I'd fuck with this one:
Please Do Not Drool on the Electric Audi
LOS ANGELES — The Audi e-tron is to electric cars as dynamite is to fishing. There’s no other way to explain an EV with all-wheel drive, impressive power and absolutely absurd torque.
“Here it is - the future of electric mobility,” Peter Schwarzenbauer, marketing and sales board member of Audi, said as the e-tron made its North American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
With four motors producing 313 horsepower and 3,319 foot-pounds of torque, the future looks very bright indeed. And it could be here by 2012.
Although the e-tron looks like a converted R8, Schwarzenbauer says it was designed from the ground up as an electric vehicle. Simply ditching the R8’s engine and installing a battery pack and a motor (or four) wasn’t an option, he said, because different propulsion technologies require different platforms if you are to maximize performance and handling.
The e-tron uses two motors per axle; they get their juice from a 42.4 kilowatt-hour liquid-cooled lithium ion battery with a claimed range of 154 miles. That’s it as far as specs go - Audi isn’t saying anything more. Asked why the car has such ridiculous torque, Schwarzenbauer smiled and said, “We want to have fun.”
Electric cars are all the rage right now with just about everyone working on one. Audi is the latest to join the party, but Schwarzenbauer says the company has been working on it for awhile now. “It’s not something we started yesterday,” he said. “Five years ago we began to dream of this car. It shows what is possible, and that an electric car can be very, very emotional.”
Schwarzenbauer says the e-tron will see “limited production” by the end of 2012, though he would not say how many cars Audi might build. It remains to be seen how closely such a vehicle will hew to the concept, and whether Audi will retain the four-motor set-up or use something more conventional. Whatever the case, the e-tron will be the first of several electric vehicles we’ll see from Audi, with another model coming by 2013 or 2014.
“This is our first electric vehicle and a stepping stone to our first series production EV,” Schwarzenbauer said. “We are going to have a whole range of electric cars, including small electric cars.”
Please Do Not Drool on the Electric Audi
LOS ANGELES — The Audi e-tron is to electric cars as dynamite is to fishing. There’s no other way to explain an EV with all-wheel drive, impressive power and absolutely absurd torque.
“Here it is - the future of electric mobility,” Peter Schwarzenbauer, marketing and sales board member of Audi, said as the e-tron made its North American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
With four motors producing 313 horsepower and 3,319 foot-pounds of torque, the future looks very bright indeed. And it could be here by 2012.
Although the e-tron looks like a converted R8, Schwarzenbauer says it was designed from the ground up as an electric vehicle. Simply ditching the R8’s engine and installing a battery pack and a motor (or four) wasn’t an option, he said, because different propulsion technologies require different platforms if you are to maximize performance and handling.
The e-tron uses two motors per axle; they get their juice from a 42.4 kilowatt-hour liquid-cooled lithium ion battery with a claimed range of 154 miles. That’s it as far as specs go - Audi isn’t saying anything more. Asked why the car has such ridiculous torque, Schwarzenbauer smiled and said, “We want to have fun.”
Electric cars are all the rage right now with just about everyone working on one. Audi is the latest to join the party, but Schwarzenbauer says the company has been working on it for awhile now. “It’s not something we started yesterday,” he said. “Five years ago we began to dream of this car. It shows what is possible, and that an electric car can be very, very emotional.”
Schwarzenbauer says the e-tron will see “limited production” by the end of 2012, though he would not say how many cars Audi might build. It remains to be seen how closely such a vehicle will hew to the concept, and whether Audi will retain the four-motor set-up or use something more conventional. Whatever the case, the e-tron will be the first of several electric vehicles we’ll see from Audi, with another model coming by 2013 or 2014.
“This is our first electric vehicle and a stepping stone to our first series production EV,” Schwarzenbauer said. “We are going to have a whole range of electric cars, including small electric cars.”
