Audi launched its first 100% electric vehicle, the Audi E-Tron, in our city of San Francisco yesterday evening. This new car increases the competition in a segment of the market currently dominated by Tesla. The Audi E-Tron SUV is an worthy Tesla Model X competitor.
If the Audi E-Tron looks familiar, it might be because you’ve seen something like it on Ubergizmo back in 2016 when Audi was showing the E-Tron SUV as a concept, as it wowed to launch three electric cars by 2020. So farm Audi is making good on its promise, and will probably have more to announce in with the next year and a half.
Starting at $74,800, the Audi E-Tron comes with a 95 kWh battery (which is quite large) and can reach 60 mph in ~6 seconds. That’s not the fastest acceleration, but this is an SUV, so customers might not make it a critical point. Audi says that the car produces 355 HP (Euro standards).
By European standards, it has a range of 248 miles, but Audi did not reveal what the range will be under U.S standards which typically yield more conservative range estimates. This is a crucial metric for customers, much more so than raw power, and we’re looking forward to hearing about the official U.S numbers.
The E-Tron braking system can recuperate some energy, and Audi claims that this can contribute to a third of the range.
Audi’s Fast-charging allows the battery to go from 0% to 80% in 30mn, but that works on public infrastructure. At home, a charge could take from 4.5 hrs (22 kW) to 8.5 hrs (11 kW) depending on what charger option you install. To ease any possible range anxiety, Audi’s navigation can calculate and guide users through the optimal route, taking charging needs into account.
The E-Tron is a four-wheel drive car, although it will automatically switch to rear wheel drive most of the time, except when extra traction is needed in the front for control or acceleration.
E-Tron is 100% Audi, which means that customers can expect the same level of craftsmanship, user interaction (+new features) and support. Unfortunately, U.S customers won’t have access to some of the coolest tech, such as OLED virtual rear mirrors because our legislation does not yet authorize such hardware on the roads. You can watch the full 45mn launch event here:
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