The Audi e-tron Produces Up To 402 Horsepower – But There’s A Catch

Ahead of its official reveal in September, Audi has released technical specifications for the electric e-tron SUV.

The long-awaited reveal of the Audi e-tron was originally supposed to happen in just a few weeks on August 20, but the event has been pushed back until September 17 after Audi’s CEO was put behind bars for tampering with evidence relating to the VW Dieselgate scandal. With the reveal date now set, Audi has released the all-important technical specifications for its first-ever electric SUV. Two electric motors combine to produce an output of 355 horsepower 414 lb-ft of torque. These motors can deliver this peak performance for up to 60 seconds, enabling the e-tron to accelerate from a standstill to an electronically limited top speed 124.3 mph several times without a loss of power.

There’s also a boost mode, activated by shifting the gear lever from D to S and fully depressing the accelerator pedal, that increases the output up to 402 hp and 490 lb-ft of torque, but it’s only available for eight seconds. According to Audi, 0-62 mph takes less than six seconds.

But EV buyers are more likely to be concerned with range than performance. As such, Audi claims the e-tron will deliver a driving range of more than 248.5 miles on a single charge based on the WLTP test cycle. This doesn’t offer much of an advantage over its key competitors, the Tesla Model X and Jaguar I-Pace, that offer similar ranges, but Audi is hoping the e-tron’s innovative recuperation system will make up for this by being more efficient than its competitors.

The recuperation system contributes up to 30 percent of the electric SUV’s range and uses the two electric motors and an electrohydraulically integrated brake control system. Three different recuperation modes are combined: manual coasting recuperation using the shift paddles, automatic coasting recuperation via the predictive efficiency assist, and brake recuperation with smooth transition between electric and hydraulic deceleration.

To demonstrate how this works, Audi tested the e-tron prototype’s recuperation system at Pikes Peak where the SUV went downhill for 19 miles and fed “so much energy back to the battery that it can cover approximately the same distance again.” The Audi e-tron prototype recuperates energy with up to 221.3 lb-ft of torque and 220 kW of electric power – more than 70 percent of its operating energy input, which “no series production model has achieved such a value up to now” according to Audi.

You Can Order The Audi e-tron quattro Right Now - But There's A Catch

And like with Tesla, these buyers don't even know the final price.

Audi is clearly taking this whole EV thing very seriously, as it’s just announced that it’s begun taking reservations for the production version of the e-tron quattro concept from 2015, according to Electrek. There’s a catch, however. This pre-order applies only to those living in Norway, a country well-known for its love of EVs. Taking a page right out of Tesla’s pre-order playbook, Audi won’t even tell these interested, EV-loving Norwegian customers the SUV’s final sticker price.

But a 20,000 kroner ($2,500) deposit is still required to reserve one. As we previously reported, Audi has decided to axe the Q7 e-tron in favor of building a completely unique all-electric crossover instead, and the e-tron quattro concept fits the bill nicely. It’ll supposedly have a 310-mile range thanks to its 95 kWh battery pack, thus making it competitive against Tesla’s most expensive Model S and Model X trims. In terms of overall dimensions, expect the e-tron quattro to slot between the Q5 and Q7. But what could really be an industry shaker is the possible base price. For example, the Q5 and Q7, as Electrek also points out, start off at $41,000 and $49,000, respectively.

If Audi were to give the e-tron quattro a similar starting MSRP, then it’d seriously undermine the Tesla Model X, which only begins at $74,000, before tax incentives. No word as to when Audi will begin offering pre-orders for the rest of the world, but we imagine it’ll get underway relatively soon because e-tron quattro production is expected to begin later this year.

There's A Slim Chance The US Will Get The Next Audi RS6 Avant

But a Sport Quattro will never happen.

One of the greatest travesties in the eyes of automotive enthusiasts is the lack of awesome wagons on sale in the US. For example, Audi produces the RS6 Avant, which is so fast that it can embarrass supercars. Unfortunately, Americans hate wagons, so we only get the RS6's four-door coupe cousin, the RS7. Up until now, we have just had to live with this reality, but a recent Car and Driver interview with Quattro GmbH CEO Stephan Winkelmann indicates that the RS6 has a slight chance of landing in the US when it gets redesigned.

Let us stress that the chances of this happening are minimal, but any chance the RS6 comes stateside is a chance that we can't help but swoon over. In the interview, Winkelmann talks about how Quattro GmbH is not interested in building any new cars that don't share body work with another car in the range (think AMG GT here). This means that cars like the Audi Sport Quattro Concept that we've been dying to see will sadly never see production. Speaking about the Sport Quattro, Winkelmann said “It’s a nice dream, but I think we have so much in front of us that the most important thing is to get the lineup where we need it." Quattro needs to catch up with AMG and BMW M by building more models.

In order for Quattro to catch up with AMG and M, it will launch an assault with a ton of new RS models. We know that some of these will be crossovers like the RS Q3, and these new RS cars will have more differentiation than they currently have over current S models. “We need to make it even clearer, when you see our cars on the road, that they are RS cars," Winkelmann said. The upshot of this flood of RS models is that there is a very small chance that the next generation RS6 Avant could come to the US. An Audi insider says that the numbers are currently being crunched to make a business case for the RS6 in the US because the Allroad has had modest sales success.

We have heard some rumors that if the RS6 does come to the US, it could be a slightly different Allroad version that is a larger and much faster version of the current A4 Allroad. This means that Audi would add body cladding and a higher ride height to the RS6, which would make it look more SUV-like to appeal to US buyers. Volvo has taken a similar approach with the V90 Cross Country, so this strategy might work. If raising the ride height by a few inches is the only way that we will get our Audi super wagon, then bring it on. The new RS6 won't be launched in Europe until 2019, so it is still a little ways away, but this better not be yet another false rumor. We desperately want the RS6.

The Audi e-tron Produces Up To 402 Horsepower – But There’s A Catch

Ahead of its official reveal in September, Audi has released technical specifications for the electric e-tron SUV.

The long-awaited reveal of the Audi e-tron was originally supposed to happen in just a few weeks on August 20, but the event has been pushed back until September 17 after Audi’s CEO was put behind bars for tampering with evidence relating to the VW Dieselgate scandal. With the reveal date now set, Audi has released the all-important technical specifications for its first-ever electric SUV. Two electric motors combine to produce an output of 355 horsepower 414 lb-ft of torque. These motors can deliver this peak performance for up to 60 seconds, enabling the e-tron to accelerate from a standstill to an electronically limited top speed 124.3 mph several times without a loss of power.

There’s also a boost mode, activated by shifting the gear lever from D to S and fully depressing the accelerator pedal, that increases the output up to 402 hp and 490 lb-ft of torque, but it’s only available for eight seconds. According to Audi, 0-62 mph takes less than six seconds.

But EV buyers are more likely to be concerned with range than performance. As such, Audi claims the e-tron will deliver a driving range of more than 248.5 miles on a single charge based on the WLTP test cycle. This doesn’t offer much of an advantage over its key competitors, the Tesla Model X and Jaguar I-Pace, that offer similar ranges, but Audi is hoping the e-tron’s innovative recuperation system will make up for this by being more efficient than its competitors.

The recuperation system contributes up to 30 percent of the electric SUV’s range and uses the two electric motors and an electrohydraulically integrated brake control system. Three different recuperation modes are combined: manual coasting recuperation using the shift paddles, automatic coasting recuperation via the predictive efficiency assist, and brake recuperation with smooth transition between electric and hydraulic deceleration.

To demonstrate how this works, Audi tested the e-tron prototype’s recuperation system at Pikes Peak where the SUV went downhill for 19 miles and fed “so much energy back to the battery that it can cover approximately the same distance again.” The Audi e-tron prototype recuperates energy with up to 221.3 lb-ft of torque and 220 kW of electric power – more than 70 percent of its operating energy input, which “no series production model has achieved such a value up to now” according to Audi.