Green Cars #1: Audi e-TRON

As the global warming and all kinds of pollutions leading to it are haunting the world, I can totally say that GREEN is the upcoming color! People are getting conscious about the ill effects of pollution and many magazines, yearly’s are having GREEN as their prime theme. Even though the summits like that at Copenhagen have miserably failed, we can see that attempts are being made on global level. With many industries trying to go GREEN, automobiles industry is also trying hard to reduce the pollution and at the same time maintain the performance. The emission free electric vehicles grabbed attention at the September 2009 Frankfurt IAA (International Auto Show). We will see some series of articles of different supercars being developed by automobile giants.

Here is the first car: The 2012 Audi e-TRON




The design of Audi R8 has impressed us all! The German Auto giant Audi plans to sell almost the same design in its new e-TRON, an electric sports car, which shares the same aluminum Audi Space Frame construction but is somewhat smaller than R8.

Thomas Krautner, head of Audi’s concept and prototype development team, told Autocar magazine that the “reason [e-TRON] is slightly shorter [than R8] is because the [smaller] electric power-train allowed us to adapt the packaging.”

Audi e-TRON is expected to be launched in 2012 at an estimated $150,000! I know the price is too high. Right now it looks like this one is meant for some billionaire, environment conscious gadget hounds.

Here are some more details:

[*]The 2012 e-TRON will be an all-wheel drive as it has 4 electric motors, one for each wheel.
[*]These motors send a total of 230 KW (313 hp) and 681 newton meters of torque to all the 4 wheels.
[*]Because of this, its speed rises from 0 to 100 Km/hr in 4.8 seconds. (Certainly not as quick as the V-10 powered audi R8, but still impressive as far as electric vehicles are concerned).
[*]It has got weight saving carbon-ceramic disc brakes.
[*]In one full charge, the e-TRON can manage a distance of 248 Km from its 53-kilowatt-hour battery.
[*]Its top speed, though, is a modest 200 Km/hr which is usually found in electric vehicles (EV). Audi head of electromobility strategy Frank Van Meel says “You could take out the high-speed limiter, but you'd only travel a few miles. [At high speed] the electric motor has a tendency to suck the battery dry”.
[*]Audi quotes that recharging the battery will tale 2-3 hours from a 400 volt main and about 6-8 hours from usual 230V household supply. Audi is also developing a wireless inductive charger that begins charging as soon as the car is parked. Owners can use a smart phone to manage and monitor the charging.

Weight has always been an enemy of the EV range. This electric two-seater e-TRON weighs almost 2000 Kgs (which is as heavier as a full size luxury sedan).

Audi insists that it will chop off up to 408 Kg (900 pounds) from the finished product, but its not that easy as the Li-ion battery, power inverter, and control electronics weigh almost 470 Kg.

Claimed to be first time in automobile industry, the Audi e-TRON also employs a heat pump to conserve or scavenge drive line heat as needed. This also replaces conventional heating and air conditioning hardware for the cockpit climate-control system.

The electric cars concept surely takes us to the future, but as far as the current economic scenario is concerned and also the price of e-TRON, its unlikely to make huge sells. But as the competition in the automobile giants for EVs has begun, it surely is not going to stop. Check this video:



We will discuss about some other EVs in the next parts. Stay tuned folks!