow into new products at the end of their lifecycle and are thus reused. The Ingolstadt-based company is now applying this approach to the high-voltage batteries in the new Audi e-tron electric car. The aim is to gain insights into the purity of the recovered materials, recycling rates and the economic feasibility of concepts such as a raw materials bank. Security of supply and shorter delivery cycles are the goals. “We want to be a pioneer and to promote recycling processes. This is also an element of our program to reduce CO₂ emissions in procurement,” says Bernd Martens, Member of the Board of Management for Procurement and IT at AUDI AG.

For Audi, battery recycling is a key element of sustainable electric mobility. From the extraction of raw materials to the CO₂-neutral e-tron plant in Brussels to the recycling of components, the premium brand is committed to environmentally compatible concepts along its entire value chain

Fuel consumption of the models named:

Audi A3 Sportback e-tron
Fuel consumption combined in l/100 km: 1.8 – 1.6*
Electricity consumption combined in kWh/100 km: 12.0 – 11.4 
CO₂ emissions combined in g/km: 40 – 36

* Fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions figures given in ranges depend on the tires/wheels used.