e-tron
Vehicles of the Audi brand that use electrical energy for their drive carry the e-tron suffix in their name. This can be a purely electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid vehicle.
Audi first introduced the concept named e-tron in 2009 at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The purely electric e-tron concept was aimed at the supercar segment and was intended to promote a new development direction – BEV. The concept bore a striking resemblance to the Audi R8 sports car, featuring four electric motors with a combined output of 230 kW (309 horsepower) and a colossal torque of 4500 Nm. With these parameters, the e-tron concept achieved acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds.
In 2010, at the Geneva Motor Show, Audi introduced another interesting concept named Audi A1 e-tron. It was not a pure electric vehicle but rather a car falling into the category of electro-hybrid vehicles (HEV), which combine multiple sources of energy. The Audi A1 e-tron featured a traction electric motor with a power output of 45 kW and used a Wankel engine with a generator as a backup power source to recharge the battery.
In 2013, at the Geneva Motor Show, another milestone was reached with the start of the serial production of the Audi A3 e-tron plug-in hybrid, which was set to begin sales later that year for €37,000. The e-tron was built on a modified MQB platform and shared elements with the Golf GTE. The vehicle’s heart was a 1.4 TFSI petrol engine with an output of 150 horses. The traction electric motor was integrated into the DSG transmission and served two additional functions: as a generator for kinetic energy recovery and as a starter for rapid engine start.
In 2018, the first serial version of a BEV vehicle, simply named Audi e-tron, was introduced. Built on the MLB platform, the car featured an SUV body style and all-wheel drive. The launch of this vehicle effectively marked the beginning of VW Group’s sales of battery electric vehicles.
The Geneva Motor Show in 2019 witnessed another premiere with the introduction of the battery electric vehicle concept Audi Q4 e-tron. This model used the MEB platform, specifically developed for battery electric vehicles and providing ample space for batteries crucial for satisfactory range.
Did you know:
Electric energy is not the only alternative power source for the future. Another possible source is compressed natural gas CNG. Audi offers vehicles that run on natural gas and refers to them as g-tron. Looking ahead, hydrogen power is also planned. Audi’s hydrogen concepts are designated h-tron.
