Following on from the pilot scheme in Munich, Audi’s A1 e-tron is to be utilized in the German federal government’s €180 million Electromobility Showcase program exploring the potential of new drive systems.
The Ingolstadt company will provide 80 cars for six separate projects, the first phase being the E-NUE project in Nuremberg. Audi is providing N-ERGIE Aktiengesellschaft’s employees with five Audi A1 e-tron models for both business and personal use. The second phase will see five additional companies in the Nuremberg area receive an A1 e-tron each. The Commuting and Charging project in Berlin with 25 of the compact electric cars handed to commuters living or working near Potsdamer Platz.
The sun2car@GAP project in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which will be launched in late summer, will see participants’ homes fitted with photovoltaic systems. A wall box in the garage will adjust the charging process according to the amount of sunshine, the time and the priority of the users.
The E-Plan project in Munich will loan 15 cars to private participants in Schwabing, to be parked on the street and be solely dependent on the public charging infrastructure.
Audi itself will deploy five cars for the Intelligent Charging project later this month. As the name implies, the focus is on controlling the charging and communication infrastructure. Charging stations in the participants’ garages, Audi parking garages and two downtown charging stations operated by Stadtwerke Ingolstadt – Audi’s project partner – will communicate with the participants’ smartphones allowing them to check the battery’s status before locating and reserving the closest station for them.
Now more powerful, the A1 e-tron is powered by an electric motor – mated to a single-speed gearbox – producing 85 kW (114 hp) of peak power and 300 Nm of torque. The sprint to 100 km/h takes 9.8 seconds, with top speed limited to 130 km/h (81 mph). The 13.3 kWh lithium-ion battery provides enough electricity for a range of around 50 km (31 miles). It can be fully recharged at a 220 V household outlet in around three hours.
The range-extending 25 kW (34 hp) 354 cc Wankel engine, which acts as a generator to recharge the battery, provides enough energy for the A1 e-tron to cover a total of 250 km (155 miles).
[Source: Audi]