DriveTribe is off to San Francisco next week to cover one of the most important car launches of the year. The finished Audi e-tron will be shown to the world in its road-worthy, uncamouflaged state after months of teasers.
This is not going to be just another SUV launch however — Audi is throwing its hat in the ring with manufacturers like Tesla and Jaguar in the premium EV space. It is a truly tectonic shift for the brand and should be a big step in fully electrifying the automotive industry as a whole.
What makes the e-tron so special then? Well, let us take a look through the key factors that will make this car a Concorde moment for Audi as an automaker.
It is Audi’s first EV
Although e-tron as a brand has existed through the company’s hybrid cars, the SUV will take over the badge by becoming the first all-electric Audi. Although things were spiced up a few months ago with the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo concept (essentially an all-electric GT Racing car), the new e-tron will be the first completely non-internal combustion Audi that you can have on your driveway.
Being an electric car, it has its batteries sat in the floor of the car, meaning that the centre of gravity of the vehicle is nice and low. That means it will have a much more sporty feel when driving down the road when compared to most other SUVs.
An SUV that actually drives well? We’ll take a bit of that please.
It will hopefully lay the foundations for some electric performance cars
The e-tron Vision Gran Turismo is as adventurous as EVs have gotten so far
To pre-empt the road car coming out, Audi revealed the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo to coincide with the release of Gran Turismo Sport. The striking all-electric racing car is probably the best looking EV thus far so it is a shame that it is only really a concept for demonstration purposes.
Fear not however, as Audi has also revealed the PB18 e-tron concept which seems to essentially be a road-going electric supercar of the future.
The press release says it is ‘inspired by the wind tunnel and the race track’, and considering how close the past ‘Le Mans’ concept was to the real life Audi R8, hopefully this aggressive EV can makes its way onto the Audi factory floor.
Its fast charging system is beyond any of its rivals
Charging times are becoming more and more important as EVs begin to populate the market and the e-tron is immediately a step ahead of the game. Through a 150kW charging system, the e-tron will charge up in just 30 minutes, dipping well below the ‘coffee break’ 45-minute fast charging times of its rivals.
That will mean less time sitting waiting for your car to juice back up and — on a long journey — could save a serious chunk of time that would otherwise go to waste.
This is just the start
Considering the amount of noise Audi is making about the e-tron, it seems that the company knows they’ve made a pretty decent stab at manufacturing its first electric production car. The competition is becoming stiffer by the day as more brands join the game but it looks like the new e-tron SUV will provide a strong platform for Audi to springboard itself firmly into the EV space.
The e-tron ticks all the performance, range, charging time, design and tech boxes, and we cannot wait to see how it stacks up in the metal when the covers are lifted in San Francisco next week.
Read more posts by Mike Fernie in Audi Electric on DriveTribe the new website by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.
Posted in Audi Electric, a tribe lead by Audi Electric
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