As the world slowly edges further from diesel and petrol and closer to electricity, Audi is preparing its first all-electric SUV, to rival the likes of Tesla and Jaguar. The concept is able to go from zero to 62.1 miles per hour in less than six seconds.
Audi’s attempt focuses on regaining energy from existing movement and braking to provide power back to the car’s battery. It’s not the first time energy from the brakes has been regenerated this way. Several manufacturers have tested KERS – kinetic energy recovery system – for years, while the system was introduced in Formula One back in 2009.
On a demonstration run in the Rocky Mountains, Audi showed how its own technology was able to boost power on an 18-mile descent of Pikes Peak.
The car’s power gauge had actually increased from 67% to 75% by the time it reached the end of the journey, adding about 6.8kWh of energy.
‘We engineered a lot of very highly efficient systems in the car,’ explained Dr Marko Hörter, who works on the development of the integrated brake control system at Audi.
‘If the driver is using the brake pedal for instance, all other cars kick in the real brakes, not in this car.’
Instead of traditional brake pads, the e-tron prototype uses electric motors to slow down and regain some energy.
The brake pads are still there of course, but they are only used on about 10% of brake manoeuvres.
A range of radar sensors, camera images and navigation data is also fitted on the car to detect the traffic environment and the route, which is fed back to the driver on the virtual cockpit display.
The company also revealed a closer view of its previously-announced virtual wing mirrors, which do away with the traditional method completely for cameras.
Blind spots are made a thing of the past with the new solution, as drivers are offered a full view of traffic on each side, via two live screens under the windows.
The e-tron also flashes yellow warnings on the screens whenever another vehicle is getting too close on the relevant side.
The all-electric Audi e-tron SUV is expected to be officially revealed later this year.
