Audi, in line with the Volkswagen groups ambitions to move away from Fossils fuel, towards cleaner more sustainable mobility has announced that they will release a whole new range of PHEVs based on existing cars at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show. The new range of vehicles will not only come with an all-electric mode but also efficiency increasing technologies like regenerative brakings, cruising engine recovery and lots more. According to Audi, these cars will all get turbo-charged motors that will work in conjuncture with the electric motors and the battery unit to maximise efficiency as well as performance.
As of now, Audi says that the updates will be limited to the Audi A8, A7 Sportback, A6 and Q5. All of which will get two variant options, with variations to the performance and the equipment. A comfort-oriented model with a focus on luxury, and a sports-oriented variant with the S badge, tighter suspension setting and drive setting to boost the performance of the electric motor. With the introduction of the line of cars, there will also be a mild change in the monikers to signify the hybrid technology in TFSI cars that will denote with a TSFI-e, while the e-Tron label will be reserved for all-electric Audi’s only.
Driving range from Audi’s 14.1 KwH battery rated to 385 Volts is expected to be 40 kms according to the more stringent WLTP cycle. This should suffice for Europes new all-electric laws that are expected to come into play in several major cities in Europe in the years to come. While Highway driving and commutes will be handled by the hybrid ICE motor. The Audis will get three driving modes, Electric, Auto and Hold, which are pretty self-explanatory Electric will be an-all electric mode auto will use both energy source, while Hold will use the electric motor only when needed so as to lock in the available range of the vehicle. What is slightly odd is the fact that even with the limited all-electric range Audi estimates 2 hours as the charging time for the PHEV which is slightly longer than one would expect.
