Mygreenwheels

It was only in September this year that Audi USA's boss Nysschen said electric vehicles are “for the intellectual elite who want to show what enlightened souls they are.” Well, he's come a long way since then. Now he's talking about seeing running examples of Audi's e-tron electric car in the next 24 months.

Audi's e-tron electric concept car at Frankfurt auto show 2009It certainly had everyone drooling when it stole the show at Frankfurt auto show and that may have been more than just because of its glamour-boy looks. Power junkies were agog at the 313 horsepower and the 3,319 lb/ft of torque claimed by the e-tron from its four in-wheel motors. Talk about Fire Up The Quattro!

Too bad that it's a bit hard to believe the torque figure when the reported acceleration time of 0-62 mph turns out to be 4.8 seconds. Allcarselectric still classes it as 'an all-electric screamer', but it'll have a problem holding up against the Tesla Roadster when its rumoured price is said to be around $160,000 - in other words half as much again as the Tesla - and it's slower in terms of straight-line acceleration.

Audi is talking about producing 1,000 of these by 2012, but I think I smell a bit of green PR spin here. They just don't want to look like they're lagging behind in the EV race. All the same, the e-tron is being described as 'the sexiest electric car concept ever' and 'the electric R8 fantasy'. Not a bad result for a car company that didn't seem to have much time for electric cars a few months ago. I wonder what DCI Hunt would have to say about it. I suspect he'd want Audi to stick to their finest hour - the Quattro.