Audi has gone green inside its largest plant at Ingolstadt by employing a 1,000-horsepower plug-in-hybrid locomotive manufactured by Alstom that replaces the plant locomotives previously used.
The locomotive inside the plant is used to ferry the components between production areas and employing hybrid engine locomotive means that the components and finished Audi models will now reach the plant's loading stations in a more climate-friendly way.
The complete automobile plant in Ingolstadt includes 18km of railways. Every day, 15 goods trains arrive at Ingolstadt North railway station for Audi – loaded with pressed parts, engines and transmissions, as well as cars from other Audi sites that are ready for delivery to customers. The cars produced in Ingolstadt also start their journey to customers by rail. One plant locomotive carries out up to 75 shunting manoeuvres every day and operates for an average of 3,800 hours each year.
The new locomotive runs without any emissions inside the plant buildings and can operate for up to two hours at a time in purely electric mode. Its battery is plugged in during breaks for recharging with CO2-free electricity, or is supported while in motion by a diesel engine. Hybrid locomotives are quieter and their CO2 emissions are reduced by half compared with conventional locomotives at the plant.
"Our goal is all-round sustainable logistics," said Johann Schmid, head of the Audi plant railway in Ingolstadt. "The new railway technology allows more economical, energy-efficient and low-emission rail transport."
"In connection with the latest chassis technology, the plug-in-hybrid locomotive sets new standards in shunting and rail transport," he added.
