Audi has reported the successful completion of its ‘Electric Mobility Showcase’. The brand provided 80 Audi A1 e-tron prototypes and 40 production models of the Audi A3 Sportback e-tron for a four-year support program conducted by the German government and the automotive industry. Four ministries have lent their support to 90 individual measures in four regions of Germany.
Over the course of the program, participants covered 1.4 million km (869,919.7 miles). With the prototype range extender A1 e-tron, Audi reports that all users by the end of the trial were able to complete 87% of journey distances using electric power alone.
In the second phase of the program, the trial participants in the 40 Audi A3 Sportback e-tron cars used all-electric mode for 70% of the distances traveled. The test drivers usually covered less than 50km (31.1 miles) a day. As a result, they stayed within the vehicles’ electric range. Audi also found that around half of all routine trial trips made by the users were shorter than 10km (6.2 miles).
The first phase of the project with the Audi A1 e-tron lasted one year and yielded findings from the more than 550,000 test kilometers (341,754.2 miles) covered. Specific issues were investigated in the individual locations of Berlin, Nuremberg, Munich, Stuttgart, Ingolstadt and Garmisch-Partenkirchen. These included a new system for the charging and communications infrastructure and how electric mobility can be coordinated with the supply of green electricity to homes.
In April 2015, 40 production models of the Audi A3 Sportback e-tron took to the road in Berlin, Munich and Stuttgart. As of March 2016, they had covered around 805,000km (500,203.8 miles) in total, gathering findings on issues such as the charging infrastructure on public roads and the usage patterns of commuters and commercial delivery services.
April 13, 2016