Audi A3 E-tron
Hi
First post, thought I'd share a my experiences having just been given a sneak preview and drive of the Audi A3 E-tron, which is out later this year. Audi invited a few dozen prospective buyers to the midlands for a drive and q&a with the pre-production models of the new car. I think these cars, which are pre-production spec, will then be taken on a tour round the UK's dealers.
It's a plug-in hybrid, so for short / medium runs you'll be on electric only, provided you remembered to charge it first. It's not a huge battery, but big enough for 90% of car journeys.
If your journey's over 30 miles the there's a TFSI petrol to keep the car going. It's not a range extender, it's a proper engine, so it's perfectly possible to run the car petrol only for hours and hours.
There are two clutches so the car can run with both power trains at the same time, or either one. It's even possible to have the petrol engine charge the battery -- which makes sense if you have a long motorway run ahead of a stop/start cross-city jaunt.
So, the engine specs and performance numbers are published elsewhere ... this is just what I thought:
Great driving experience... I've driven a Prius and an Insight hybrid and it's absolutely fantastic compared to them... better also than my current day car, an unmapped A3 2L TDI. Probably not as great as top end pure electric cars like the Tesla, but half the price. Absolutely knocks dead cheapo pure electrics like the volt and leaf.
Wonderful smooth gearbox/clutch -- no idea what's going on under the hood were it not for the fancy graphics on the dash
Combined petrol and electric performance is very nippy. Electric only acceleration is good enough for 99% of city driving situations I reckon, you 'll never want to floor it unless on open/main roads. If you do floor it and the petrol engine was off you'll wait a moment for that to kick in -- bit like turbo lag. The overall combined power is I think over 300 BHP , so Audi have limited it to just over 200 BHP. -- 220 I think? It's very quick 0-60 for an everyday car.
So, two unexpected pieces of news on the day, one good one bad:
Bad news is it comes in a single option spec sports version only. It's a high spec -- LED lights, MMI with SIM, parking senors front and back etc -- but absolutely no options except colour! I want leather seats and a panoramic sunroof, neither are available.
Good news is the price -- with a government subsidy it's a shade under thirty grand. If you do a lot of company mileage -- an I do -- as an upgrade it might even pay for itself. Clearly Audi have priced to make inroads into i3 / prius / leaf territory. It's great for the money over three years if you do the right amount of miles.
Most interesting thing about the event was the other attendees -- I was about the only Audi driver on my session. Most of the prospective owner/drivers trooped up in existing hybrid or pure electric cars from other marques. The only thing I didn't see was a beemer i3!
I think it will be a hit. It's a normal car with lots of electric car pluses.
Hi
First post, thought I'd share a my experiences having just been given a sneak preview and drive of the Audi A3 E-tron, which is out later this year. Audi invited a few dozen prospective buyers to the midlands for a drive and q&a with the pre-production models of the new car. I think these cars, which are pre-production spec, will then be taken on a tour round the UK's dealers.
It's a plug-in hybrid, so for short / medium runs you'll be on electric only, provided you remembered to charge it first. It's not a huge battery, but big enough for 90% of car journeys.
If your journey's over 30 miles the there's a TFSI petrol to keep the car going. It's not a range extender, it's a proper engine, so it's perfectly possible to run the car petrol only for hours and hours.
There are two clutches so the car can run with both power trains at the same time, or either one. It's even possible to have the petrol engine charge the battery -- which makes sense if you have a long motorway run ahead of a stop/start cross-city jaunt.
So, the engine specs and performance numbers are published elsewhere ... this is just what I thought:
Great driving experience... I've driven a Prius and an Insight hybrid and it's absolutely fantastic compared to them... better also than my current day car, an unmapped A3 2L TDI. Probably not as great as top end pure electric cars like the Tesla, but half the price. Absolutely knocks dead cheapo pure electrics like the volt and leaf.
Wonderful smooth gearbox/clutch -- no idea what's going on under the hood were it not for the fancy graphics on the dash
Combined petrol and electric performance is very nippy. Electric only acceleration is good enough for 99% of city driving situations I reckon, you 'll never want to floor it unless on open/main roads. If you do floor it and the petrol engine was off you'll wait a moment for that to kick in -- bit like turbo lag. The overall combined power is I think over 300 BHP , so Audi have limited it to just over 200 BHP. -- 220 I think? It's very quick 0-60 for an everyday car.
So, two unexpected pieces of news on the day, one good one bad:
Bad news is it comes in a single option spec sports version only. It's a high spec -- LED lights, MMI with SIM, parking senors front and back etc -- but absolutely no options except colour! I want leather seats and a panoramic sunroof, neither are available.
Good news is the price -- with a government subsidy it's a shade under thirty grand. If you do a lot of company mileage -- an I do -- as an upgrade it might even pay for itself. Clearly Audi have priced to make inroads into i3 / prius / leaf territory. It's great for the money over three years if you do the right amount of miles.
Most interesting thing about the event was the other attendees -- I was about the only Audi driver on my session. Most of the prospective owner/drivers trooped up in existing hybrid or pure electric cars from other marques. The only thing I didn't see was a beemer i3!
I think it will be a hit. It's a normal car with lots of electric car pluses.
