Audi tips huge economy improvement

This is the rock-solid prediction of Audi, which is working on a wide range of new green technologies that take in everything from battery-electric cars to methanol and diesel fuels produced by special bacteria.

It is almost showroom ready with mild hybrids that promise significant economy and CO2 improvements by boosting the electrification of cars, as well as electric turbochargers, cylinder-on-demand engine controls and even a tiny three-cylinder engine that's used - much the same as the Holden Volt - to create an extended-range electric car.

Audi's window on the future of cars is open in Munich this week at an event called the Audi Future Lab: Mobility. It's an even that takes in everything from its Le Mans winning hybrid racing cars to a new A3 Sportback compact that runs on compressed natural gas created from renewal resources, as well as new energy developments in Europe and city planning in giant metropolises as diverse as Mumbai in India to Sao Paolo in Brazil - which has the world's largest density of privately-owned helicopters to beat traffic snarls.

"By 2050 there will be well over nine billion people living on this planet. All of these people will want a roof over their head and to be mobile," says Johann Gessler of Audi's advanced technology unit. "Today we are addressing the target of CO2 neutral mobility. It's more than just a battery moving along, we must understand the identity of a society and ask the right questions."

For Audi, that means everything from understanding the future development of mega cities - it claims there are only three today with more than 15 million people but this will become hundreds - to converting renewable energy into fossil-fuel replacements for combustion engines and the electric cars that will follow. "What is the role of the car? We all want a bespoke solution … the right solution for each of us," Gessler says.

"We do not have one size that suits all. So we are working flat-out to provide the mobility of tomorrow." Audi is part of the giant Volkswagen Group, which aims to be the world's top carmaker by 2015, so its technology could eventually flow to budget-priced Skodas and on up to Bentley and Bugatti flagships.

Audi is convinced that the growing importance of green motoring, and especially the battle to cut CO2 emissions, will bring much more efficient cars to the world's roads. But it is still not giving a prediction on the total demise of internal-combustion engines, even though Audi says the world has passed the peak oil threshold and demand will eventually outstrip supplies of fossil fuels.