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Automotive News is reporting this morning that Audi is ramping up to greatly expand their hybrid and electric vehicle offerings over the next few years, as part of the Volkswagen Group’s plans to dominate that alternative-fuel market by the end of the decade.

Audi’s board member in charge of technical development, Michael Dick, shared the news that future versions of the A6 sedan could potentially be completely hybrid-powered by the end of 2012, joining the hybrid A8 sedan which was introduced earlier this month at the Geneva Auto Show. There is also a hybrid Q5 crossover with to be launched in the near future. In fact, hybrid options may span Audi’s entire lineup by 2020.

Also by 2020, Audi has pledged a 30% efficieny increase in their standard internal combustion engines, and five percent of the brand’s available vehicles to be electric.

In an interview, Dick explained that the challenge with electric vehicles is, “…to make all of these things possible for series production.”

Audi CEO Rupert Stadler supported this agenda, speaking from Geneva, and saying, “In the future, our customers will be able to choose from an increasingly broad range of driveline technologies. We shall offer electric power in the best possible forms for a wide range of mobility needs. The hybrid driveline will be followed by all-electric vehicles.”

Stadler added, “The e-tron name will have an important part to play. Just as ‘quattro’ has become a synonym for all-wheel drive, so ‘e-tron’ is to be the Audi brand name for electric mobility.”

Recently, Audi created a new division devoted to the development and production of a line of high-priced e-tron electric cars, with the first to roll off the line at 2012. This is a departure from the standard take on electrics, which is to first offer smaller cars meant for urban driving.

VW Group, Audi’s parent company, wants to be the world’s top seller of hybrids and electrics by the end of the decade, increasing it’s market share of electric vehicles to 3 percent of it’s total offerings by 2018. Global vplans include the launch of the E-UP (a fully electric version of the Up minicar), as well as the E-Golf and E-Jetta in 2015. Preparation for this launch will begin with the debut of a fleet of 500 electric Golfs worldwide, in 2011, though current plans involve only the E-Jetta ever being sold in the United States.

Filed under: Audi, Going Green, VW by Mel