Now We're Gittin' Somewhere...

[RWebb]

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/audi-e-tron/


the promise of EV's is starting to pay off.

[porsche4life]

Lol at the typos.


Sounds like a kick ass autocross car.

[TGTIW]

Audi claims the concept e-Tron will do zero to 100 km/hr (62 mph) in 4.8 seconds.

And with 3,319 pound-feet of torque? How much does the car weigh?

[GH85Carrera]

Something does not add up. It would have to weigh more than a tank to be that slow.

[Pazuzu]

Just because one has massive torque doesn't mean that they have massive speed...
Now, they could put some more gear reduction in to speed up the wheels, but you're probably hitting a wall there where the rims are going to want to shatter when you hit the go pedal.

[RWebb]

IIRC, it is 3,500 lbs. - discussed in the article; lots of Al, CF etc.

batteries are still heavy; next bump may be Zn-air


define slow?

it is limited to 124 mph to save the battery charge - range is 150 miles

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by article

The e-Tron weighs 3,527 pounds.

Wow, that thing IS a tank.

[tcar]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Lol at the typos.

Where? Didn't see any typos. I even re-read the article. Did I miss them?

The car itself weighs about 2500 lb. (pretty good for an R8 platform car), batteries are 1000 lb..

[rick-l]

that is 3300 ft pounds at 0 rpm. as soon as it starts to spin and the motors back emf comes up there is much less power available.

[porsche4life]

Ok there were grammatical and math errors when the article was first posted. They fixed them now.

[Sarc]

Originally Posted by RWebb

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/audi-e-tron/


the promise of EV's is starting to pay off.

Eh, I would have expected something better from Audi rather than this phoned-in effort.

[rick-l]

Originally Posted by Sarc

Eh, I would have expected something better from Audi rather than this phoned-in effort.

I don't know. Remember it is 4 brush less DC motors and a big flat battery pack. It might not have typical single big engine proportions.

[RWebb]

I think he meant the styling.

But - hey - who knows what he meant...

[rick-l]

Originally Posted by RWebb

I think he meant the styling.

that is what I meant also. If the motors are in the axles the front hood should be the same size as the back trunk and the driver dead center.

[dd74]

The critics are missing the point. Who cares at this juncture about the styling?

The point is this is a very fast electric car with fairly good range. I sure wouldn't be frightened to enter the 110 Freeway with only fifty feet of on ramp in this car.

Nice effort. Good on Audi.

Now the question is how much ($$-wise) is it, and how much should it be for the mass public to own a car like this?

[Sarc]

Originally Posted by dd74

Who cares at this juncture about the styling?

I certainly do. A car with this amount of technical specification deserves a better aesthetic effort than what we're seeing. I think they missed a huge opportunity. It strikes me as a cheap R8 knockoff that if placed next to a real R8 it would be similar to a kit car Lambo next a real Countach. It also reminds me of a large R/C car....just missing the antenna and anchor points through the hood.

All this aside, anyone see the irony in an electric VAG product? I'm just sayin....

[berettafan]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Sounds like a kick ass autocross car.

Ever see the vid of the battery powered lotus top gear drove?

Lotsa torque surely would be cool but good luck controlling all that weight.

[dd74]

The car looks fine to me.

[Sarc]

Originally Posted by dd74

The car looks fine to me.

That's the beauty of personal opinion.