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Audi plans to put an electric car on sale when the powertrain in this e-tron concept hits targets on range, performance and durability.

The Audi e-tron, which was unveiled at the Frankfurt show, could also give clues about a Porsche Boxster-sized sports car - the much-rumoured R4 - although sources suggest that’s not its main role.

See the high-res Audi e-tron photo gallery here

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 it's a good strategy for the development of electric power. it wont do them any harm to start selling these top end cars right away.

 

Well I hate to plagiarize Mr. Johan de Nysschen, but this is truly a car for idiots, a sports car with a top speed of 124 mph is laughable. Imagine the look on the owners face when a Ford Focus passes him on the Autobahn. I guess with all that torque and meager top end they could always use it on the farm to pull out those stubborn tree stumps. It doesn’t matter because it is vaporware anyway and will never see the light of day.

37-75mph in 4sec???

How many g's is that?

 you must be missing the point of a sports car, they are not meant to be on motorways or autobahns going high speeds, they are for sporty driving, one of the best sports cars is the lotus elise which is dreadful above 70mph. a lot of race spec rally cars bounce off the limiter at 90mph are they not sporty enough for you?

whatever car i'm in i will never drive into 3 figures thats just stupid. all road cars should have an enforced speed limit of about 100mph, japan are the leaders and for decades have had  a 112mph limit for all vehicles. and it doesnt make them one tiny bit less sporty.

 

 

 

 It's quite interesting. Just a pity they ignore what "etron" means in french.

But the guys at Renault did'nt know either the meaning of Koleos in ancient greek ...

beachland2:

whatever car i'm in i will never drive into 3 figures thats just stupid. all road cars should have an enforced speed limit of about 100mph, japan are the leaders and for decades have had  a 112mph limit for all vehicles. and it doesnt make them one tiny bit less sporty.

So you want to bring all other sports cars down to the lowest common denominator so this pathetic attempt makes sense. I will alert Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti and Lotus they need to limit their cars so the Audtron makes a better showing. Some people are enthusiasts who occasionally go to track day events, you think they will want to have their cars speed limited, or do you favor the big brother approach of the GT-R?

 i hate all things big  brother, but as a way to allow high speed driving off public roads the GTR method is very good and i support it. you dont have to have the gps on the gtr telling someone wherever you are in the uk day to day. only for a 1 day when you go to a track, who cares they know you are there. exit the track, turn it off and you can be as anonymous as any other road user.

but my main point is that sportscars should not be relative to top speed. and i would tolerate a vehicle being called a supercar even if it only go 99mph. aslong as it had super acceleration and high grip etc.

 

 

"Total available power is 313bhp and torque is an astonishing 3319lb ft — around 10 times that produced by the V8-engined R8. Performance is brisk; 0-62mph takes 4.8sec, 37-75mph takes 4.1sec and the top speed is 124mph"

I detect the distinct odour of B.S. here. A car with 1/6th the torque should match those acceleration figures and a car with 3319lb ft and 1600kg in weight should manage the 0-62 sprint in a sub 2 sec time. Lets not forget that maximum torque for an electric motor is produced at standstill.

Have Autocar mistyped the figure or did they just not bother to confirm what are obviously bogus statistics? 10 times the torque of a standard R8 and yet only a small increase in performance!

 could be typo, torque and power dont always go hand in hand though. look at diesels, quite torquey but uselessly weak on power.