LOS ANGELES — Since it went on sale in April, the Audi e-tron — the first EV from Volkswagen Group's premium brand and the tip of the spear in the automaker's $66 billion, multibrand global electric offensive — hasn't exactly electrified the market, and that has at least one big name in auto retailing worried about the industry's battery-powered future.
Electric vehicles "have not had the lift that [the industry] expected," Roger Penske, CEO of Penske Automotive Group, told analysts last month on an earnings call, specifically calling out the Audi e-tron's slow retail start.
Penske said there had been "significant cancellations" of e-tron preorders, and the main issue was affordability.