Do we like Audi?
Premium car maker (petrol, diesel and electric cars), based in Ingolstadt, Germany; also in Formula 1 from 2026.
Our score: 4 out of 10. Not yet. Audi has real EV and investment plans, but it carries a big diesel-cheating record, it is cutting 7,500 jobs, and its 2026 outlook has been cut.
Audi is the premium arm of Volkswagen Group, based in Ingolstadt. It is led by CEO Gernot Döllner. In March 2026 it reported 2025 revenue of €65.5bn and operating profit of €3.4bn, with record all-electric deliveries.
The big stain is Dieselgate. In 2018 Munich prosecutors fined Audi about €800m over V6 and V8 diesel engines, and Audi accepted it and did not appeal. In 2023 a court gave ex-boss Rupert Stadler a suspended sentence of one year and nine months and a €1.1m fine after a plea deal.
Times are tougher now. In March 2025 Audi said it would cut up to 7,500 jobs by 2029, mostly in administration and development, to save about €1bn a year. It also said there would be no compulsory redundancies until the end of 2033, and it planned €8bn of investment in its German sites.
The 2026 outlook has since weakened. A German Audi release on the first nine months cuts guidance to a 3–5% operating margin, and says deliveries are down about 11%. We'd call it a mixed bag, so a middling-to-low score.