Automakers and battery makers have been quite secretive about their battery costs, which have long been believed to be one of the main barriers to electric car adoption.
It’s why it’s surprising to see Dr. Peter Mertens, Audi’s senior vice-president of research and development, disclosing the cost of the automaker’s batteries for the upcoming new generation of vehicles that they are about to launch. Expand Expanding Close
While Audi’s electric vehicle effort still mostly only exist in press releases and concepts, it looks like it’s about to move to production in a significant way if we are to believe them.
Audi is the latest automaker to go after Tesla in its ads – though it appears to be more in an attempt at humor than a targeted effort to mitigate the impact of Model 3 reservations on their sales, like the previous ones from BMW and Nissan. Expand Expanding Close
There’s nothing more concrete in the electric vehicle revolution than when legacy automakers are converting internal combustion engine production capacity to electric motor production.
Audi seems to understand that as it previews its new electric car factory by saying: “electric motors instead of internal combustion engines, batteries instead of fuel tanks.” Expand Expanding Close
A few more senior Autopilot team members have since left, including the head of Tesla Vision, and we now learn that one of them is now leading an autonomous driving effort for Audi. Expand Expanding Close
Audi has had a very remarkable and successful history in rally racing. In the early eighties, long before Red Bull came around, Audi first introduced their 4WD Quattro system and shattered the competition. Then after a number of successful years, Audi launched one of the most powerful and infamous Group B rally cars, the Audi Sport Quattro S1 . Its combination of a 4WD Quattro system, a turbocharged engine, and a carbon-kevlar body shell meant that these cars literally flew around the rally stages in the most spectacular and dangerous ways. No wings required.
Now Audi will have a go at it again but this time with electric powered rally cars. Attracted by the abundant and instant torque of electric engines, Audi motorsport boss Wolfgang Durheimer has indicated that the prospect of electrified rallycross is a very intriguing one.
Audi is opening reservations for its first production electric vehicle today ahead of the official launch later this year. We have often portrayed the Audi e-tron quattro as the first of a series of upcoming all-electric vehicles from German premium automakers, but it’s finally not only some distant concepts, but an actual all-electric SUV coming to market with Audi’s 2018 model lineup. Expand Expanding Close
After teasing the vehicle yesterday, Audi has officially unveiled its new electric vehicle concept, the e-tron Sportback, at the Auto Shanghai 2017 today.
As we expected, the German automaker confirmed that the vehicle will serve as the basis for its second all-electric vehicle to go to production after the quattro e-tron. Audi says that the new electric coupé crossover will hit the market as soon as 2019 – about a year after the quattro. Expand Expanding Close
Audi is preparing to unveil a new electric vehicle at the Shanghai Auto Show this week and it recently released a series of teaser images and full design sketches of the concept called ‘Audi e-tron Sportback concept’. Expand Expanding Close
Well it’s not exactly surprising since Porsche and Audi are both premium automakers under the Volkswagen group, but they made it official today. The two German automakers announced that they are now sharing a vehicle architecture strategy for “electrification, digitization, and autonomous driving.”
They will cooperate and create teams from both companies to work on the next generation of vehicles coming out of each brand. Expand Expanding Close
Audi’s top labor representative Peter Mosch demanded today that Audi build an upcoming all-electric model in their main plant in Ingolstadt, Germany, reasoning that employees of the main factory should not be left out as the industry moves towards electric vehicles. The comments were made in a speech to 7,000 workers at Audi’s 43,000-employee Ingolstadt plant.
Audi has previously stated that they plan to locate production of their all-electric models in a smaller 16,000-employee plant in Neckarsulm, where the company currently makes its higher-end vehicles. Planned electric models include the quattro e-tron SUV, a sportscar and a compact car, the latter two of which are still yet to be unveiled.
Audi’s upcoming quattro e-tron SUV is expected to be the first in a series of new all-electric premium vehicles from German automakers. Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW are all planning new electric vehicles to come out between 2018 and 2021.
The company has now revealed plans for two more electric vehicles to follow the SUV next year: an electric sports car and an electric compact, said CEO Rupert Stadler via AutoExpress. Expand Expanding Close
Audi’s e-tron quattro SUV could become next year the first in a series of premium all-electric vehicles to come to market. Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, and other premium automakers are all planning EVs for the end of the decade, but the way the vehicles program are set up, Audi is apparently ahead of the pack with its 2018 release.
But of course, Tesla is already well-established in the premium electric vehicle segment with the Model S, a large sedan, and the Model X, a premium SUV.
While discussing the upcoming launch of the e-tron quattro, Audi’s Chief of Sales and Marketing, Dietmar Voggenreiter, decided to ignore the Model X and claim that with the e-tron quattro, Audi will be “the first real premium manufacturer doing a premium electric SUV”(via Autocar). Expand Expanding Close
Knowing car dealers make most of their money from service and that EVs have fewer moving parts and therefore require less service, Tesla anticipated the issue and decided to operate its own sales force. But other automakers are stuck with their dealership networks and they are now trying to get them on-board with EVs in order to be competitive in the ongoing electrification of the industry. Expand Expanding Close
Today, Audi announced a new a deal with FAW, its Chinese manufacturing partner, to expand its activities in China and introduce a series of luxury all-electric vehicles as well as a broader electrification of their lineup.
The German automaker took notice that China became the world’s biggest electric vehicle market last year and considering the Volkswagen group, Audi’s parent company, is among the few automakers committing to volume production of EVs, they will need market shares in China to sell those vehicles. Expand Expanding Close
Audi’s first all-electric vehicle is expected to hit the market in 2018 and be the first of a series of upcoming all-electric vehicles by the Volkswagen group. Before going all-electric, Audi is introducing its second plug-in electric vehicle after the Audi A3 e-tron: a new Audi Q8 SUV.
What is particularly interesting is that the German automaker claims it will bring the vehicle to production very quickly after having unveiled it just this week at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). Expand Expanding Close
While we are waiting for Audi’s first commercially available all-electric vehicle, the quattro e-tron, which is expected to hit the market in 2018, the German automaker announced today that it completed work on what could now be considered its first electric vehicle, the “Audi lunar quattro” rover.
The vehicle, which is equipped with an electric powertrain based on Audi’s e-tron tech used in its “normal” electric vehicle programs, was developed by Audi in partnership with a group of engineers participating in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition, a unique challenge to land a privately-funded rover on the moon’s surface, drive 500 meters and send back pictures to earth. Expand Expanding Close
Considered part of the “Triple Crown of Motorsport” alongside the Indianapolis 500 and Monaco Grand Prix, the Le Mans 24 Hours race, started in 1923, is one of the oldest and most prestigious races in the world. Teams are allowed three drivers and must race to complete the most laps over a 24 hour period, which means that winning cars must show exceptional performance, reliability and efficiency.
As a result of this, the race has been used as a proving ground for many technological advancements, most recently the appearance of hybrid electric vehicles which first raced in 2009 and have won the race every year since 2012.
Audi has absolutely dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans ever since they returned to the race 18 years ago. With 13 wins in those 18 years, they have been the manufacturer to beat at the race. In particular, they are credited with heralding the “diesel era” of the race, leading to diesel-engined winners from ’06-’11, and diesel-electric hybrids from ’12-’14.
So today’s announcement that they would quit the World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans race comes as a bit of a shock. Or does it? Expand Expanding Close
Audi confirmed this week that they are pulling the plug on their all-electric e-tron supercar, which is basically a battery-powered version of the Audi R8. If you haven’t heard of the vehicle program despite being launched back in 2009, that’s because Audi ended delivering fewer than 100 units over the last 2 years since starting series production.
The company was reportedly working on a new generation, but they confirmed to Car and Driver yesterday that the program is dead and they are in “the process of delivering the last few units before production stops for good.” Expand Expanding Close
We are seeing an increased interest for the all-electric Formula E championship by established automakers. After Jaguar creating its own team earlier this year, now Audi announced its increased involvement with the Formula E Team ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport ahead of the 2016/2017 season starting next.
They are moving from what could more easily be described as a sponsorship to a complete partnership in the program and they unveiled a new race car skin – pictured above. Expand Expanding Close
With the Volkswagen Group wanting to build 2 to 3 million electric cars by 2025, Audi, one of their companies, is leading the charge with some exciting new electric vehicle projects. One of which, the Audi A9 e-tron, has recently been confirmed to be put into production and up for sale in 2020.
The German automaker says that the vehicle will be equipped with a ‘level 4’ autonomous driving system – up one level from the 2018 Audi A8, which is expected to have a level 3 system.
Audi might not be the leader in electrical vehicles but the company is thinking outside of the box about ways to recover energy from driving. Today, the company announced a new “Electromechanical rotary damper” that would recover energy from vertical bumps in the road and turn that into an admittedly small amount of electricity to be used later.
Last year, Audi announced it’s first all-electric vehicle, the e-tron quatro, a luxury SUV expected to fit between the Q5 and Q7, and therefore, it will likely change its name to Q6 once it will enter production at the company’s plant in Brussels starting in 2018.
Now we learn that the automaker is also planning an electric version of the Q5, which should go into production at the company’s new factory in Mexico. Expand Expanding Close
