Everything seemed to be on track for Audi to enjoy a perfect weekend at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That was before word spread that the brand had fired its head of R&D, Wolfgang Dürheimer. The story was broken by German magazine Der Spiegel and has been corroborated by several high-ranking Volkswagen Group sources.
Dürheimer took on responsibilities as Audi’s R&D chief in September of 2012. Prior to that, he had restructured Bentley and spearheaded the company’s effort to launch an SUV. At Audi, Dürheimer swiftly put a halt to projects that siphoned money from the company without any significant market potential, such as the R8 e-tron, or the rotary range-extender engine of the A1 e-tron. The dimunitive Urban concept, internally called Neo, was killed off as well. Dürheimer also changed the complex reporting structure within the design department: chief designer Wolfgang Egger reported to Dürheimer, not to Audi CEO Rupert Stadler.
Special thanks to our friend Jens Meiner for the tip.
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