R8 e-tron doubles range to 450km Audi returns to electric sports cars
http://sportscars77.blogspot.com/
BERLIN: Returning to electric cars, Audi has launched R8 e-tron, which has doubled its speed to 450 kilometre.
Battery-powered cars have failed to live up to their initial hype, with drivers put off by the slow rollout of recharging stations, limited range and high prices – despite generous sales incentives in some markets. By 2020, fewer than one in 20 vehicles produced is forecast to be equipped with electrified powertrains, business consultants KPMG said in a survey in January.
Audi, the flagship brand of German carmaker Volkswagen, has been reluctant to embrace the technology, http://sportscars77.blogspot.com/arguing it was better to make diesel cars cleaner or focus on hybrids that combine a combustion engine with battery power.
It flirted with an electric R8 sports car in 2009, promising a thrilling performance but an underwhelming range of 134 miles. It wasn’t enough, and Audi dropped the concept in 2012, the year rival Tesla’s Model S came out with double the range.
However Tesla’s success, and that of archrival BMW with its “i” series of electric cars, appears to have convinced Audi there is a market for electric supercars after all.
A fully electric R8 may also help Audi get closer to meeting rigid EU emissions limits. Audi came 18th last year in a survey of Europe’s 20 top-selling brands’ average CO2 output, auto industry forecaster JATO said on Tuesday.
At the Geneva auto show, Audi unveiled an emission-free version of its 165,000-euro ($184,619) R8 that can drive 450 kilometres (280 miles) before needing to recharge, which takes less than two hours.
The battery’s capacity has almost doubled to 92 kilowatt-hours (kWh) from 49 kWh in the aborted 2012 model, a source close the matter said.
That has helped more than double the range of the carbon-fibre R8 e-tron which surges to 100 kilometres an hour in 3.9 seconds, compared with 3.2 seconds for the 540-horsepower mode
Comments
Post a Comment