Audi

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.
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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.

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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.
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Earlier this year, design and engineering firm Italdesign unveiled its latest creation: GTZero. We missed the original release, but as the company is letting more info on the concept, I think it’s worth taking a look.

The concept is designed on two different platforms: all-electric and plug-in hybrid. We will get into the electric platform, but first of, let’s take a look at the stunning design.

I know electric car enthusiasts are not really waiting for other entries in luxury segments, but it’s not like EVs represent anything close to a significant percentage of the luxury vehicles on the market and therefore, any new entrant is good for the industry. As a Gran Turismo, the GTZero’s design goes a long way in helping electric vehicles dissociate themselves from the ‘weird-mobile’ look some automakers have been pushing. 
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Audi plans to release an all-electric luxury SUV, the e-tron quattro, in 2018. The vehicle is expected to become the first all-electric competitor to Tesla’s Model X. Earlier this year, we reported on one of the first Model X in Europe spotted near to Audi’s headquarters in Ingolstadt (pictures above), where the german automaker is believed to be reverse-engineering or benchmarking Tesla’s SUV – something it also did with the Model S.

Now a Model X reportedly driven by an Audi engineer has been spotted again over the weekend, but this time in a more interesting context.
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Audi’s electric-mobility chief Stefan Niemand had surprising words of appreciation for Tesla at the recent Technical Congress of Germany’s automotive industry organization (VDA) (via EETimes). Niemand commented:

“I hate to admit it, but Tesla did everything right”

The executive was especially praising Tesla’s EV infrastructure strategy: the Supercharger network. He also made the comment not long after the first Tesla Model X in Europe was spotted near Audi’s headquarters.
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We learned this weekend that the first Tesla Model X in Europe has been spotted near Munich, Germany. As Tesla is still getting through the production of the Model X for early reservation holders in America, it is surprising to see the vehicle in Europe and actually raises a few questions.
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Yesterday, Audi of America President Scott Keogh held a presentation at the LA Auto Show and he made some interesting comments about the brand’s effort in the electric vehicle space and the future of EVs in general.

Keogh said he expects Audi’s e-tron models, all-electric and plug-in hybrid drivetrains, will represent 25% of all the company’s sales over the next decade.
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Volkswagen’s new board of management issued a new statement this morning highligting its new strategy to come out of the emission scandal. CEO Dr. Herbert Diess about the announcement:

“The Volkswagen brand is repositioning itself for the future. We are becoming more efficient, we are giving our product range and our core technologies a new focus, and we are creating room for forward-looking technologies by speeding up the efficiency program.”

On top of obviously changing its diesel strategy to now comply with American and European standards, the company plans on making significant investments in electric vehicles.
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Earlier this month when Audi unveiled its all-electric SUV, the quattro, some media were quick to dub it a “Tesla killer”, but now that Tesla officially launched its own SUV, I think it’s clear that it was a premature assessment. The quattro is set to have a similar range as the Model X, ~250 EPA-rated miles, but Audi is aiming at releasing the quattro in 2018, while Tesla delivered the first few units yesterday and already has between 25,000 and 30,000 reservations for the all-electric SUV.
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Last month we showed you drawings of Audi’s new all-electric SUV concept and yesterday we published more advanced renderings, but today the company finally unveiled the vehicle at the Frankfurt Motor Show and we get some pictures.

Gallery of new pictures below the break:

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Last month we reported on Audi planning to unveil the quattro, a new SUV-crossover equipped with Audi’s all-electric e-tron drivetrain, at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which runs from the 17th to 27th of September. Today the company released more advanced renderings of the concept ahead of the media launch expected tomorrow.
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Audi issued a press release today to announce that it will unveil the all-electric e-tron quatro concept at the Frankfurt Auto Show next month (IAA 2015 will run from September 17 to 27, 2015). Audi released some new information about the concept, which they expect to go on sale in 2018.

The company also released several new drawings of the quattro – see below.
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Audi just announced some of its eTron R8 specs and detail nuts like me will note some pretty impressive numbers starting at the huge 92kWh battery that has 7kWh more storage than Tesla’s top end option. Tesla has said on numerous occasions that it *could* build a bigger more dense battery in the same space (perhaps as a later upgrade), but hasn’t because of cost constraints.

Also the e-Tron has a Drag coefficient of .28 — .04 higher than the Model S. It should be noted that the e-Tron is a theoretical sports car and the Model S is a 7 seat family sedan that has been on the road for almost 3 years. But Audi clearly is keeping a lot of the petrol edition’s drag-inducing air intakes for the electric edition.

That takes a toll on range with the Audi sports car tallying just under 280 mile range compared to the Model S 85D range of 285 miles. The e-Tron’s speed is also a bit behind Tesla with a reported 3.9 second 0-62 and top speed of 130. That’s almost a full second behind the P85D and 20 mph slower. Torque is also impressive, but still far behind Tesla.

On the other hand it looks like a sports car inside and out which will certainly appeal to some folks.

But for Tesla, this is a win. Audi’s just announced R8 doesn’t beat Tesla’s 3 year old Model S in any relevant space with speed or range and holds 5 fewer passengers.

Relevant from press release below:
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