Automotive Engineer

Is there a shortage of engineers with the right skills?
“ New graduates would have started studying three to five years ago but back then electric cars were not in anyone’s mind in Germany – in 2007 the electric car was not sexy so nobody studied them. Now, there’s a big demand for engineers and there are too few. So if you’ve completed your electronic engineering studies you’re lucky – you’ll get a job for sure. But at the moment it’s not easy to get the right engineers, because we want the best.

And are you in competition with all the OEMs throughout Europe?
“ Yes – everybody is looking at the same guys. And that’s the reason why we made this programme with universities, to build a network with the professors. You can do a doctorate degree together with Audi, working on new technologies, working on e-trons. It’s much easier for us to get some of the guys with whom we have worked together for one or two years. That’s our strategy.

Audi has set up the ePerformance project house for R&D into electromobility with Aachen University – how did you choose which university to work with?
“ Aachen University has been working on electric vehicles for 20 years. It’s also one of the most famous universities in Germany for automotive research. So, when we started this project in 2009 and looked at which university had the most experience in electric cars, it was Aachen. Now Munich is coming on too, and Nuremberg and Erlangen, but they’re still building up doctorate degrees and faculties. But, when you go to Aachen, you have experts now.

Do you set up new degree courses? Or do you have Audi engineers as visiting lecturers on existing university courses?
“ We do some lectures, of course. I’ve been in contact with one of the professors here in Ingolstadt and he asked me what shall we teach – what are the new topics? What should we bring to our students so that you get good engineers three years later? These are the things we’re investigating: what universities can do for us and what we need in the next few years.

So what do you give the universities – hardware perhaps, or just research projects?
“ We say the guys should know software engineering, they should know electronics, and they should know how electric motors work. We give them information on things we think we need, and things they should learn. And of course we give materials. We’ve done some programmes with the Technical University of Munich where the engineers come and work with us. 

You have the ePerformance project – do you have other, similar projects with universities?
“ We have several research programmes with universities. One example is INI.TUM, which we’re doing with the Technical University of Munich. The students spend three to four days in our office, sharing desks with our engineers, and then spend one or two days at the university. We’re doing that at the moment with four universities close to Ingolstadt.

Do you think products such as the e-tron will draw more engineers into careers in the automotive industry?
“ Yes, of course. When we started our project house and said that we were looking for electronics engineers only a few people contacted us. But, when we said at the 2009 Frankfurt show that we would build the e-tron, all the engineers got in contact with us. Before that, when we said that Audi is working on an electric car, people just said: really – what is it? But present the e-tron and it was: wow! It’s high-end technology – that’s what engineers like. Not everybody can work on this car, but you have to have a highlight for electric vehicles.

Are the software and control systems for Audi’s electric vehicles developed in-house?
“ Yes. Because if you really want to understand it you have to do it yourself. The next time, when you know how it all works, then you do it again or you can contract it out. It was really important for us to do these things by ourselves.