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Electric Audi R8 to lead charge


The Lords of the Four Rings are expected to signal the start of an electric future with the unveiling of an electric R8 at next month's Frankfurt Motor Show. Confirmation of a high-end electric concept for the show, if not directly for an R8, came from Peter Schwarzenbauer, member of the board of management for Audi AG, during his visit to Sydney for the opening of the $50 million Audi Terminal company headquarters.

"If you go back to the past all major new technology was introduced top down," Schwarzenbauer says. "I have a hard time understanding that the only discussion about electric cars is about small cars, understanding what the business case would be.

"If you look around, a current battery package costs roughly 12-15,000 Euros. So if you take a smaller car that is also 12-15,000 Euros then you are effectively doubling the price of the car just by putting the battery in. I don't know how environmental you have to be to be convinced to pay double to drive electric."

Schwarzenbauer says Audi believes that by adding the cost of the electric technology to a car that is at the top of the range makes it easier to assimilate the cost of the batteries without buyer resistance and effectively takes away the need for heavy government subsidies.

"I think the electric car technology has to be introduced like all other technologies in the world, top down," he says. "I am not confirming it will be R8 but it will be at the top end and something very sporty that we are going to show at the upcoming Frankfurt show."

Schwarzenbauer also quickly dismissed suggestions that any work Audi did on electric models would flow to others in the conglomerate such as VW, Porsche or Seat. "What we are showing in Frankfurt is for the Audi brand ... I am sure also that Volkswagen has something based around electric in Frankfurt but it is not my business to say what."

One area that Audi does not see as the end game is hybrid technology, according to Schwarzenbauer. "Hybrid is a technology you have to get engaged in, not because you think it is a solution but because it is a step towards fully electric driving," he says.

"If you are looking at only fuel consumption then you see that in Australia some of our competitors have one model offering as a hybrid. We have 21 models in the Australian market with a fuel consumption below 7L/100km."

Schwarzenbauer says that at times the value and potential of more mainstream and traditional engine technology is lost in the rush to discover and write about things that are new and considered exciting.

"I think sometimes that it is more interesting to write about the new technology, about hybrids, but the facts are different. The facts are that not one hybrid can really achieve what we can today with a modern TDi (turbo diesel injection) engine.

"But of course in public perception that is old technology and people do not perceive how modern today's diesel engine is." He says that there is potential for further savings in economy and emissions in both diesel and petrol internal combustion engines. "That is why we have committed ourselves to reduce fuel consumption by another 20 per cent by 2012."

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