Audi R8 e-Tron Confirmed

From Green Car Report, Audi has supposedly confirmed that the R8 e-Tron (two-seater) will enter production with a 250 mile range, may be shown at the 2015 Detroit auto show. The article also indicates that Audi is planning an EV family car with 280 miles range around 2017.

One thing in the article that stands out is "Audi's parent Volkswagen Group claims to be developing motors that are five times more efficient than the one used in the current VW e-Golf."
How the hell can you make a motor that is already 85% efficient, five time more efficient??? I think they meant that the electric motors will be five time more efficient then the ICE in the gas Golf.

http://www.greencarreports.com/news...ron-also-280-mile-family-electric-car-in-2017

Vapor car, desperate PR move to hang onto some semblance of relevancy?

muus said:

From Green Car Report, Audi has supposedly confirmed that the R8 e-Tron (two-seater) will enter production with a 250 mile range, may be shown at the 2015 Detroit auto show. The article also indicates that Audi is planning an EV family car with 280 miles range around 2017.

One thing in the article that stands out is "Audi's parent Volkswagen Group claims to be developing motors that are five times more efficient than the one used in the current VW e-Golf."
How the hell can you make a motor that is already 85% efficient, five time more efficient??? I think they meant that the electric motors will be five time more efficient then the ICE in the gas Golf.

http://www.greencarreports.com/news...ron-also-280-mile-family-electric-car-in-2017

Click to expand...

It's probably just some creative math like 1/5th the losses is changed to 5x more efficent, or they are talking in ratios, ie power to weight or size.

LTLFTcomposite said:

Vapor car, desperate PR move to hang onto some semblance of relevancy?

Click to expand...

It's just VW group wanting to be the largest maker of plug in cars (which they already are since Porsche currently holds that honour for any one make, add up the rest of the VW group and they are way ahead). Audi said a long time ago that they were going to offer a plug-in (PHEV or BEV) on every single model, the R8 E-Tron had been announced and cancelled since then which lead to the rumours, it's actually been a while since Audi re-confirmed the R8 E-Tron.

These cars do more for the advancement of electric cars than through sales numbers on their own. Most people still don't know how fast and powerful electric cars can be, they are shocked to hear you can buy a 691hp tesla that does 0-60 in 3.2sec and seats up to 7. If the magazines write about the R8s amazing electric car performance more people will be willing to go test drive the A3 E-Tron.