I think the photo shows the car just having been taken off the jacks. The e-tron is approximately 120kg heavier than the A3 Sportback S-Line TDI 184PS. Most of that weight is the battery which is located over the rear axle. The engine also has an electric motor stuck on the end so it should be reasonably well balanced. I'll take some more pictures in better light so we can compare.Looks very nice. I haven't done any research into the A3 e-tron but I can't help noticing it looks like quite a weight in the back end, compared to the front. How much extra weight is it carrying, assume it's all the batteries etc?
@pjuk, 60mpg was indeed in hybrid mode. I'm still not sure how all the performance figures get recorded in the various meters so it will take some time before I can give a clear explanation. I'm still trying to understand the performance figures in the smartphone app and will see if these correlate with the in car display readings. I'm having a small issue with smartphone communication, probably caused by Connect login and the car being in a garage and unable to see the GPS satellites. All will become clear in the end.
I will undertake a charge test from the 13A socket today using 100% (10A) charge rate and see how it performs and advise.
@pjuk, The UK spec e-tron comes with Auxiliary air conditioning as standard (as opposed to Auxiliary heating/air conditioning, which uses the engine to provide heat). Quoting from the A3 / S3 Owner's Manual (issue 09.2014) page 134:
"It regulates the temperature in the vehicle interior and is powered electrically. It is only switched on if the high-voltage battery is sufficiently charged and there is enough fuel in the tank."
So in brief, yes, you can use the air conditioning / climate control while you are out and about providing you fulfil the criteria in red above.
@h5djr, I'll let you know when we have one.... I guess that if you don't have enough petrol in the tank, that's the least of your worries. I'm not sure if heating and cooling the car is 100% HV electric or if the cooling systems (engine & battery) can lend a hand if available. I have noticed that the amount of warm air output by the climate control does appear to increase when running on the petrol engine, but this could be my imagination.So does that mean if it's a really hot day and the 'high-voltage battery is NOT sufficiently charged' you cannot get any cooling for the car interior.
@pjuk, I'll try it next time the battery is flat and advise. Maybe later in the weekI suppose you could test it out by running the battery flat and try turning on the AC?
I feel like Jetron is a bit of a guinea pig for us future etron owners
Yeah, I did, so I was expecting a delay, they gave the impression this is affecting all of their e-tron orders though.Similar position here with still no build date. Did you order the drivers assistance package by chance?
Cheaper? base price is £1500 more, and with less standard features (not going to dispute the performance, as they're completely different targets from that angle)To be very clinical, why not buy a cheaper S3? This car will no doubt be riddled with problems soon! I am disgruntled
Similar position here with still no build date. Did you order the drivers assistance package by chance?
ACC seems to be the ******. I've been waiting for a production date for my car and finally got production (with ACC) in week 14. Ordered my car on 2014-08-12
When I finally got contact from them last week I got told that they were expecting an update this week, which she was hoping would be a build week. That's the same for all their outstanding orders at Preston though.Can I ask which dealer you ordered from? I was apparently the first few to place an order from my local dealer and they still don't have any idea about a build date
When I finally got contact from them last week I got told that they were expecting an update this week, which she was hoping would be a build week. That's the same for all their outstanding orders at Preston though.
considering you had a 4 month head start on me I won't hold my breath!!Great news today; production (with ACC) in week 13, not 14 as they said earlier :-D
@pjuk, I've been off the road for a few weeks (back problem) hence haven't been in a position (literally) to provide any feedback. I should be up and out again soon.20mi in cold conditions sounds reasonable and on par with a reduction in range as with other EVs. The 32mpg sounds like they were driving in battery regen mode. Jetron above reported 50mpg in petrol only and 70+mpg in hybrid.
Jetron - any further updates regarding how you are finding the car?
So, I got an update of a sort. They rang to tell me that they'd still not got a build week and that the assistance pack was causing delays, and that taking it off might help but that either way they had been told it could be as bad as the end of the year. She did say that because it was going over the expected date they might look at courtesy cars, and that she'll let me know when there's progress either way.
Anyone have experience of how a courtesy car for a delayed order would work?