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Audi unveiled its very first electric vehicle in front of a crowd of nearly 2,000 people in San Francisco on Monday and hinted at an elegant, battery-powered sports car.
The Audi e-tron 2019, a fully electric crossover, will travel up to 248 miles on its 95 kWh battery. Starting at just under $ 75,000, it will reach dealers' showrooms early next year.
With dimensions similar to those of Audi's mid-size SUV, the five-passenger e-Tron is, perhaps surprisingly, a workhorse, with a large trunk and a towing capacity of 4,000 pounds.
"When you tell an engineer that you want an electric car with a lot of reach, they do not immediately switch to the SUV as a first choice for obvious physical reasons," said Marc Lichte, design director at Audi. the revelation. "We wanted to create, for lack of a better term, a very normal car. We wanted a real SUV.
Lichte said that Audi will eventually produce variants of the e-tron. He also said the automaker plans to unveil a "very large, very low, and very fast" electric vehicle at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.
Compared to the design of gasoline vehicles, working with electric powertrains is "a big change, like a heart transplant," said Lichte.
Slow to start, automakers are now fighting to electrify their queues on a global scale. Volkswagen Auto Group, which owns Audi, is investing $ 48 billion in battery technology to power 16 plants that will produce 27 electric models in the next five years. Porsche, another VW brand, will spend $ 7.4 billion to electrify half of its range by 2025. Next year, it will launch its first electric vehicle, the Porsche Taycan, a 600-horsepower sports car. able to travel more than 300 miles. charged battery. Porsche has also shown a concept for an electric crossover.
Until now, the only fully electric luxury SUVs currently on sale are the Tesla X Model and Jaguar's I-Pace. The X model, delivered with a 75 or 100 kWh battery, can travel up to 295 miles with a full charge. The I-Pace, which was launched earlier this year as Jaguar Land Rover's first electric vehicle, can eke up to 240 miles on a 90 kWh battery.
This month, Mercedes-Benz and BMW also introduced their first electric models. The Mercedes-Benz EQ C, the manufacturer's first 100% electric sub-brand nameplate, is a 200-mile crossover that delivers 402 horsepower with a 80-kWh lithium-ion battery.
BMW has taken a concept version of its electric car on tour this week, inviting reporters from Munich, New York, San Francisco and Beijing to see it inside a Lufthansa cargo plane. The iNext Vision, which defines the design language of BMW's future electric cars and SUVs, features a salon-themed interior with "smart" trim and trim. To operate the infotainment system, for example, passengers use their fingers to draw symbols along the fabric covering the seats and door panels. The manufacturer has also demonstrated a technology that can project movies, books and a virtual keyboard to cabin surfaces.
A version of the BMW iNext will be marketed in 2021.
Karl Brauer, publisher of Kelley Blue Book, said that the e-tron and its future competitors would interest consumers who are curious about electric vehicles, but fear the reliability and support of dealers. "The Audi e-tron represents another big step forward in the future of our electric vehicle," said Brauer. "This is a high-quality, beautifully designed electric SUV, from an established luxury brand. Audi's combination of style, performance and advanced technology should attract more luxury buyers into the fold of electric vehicles. "
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