2 new Audi Concept cars unveiled at the Paris Motor Show

Two new Audi concept cars grabbed the limelight on press day at the Paris motor show; the quattro concept and Spyder e-tron plug-in hybrid sports car.

quattro concept reborn

The quattro concept celebrates the 30th anniversary of the iconic quattro. Based on a shortened RS 5 platform, the concept is actually closer in spirit to 1984’s Sport quattro, a more compact version of the original coupe that was designed to improve the car’s agility on the world’s rallying stages.

The concept’s wheelbase is 150 mm shorter than the RS 5’s, its roofline is around 40 mm lower and the 4.28 metres overall length is around the same as a Volkswagen Scirocco’s, which is 200 mm shorter than an A5. However, unlike the RS 5, the concept is a strict two-seater.

Most of the bodywork is aluminium, but the bonnet and rear hatchback are carbonfibre. The car weighs approximately 1300 kg, around the same as the Sport quattro.
Power comes from a 400PS version of the TT RS’s twin-turbocharged five-cylinder engine, mounted north-south. This is comfortably more than the 300 bhp of the original road-going special. It is paired with a six-speed manual gearbox and the quattro can accelerate from 0-62 mph in just 3.9 seconds.

Like the RS 5, the quattro “has full four-wheel-drive, not the TT's Haldex system,” commented the quattro concept’s designer, Steve Lewis.

The front styling is dominated by a huge rectangular grille, while the side profile’s key feature is an extra-thick C-pillar that has the four-ring logo stamped into its metal. The cabin features a slender, ‘floating’ dashboard and bucket seats that are 40 per cent lighter than regular items.

Spyder e-tron plug-in hybrid sports car unveiled

The Spyder variant will be a diesel hybrid in contrast to the pure electric e-tron, which was shown at the Detroit motor show earlier this year.

It has a twin-turbocharged TDI unit powering the rear axle and a pair of electric motors at the front. The new concept’s dimensions are similar to those of the original e-tron. At 1.8 metres wide and 4.06 metres long, it’s 13 cm longer and 3 cm wider than the all-electric version.

Fleet of electric Audi A1s create a buzz in Munich

Twenty A1 e-trons will be part of a pilot project in Munich to monitor ‘green’ behaviour. The 102 PS battery-powered ‘Mega City vehicle’ fleet will be up and running by mid-2011.
The ‘eflott’ project will form part of the ‘Model Region Electromobility Munich’ initiative sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Transport. Two hundred newly installed charging stations will form part of the ‘power grids of the future’ according to Klaus-Dieter Maubach, member of the Board of Management of E.ON AG. The Department of Vehicle Engineering has developed a smartphone application that will monitor participants’ mobility behaviour. Experts at the Technical University of Munich will collate this information which will include how often they use buses, trains, bicycles, and their electric cars.

Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management at Audi AG, said: “We hope that this fleet trial will enable us to gain broad insights into the behaviour but also the expectations of our customers regarding their dealings with electric cars. Of course, the data that we will collect are another aspect. This market and technology feedback will enable us to further expand our expertise in electrification.”

For more information on the A1 E-tron, click here

Electric Audi A1 unveiled

Audi has unveiled the A1 e-tron, an innovative electrically-powered design study based on the A1. The new study has taken centre stage at Europe’s first major motor show of the year in Geneva. The A1 e-tron is an innovative Mega City Vehicle (MCV). Like the previously unveiled e-tron sports cars, it is electrically propelled and has a range of more than 30 miles in heavy traffic. With a peak power output of 102 PS, the A1 e-tron is also fun to drive.

When the battery’s energy supply is exhausted, it is recharged by an exceptionally compact ‘range extender’ consisting of a single-rotor Wankel (rotary) engine and an electrical generator with a charge rating of up to 15,000 Watts.


This device gives the A1 e-tron an additional range of 125 miles. This means the vehicle's average fuel consumption is 148mpg and has CO2 emissions equivalent to only 45 g/km.

For more information call 01202 775050

Back to the Future 4 – The Audi Prequel

We all take technology for granted; we can wake up to a random selection of songs played from a device that is capable of storing thousands of high quality albums. We can fit this device (what would have been a room full of LPs) in our pocket and use this handheld device to communicate with people all around the world. It needs no buttons, just caressing the screen with your finger or holding it a different way can be enough to activate its impressive functions. If that is not enough, you can download applications that turn it into a spirit level, a mobile office, or even a light-saber! This device is known as the Apple I-Phone and I salute you I-Phone for coming into our world and making it cool to be a gadget-loving geek.

So, if a phone can be made (with the help of new technology) to be so versatile, why not the humble motor car? 2010 may be the year for this to happen, especially if you are an Audi driver. They have a history of inventing, in 2006 they had already clocked up nearly 10,000 patents and they don’t stop. So, what could 2010 have in-store for Audi owners?

Google Earth Navigation – A8
Not pleased with simple 3D renditions of the road ahead, Audi has teamed up with Google to bring you satellite imagery. Now you can clearly tell which way the road bends and what features you can expect to be up ahead. Users can also search for locations and businesses using the Google search engine from in their car, then navigate to that point with just a simple to on the cars MMI-Touch interface.

Intelligent car features – A8 and E-Tron
The intelligent lighting system that Audi has put in place communicates with various sensors in the car and even the car’s satellite navigation system. They use several different light configurations for different road types and best of all, they are LED lights and so energy consumption is kept to a minimum.

In a similar way to how the headlights on the new A8 can use information from the satellite navigation, so can the latest gearbox in Audi’s range. Traditionally automatic gearboxes have had a reputation for shifting at bad times (i.e. in a corner) and while Audi have mostly removed the chance of this with their recent advancements, the inclusion of the navigation system means that they can eliminate it for good.

Self-parking car
It has been tried several times before with various other manufacturers and it has a reputation for not working as well as planned, until now. The parallel parking system has been an option on the Audi A3 for a while now and has yet to be surpassed for its ease of use. The car monitors the size of parking spaces and will take care of all of the angles, while you just control the speed.

A car that drives itself
Well, not quite but we are nearly there. For sometime now Audi have been offering Adaptive cruise control - a clever system that monitors the road ahead and will slow down, or accelerate the car to match the speed of other road users. When combined with other options, the car can warn you of cars in your blind-spots, detect (and help prevent) hazards on the road ahead and even use night vision to see things that you cannot. The uses heat recognition and clever cameras to calculate whether the hazard is a pedestrian or an animal. It will then highlight this on the screen and calculate the risk level by looking at the hazards movements i.e. which way they are walking, how fast, etc. The driver is alerted to the danger and if necessary the car will intervene by braking.

I figure that we now have all of the components needed to almost be able to do away with the driver. Let’s think about it;
o We have a satellite navigation system feeding information to various elements of the car
o The car is detecting obstacles with not only sensors, but cameras including night vision cameras that have a range far beyond high-beam headlights
o The car is able to steer itself into a difficult parking space
o Technology is already in production whereby cars can communicate with each other and traffic lights

Of course if my theory is correct, then I am now useless. However all hope is not lost, as the car still needs fuelling - for now anyway.

P.S. If you are reading this in the year 2011, then it is likely that your Audi is reading this to you while it drives you to work!

An Electrifying Performance by Audi at Frankfurt!

A few weeks ago I blogged about how electric motors cannot possibly compete with the classic purr of the internal combustion engine - even if just for nostalgia. However on the 15th September 2009 I took it all back!

At first I though there must be a typo when the reports saying that the car has 4,500Nm of torque! It turns out that it does genuinely have 10 times the torque of the R8! And this torque rockets the E-Tron to 60mph in 4.8 seconds and 100mph in 8.9! How can it handle all this torque? Well I am sure that Audi have that all under control and the fact that each wheel is driven by its own independent motor is sure to help.

The motoring press is going crazy over the cars performance figures, and the impressive range of 154 miles on one charge, but I am more interested in the cars design. At first sight, it would appear that Audi have unveiled an electric R8. However on closer inspection, the E-Tron - Audi’s new concept car, is actually a new slightly smaller super-car. Sitting somewhere between the TT and R8, we feel that it hints at something new to come…

Release date
Well it may never happen but even if it doesn’t, you can be sure that the shape and size of the concept is a hint of things to come!