The problem with the e-tron is not the price. It’s not the range. It’s not the EV specs. It’s that it is exactly the same Audi experience you get for a lower price. They took out the engine, added an electric system, and tuned it to drive like an Audi. Not that there’s anything wrong with an Audi experience, but…

This post and a number of the replies assumes that the XL-1 was a huge investment in new technology development that was unfortunately stopped. As someone who worked on it, as part of the powertrain organization, in Wolfsburg, and on other electrification projects of that era, I can tell you that’s just Werbung. The…

I don’t doubt that’s what they say.

“Can’t do much regenerative braking if you’re running in cruise control.” and if you did, you would get even worse efficiency.

Do another correction: they are using one motor per wheel, but they are not using hub motors.

They’re doing it wrong then. Make no mistake, manuals are a wonderful wonderful thing, but to put this much torque in a single electric motor is dumb- shows a real lack of understanding of the benefits of electrification. It’s the equivalent of “inventing” a little thing that plugs into the bottom of an iPhone to give…

So a) Bosch didn’t invent this here, but it is nice to have more potential suppliers on the market (cars have had them on 12V systems for years, and Tesla has had them in HV systems as well). b) That image they published is very misleading- if the high voltage of the battery pack energizes the car, there is still no…

There are some more imminent and likely scenarios. Imagine smart cruise control working with the car(s) in front of you. That allows them to safely tuck up closely- lower drag and more cars per hour on a given stretch of road. But also imagine someone with a non-communicating car trying to merge into a freeway that is…

It doesn’t matter the exact sizes of the crash test dummies so long as there are a spread. Thousands and thousands of tests are run virtually. Thousands. In all sorts of situations and passenger types. The real tests using the crash test dummies are used to correlate the virtual data, but once that’s done, the useful…

the charge port is the European type, why?

Sad is the day when it has to be highlighted that it has a manual gearbox

Those are typical “bumpers” for attaching outrigging and other items used in brake and stability control development.

There is an SAE committee that deals with this and releases guidance docs (J2990 and others) for the 1st responders and automakers. NFPA reps and firefighters are in the committee and as a result a good deal of standardization in both the vehicle features, component markings (colors and routing), and 1st responder…

Your worst case situation is an accident and someone else’s gasoline gets under your car and ignites. 

Fun fact: The pedestrian horn goes back to the EV-1.

Take a look what Tesla is pulling now. They will show you “price after Est. savings” when you go down and click to look into the details you see the fed tax rebate, ok good, but then “Est. 6-year gas savings” of $4300.

This is by far the most painful post and set of comments I have ever read. Props to those of you fighting the good fight with data and figures and science.

The snow may actually be helping. He or she appears to be in the not-paying-attention-lane (the second from the left of any freeway) which is where drivers immediately merge to and stop paying attention to the task at hand. Had the snow not been there he or she would have been looking at their phone or fiddling with…

This is like using bottled water to take a shower.

The comparison is only going to get worse. As the charging rates increase, the batteries will only be able to handle the peak rates for even shorter SOC bands/time. However you’ll be putting more miles/min into the car, so it will look bad compared to today, but it’s really good. (I can make a car that charges to 100%…