Damn those Germans for designing attractive electric vehicles that promise a measure of style and luxury, only to taunt us by never actually selling them.
Audi is especially guilty of this, tempting us first with the gorgeous R8-based e-tron and e-tron Spyder and now with the A3 e-tron shown today at TED2012. The A3 e-tron joins the BMW Active E on the list of lustworthy practical electric cars we’ve seen from the Germans.
The car is, as the name suggests, an A3 with a 100-kilowatt electric motor and a hefty 26-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery. Range is pegged at 90 miles. When the car first broke cover in April, Audi said it would hit 60 mph in under 11 seconds.
The A3 is part of a pilot program designed to “define a progressive e-mobility driver experience” and “identify challenges and opportunities with plug-in vehicles.” In other words, it’s an R&D program to refine the vehicle and the drivetrain. That explains why the car is being rolled out under a pilot program in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Denver.
Audi engineers and “technical experts” will spend the next year driving the cars, using the data to develop the cars we might one day see in showrooms.
Photos, video: Audi
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