Audi displays the e-tron concept car at the Silvretta Rally. Obviously there isn’t an electric R8 and won’t be, but Audi used the R8 as a platform for the powertrain, which is being developed and will be implemented into future cars. Check out the video:

At the risk of reinforcing old school stereotypes, when it comes to cars girls do tend to be a little more interested in colour, interior and accessories, than engine, emissions and handling – with that in mind here’s our specially designed Audi guide for girls, with information on model preferences to suit mood, colour scheme and style.

Soft furnishings – Detroit showcase Audi e-tron

Women excel in the subject of soft furnishings; we love curtains, we love scatter cushions and we love rugs, but we also love style and expect this to extend to our cars. 2010 saw the launch of the Detroit showcase Audi e-tron car – which offers the epitome of sleek interior sophistication, all clean leather lines with a flush gear shift that emerges from the tunnel when the vehicle is started.

Vintage Chic – Audi Quattro Spyder

Proof that true style is timeless; the Quattro Spyder still looks current ten years after its release. Launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1991, the flat sports coupé Quattro Spyder created quite a stir on the auto scene, but despite massive consumer interest only two prototypes were constructed – which means it’ll be a bit hard to compare car insurance should you ever manage to get your hands on one.

Kid friendly – Q5 and Q7

If there’s two of you in a relationship, women are generally lumbered with the ‘family’ / ‘sensible’ car when you have kids, with the man opting for the ‘almost sports’ car in a bid to retain his sense of freedom and adventure. Fear not ladies, the Audi Q5 and Q7 offer all the space and strength to contain and withstand the battery of small children, without the loss of the leather sports interior, air-con and ten-speaker stereo system.

Cutting edge – R8 TDI Le Mans Concept

It’s a very basic, yet hotly denied, fact that we all judge on first looks – meaning you’ve got to make a good impression immediately or suffer at the hands of consequence forever more. As a woman I want my car to stand out not just because it’s bright pink, but also because it’s god damn handsome – and how much more handsome can you get than the R8 TDI Le Mans Concept which is described as having ‘muscular proportions, accentuated wheel arches and even larger air apertures’…?

Complete coordination – all models

I don’t want a sales man to tell me that a car only comes in one colour – if you’re buying an Audi straight from the factory you can pretty much have whatever colour you want, for a few extra pounds of course. Which means if you really want a pink car – you can, and if you always dreamed of a cool chrome car, dream no more.

Audi is working especially hard recently to bring electric power to their lineup. Initially, we thought the launch of the e-tron electric sports car was a one model deal, but it turns out Audi is calling “e-tron” their “brand name for electric mobility.” The electric sports car they showed will be launched first, in late 2012 in limited numbers, but will be followed by other models powered by an electric powertrain.

The Audi A1 e-tron, for example, will likely be the next step. Audi is calling the A1 e-tron a “Mega City Vehicle,” and with a power output of 102 hp, gets 31 miles out of its electric motor. A small rotary engine serves as a range extender, giving the A1 e-tron an extra 124 miles. Audi says the car will get around 124 mpg with both the gasoline and electric motors.

Audi is also applying the electric concept to developing full hybrid vehicles. The Audi Q5 hybrid will be on the market as early as late 2010, and the A8 hybrid in being displayed as you read this at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. The A8 Hybrid Concept is more of an engineering study than a preview, but the idea is solid. The concept car is equipped with a 2.0-liter turbo engine, and along with the electric motor, gets an output of 245 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque.

At the 2010 Detroit Auto Show earlier this week, Audi won two separate awards for two models on display.

The Detroit showcar Audi e-tron was given the prestigious “Best in Show” award, which was described by Autoweek editor Wes Raynal as being “almost a unanimous decision” with the Autoweek editors.

The “Award for Design Excellence” went to the Audi A8, which is the second consecutive year Audi won the award (last year it went to the A5 Sportback.)

Congrats to Audi for the awards, they’ve been innovating non-stop for the last few years, and I can’t think of another car maker that deserves the recognition as much as them.

When Audi unveiled the e-tron electric supercar back in September, they said the car produces 3,319 lb-ft of torque, which is an incredibly massive amount. What Audi didn’t tell us is that this number was measured at the wheels instead of the engine, where all other car’s torque numbers are rated.

The torque rating at the engine: 501.5 lb-ft – still an impressive number, but nowhere near the 3,319 lb-ft we were told.

So how did Audi arrive at the huge torque rating in the first place? Even though Audi themselves don’t rate any other car’s torque rating at the wheels, they said using wheel torque numbers are a “more accurate indication of how electric motors deliver power.” This is true – it is a more accurate reading for electric cars, but the problem is that nearly every car can deliver gobs of torque at the wheels; we have to compare apples to apples and use a universal system for ratings.

The problem we’re seeing here is that we are still using the same rating systems for alternative energy cars as we’ve always used for internal combustion engines. Now that we have hybrids, electric cars, and even hydrogen cells powering our cars down the road, the rating systems of the past simply aren’t going to work anymore. The upcoming Chevy Volt Hybrid, for example, can travel up to 40 miles without burning a drop of gasoline. After that, the gas engine comes on to recharge the electric motors. So if your daily commute is less than 40 miles, you’re not using a drop of fuel. If it’s longer than that, you are. How can you accurately rate the MPGs of a car like that while still being fair? You can’t. We need to come up with a better system for ratings now that people are buying alternative fuel-powered cars.

We’ve seen the Audi e-tron electric supercar in red since the Frankfurt Motor Show, but Audi just repainted it orange and brought it to the 2009 LA Auto Show for North America.

As you know, the e-tron sports four motors – one on each wheel – and creates only 313 horsepower, but an incredible 3,319 lb-ft of torque. This allows the e-tron to travel from 0 to 62 mpg in 4.8 seconds – a decent number – and 37 to 75 mph in 4.1 seconds, much more impressive. The top speed is limited to 124 mph, probably to stop the batteries from discharging too quickly.

The e-tron resembles the R8 in appearance, but Audi assures us the resemblance is in spirit only. They built the e-tron from the ground up, but gave it a similar look to convey its high performance characteristics. I’m really interested to see what this thing will really be able to do once we start seeing them “in limited production” in 2012.

Check out the photo gallery below:

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Just-added photos of the orange colored e-tron courtesy of Autoblog and Wired.

Audi R4 Electric Roadster

Audi’s e-Tron Electric Supercar Concept made a big splash at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, and as a result, Audi has plans to move forward with their plans to build electric cars. The first car to be built is a sort of “mini-R8″ roadster supercar to compete with the Tesla Roadster called the R4.

The Audi R4 is expected to have a similar one-motor-per-wheel layout as the e-Tron Concept, and since it will be using the e-Tron’s powertrain, will likely produce the same 313 horsepower and incredible 3,319 lb-ft of torque, which will propel the car from 0 to 60 mph in around 4.8 seconds. The production R4 will likely be accompanied by gasoline-powered variants, most likely using the Audi TT-RS’s 335 hp 2.5-liter five-cylinder turbo engine.

The Audi R4, based o nthe above renderings, is very sharp-looking, taking design cues from the e-Tron Concept but moving away from the R8 shape into a more production-likely body style. The jagged C-shaped LED headlights look especially menacing, and of course we see the signature Audi grille up front.

The R4 roadster will probably sit on a modified version of Porsche’s next generation Boxster and Cayman platform, meaning the R4 will be smaller than the R8 supercar but larger than the Audi TT. Price is far from being announced, but consider the electric version of the R4 to compete with the Tesla Roadster, which starts at around $110,000. Expect to see the production R4 on the road as early as 2012.

source: AutoExpress

Audi e-tron Electric Supercar

The much-talked-about Audi e-tron electric supercar has officially moved from our “Concept Cars” section to our “Future Cars” section. Know what that means? Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen confirmed the car will make production, stating “I expect we will see running examples in the next 24 months,” meaning that’s about when we’ll start seeing spy shots of the car.

The Audi e-tron boasts 313 horsepower and an incredible 3,319 lb-ft of torque, which can scoot the electric supercar from 0-62 mph in 4.8 seconds. Not an incredibly quick number for a supercar, but considering the instantaneous torque and individually-powered wheels, I’m betting it will handle like a go-kart on rails and carry some serious speed through corners. Acceleration-induced whiplash is likely.

No word on price, of course, but expect it to be into the six-figure range when it hits the showrooms in late 2012 as a 2013 model (estimate.)

Audi is delving further into marketing through video games. Later this year, Playstation 3 owners will be able to virtually test drive the new Audi e-tron electric supercar concept through what they’re calling Audi Space in Playstation Home.

All Playstation Home users will be able to play the game, the purpose of which to try and gain as much speed as possible through avoiding driving errors and gathering as much electrical energy as they can on the 3D track, and the Audi Space will feature reserved Audi apartments only for the best drivers.

I’m not sure many Playstation 3 gamers are the demographic to buy the electric e-tron when it’s released, but it gets the Audi brand name out to them, hopefully in a good way. Audi’s first major attempt at this was the A4 Driving Experience game for the iPhone, and the first version was terrible. The second version, released shortly after the first was better, but still had some work to do. Let’s hope they worked hard to make the Audi Space for PS3 a fun experience.

Audi e-tron Electric Concept

We’ve been publishing any information we got about the new electric Audi e-Tron Concept supercar, and today Audi officially unveiled the car, along with plenty of details. It is, as you can see, based off of the R8, but underneath the body is its own car completely.

The e-tron concept is fully electric – no internal combustion engine is present, meaning it’s not a hybrid. As you know from seeing cars such as the Tesla Roadster and the Lightning GT, a fully electric car is a good candidate for high performance due to the massive amounts of torque available from zero RPMs, and the e-tron is no different. While it only produces 313 horsepower, the electric motors produce an incredible 3,319 lb-ft of torque. No, that’s not a typo. For contrast, a Lamborghini Murcielago V12 engine “only” produces 479 lb-ft. These numbers allow the e-tron to accelerate from 0-120 km/h (0-62 mph) in only 4.8 seconds, and even more impressively, 60-120 km/h (37-75 mph) in 4.1 seconds. Sadly, top speed is limited to 124 mph since going any faster would result in a serious drain on the battery.

The battery, which sits behind the passenger compartment for optimal 42:58 weight distribution, has a range of 154 miles. Not perfect, but it’s a start. The e-tron concept consists of four electric motors, one on each wheel, for a true quattro system, allowing the car to distribute torque to each wheel accordingly. They call it “torque vectoring,” and it will allow the e-tron to corner like nothing you’ve ever seen. Under normal conditions, 70% of torque will be routed to the rear wheels until torque rerouting is necessary.

One cool feature in the e-tron concept that Audi is already developing is called “car-to-x communication.” This allows the car to “talk” to external sources. For example, in the car, you could receive information about traffic light cycle times and flow of traffic to optimize your driving strategy. How this works exactly I don’t know, but expect to hear more out of Audi regarding this technology, as they’re already working on it through their travolution project.

The futuristic e-tron receives plenty of other tech, such as LEDs used in all lighting units, including all-LED headlights (already seen in the R8 Spyder.) The headlights on the e-tron are unique, however, in that they adapt automatically to the environment, providing optimal lighting for rain, fog, etc and detects oncoming traffic, driving lanes, and visibility with an on-board camera. The camera will detect oncoming traffic and turn off the brights, for example, or detect an upcoming turn and illuminate it for maximum visibility.

Since the e-tron concept is fully electric, it requires you to plug it in when it needs charging, taking about 6 to 8 hours from standard household current. A high voltage unit will be available, which reduces charging time to only 2.5 hours from fully discharged to fully charged. Audi is also working on a wireless charging system which would make it more convenient, automatically charging the car when it’s docked in your garage. The e-tron concept also uses regenerative braking, charging the batteries when you brake, much like current hybrid models.

The e-tron concept car is a great addition to the few electric sports cars already on the market, and from the looks of things, it will blow them all away. No word on production date or cost – it’s just a concept for now.

Check out the photo gallery and video below:

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