Audi goes green without compromising performance
Two gauges only clue what’s under hood
BERLIN — Audi is pushing the limits of clean driving with two distinctly different versions of its popular A3 Sportback and by teasing the electric world with the R8 e-tron. While the technologies at play are radically different, the thrust remains the same, and that is to drastically reduce the car’s carbon footprint.
The first A3 is the so-called Sportback g-tron. It employs a 1.4-litre, turbocharged and direct-injected four-cylinder engine that runs on gasoline, natural gas and/or Audi egas. The latter is a synthetic fuel that’s almost identical to natural gas and is CO2 neutral, as it is produced using clean energy. In simple terms, wind power is harnessed and fed into the electric grid. The clean electricity is then used to break water down into its two constituent parts. The oxygen is released to the atmosphere while the hydrogen is treated by adding CO2 in a methanation process, which produces the renewable synthetic methane or Audi e-gas. Audi’s first e-gas plant opens this month.
In the A3 g-tron, the e-gas is stored in two high-tech tanks — being made from carbon fibre-reinforced plastic means the two only add 32 kilograms to the car’s weight. As long as there is e-gas aboard, the A3 g-tron burns it. However, when the tanks — which hold 14.4 kg of e-gas and deliver a driving range of 400 kilometres — run dry, the A3 switches over and begins to burn regular gasoline. The end result is a driving range of up to 1,300 kilometres.
That’s the tech overview. Driving the A3 Sportback gtron proved it to be just like any other A3.
In this application, the 1.4L engine produces 110 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque, which gives it ample pickup and surprisingly normal driving characteristics given that the engine has to operate on two very different fuels.
The operating characteristics of the engine change according to the fuel, which maximizes efficiency. It also includes idle-stop, which furthers the economy cause. It comes together so well that only the twin fuel gauges give the game away.
The A3 g-tron goes on sale in Europe in 2014, but, sadly, it is not planned for North America.
The A3 plug-in hybrid — the Sportback e-tron — teams a 150-hp version of the 1.4L turbocharged four-cylinder gas engine with a 100-hp liquid-cooled electric mo- tor. The combination is both clean and decidedly athletic.
The electric motor draws its juice from an 8.8-kilowatt/hour lithium-ion battery that’s mounted ahead of the rear axle. When fully charged, which takes a little more than 3.5 hours using a 220-volt outlet, the battery delivers an all-electric driving range of 50 kilometres and can power the vehicle at speeds of up to 130 km/h.
The Audi A3 e-tron will come to Canada in 2015, and it will do so in Sportback form.
One of the more intriguing aspects of the technologies would be a combination — a plug-in hybrid that runs on e-gas. Audi concedes it has looked at the idea, but would not expand on the possibility of a production version.