BERLIN — Europe’s automakers ought to cease utilizing fossil fuels by 2040, Audi CEO Markus Duesmann mentioned.

Discussions round a potential embargo on Russian gasoline after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine have raised stress on firms and governments to broaden funding into renewable power, with Mercedes-Benz promising new investments in wind and photo voltaic to assist energy its vegetation.

“Let’s be brave as Europeans and take it upon ourselves to surrender on fossil fuels utterly from 2040,” Duesmann mentioned at a convention. “We should put all our power in the direction of battery-electric autos for particular person mobility.”

Duesmann known as for faster enlargement of renewable power capability in Bavaria, the place Audi is predicated, and elsewhere.

Audi will cease promoting combustion engine automobiles from 2033. Its mother or father Volkswagen Group will achieve this from 2035 in Europe and later in China and the USA, it has mentioned.

Nonetheless, different automakers comparable to BMW have warned in opposition to focusing solely on producing electrical autos too quickly, with demand for combustion engines nonetheless excessive.

Germany’s coalition authorities has mentioned it’s concentrating on a coal phase-out ideally by 2030 and goals to fulfil all its electrical energy wants with provides from renewable sources by 2035.