Audi News - Audi working on new A2, including an electric version
March 25, 2009 by tsikot · Comments Off
Audi working on new A2, including an electric version
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Audi
Audi has made a habit over the last few years of teasing us with cool small car concepts that appear as if they could be production-bound but have yet to materialize into an actual vehicle for sale. Audi’s trepidation isn’t too surprising since its last city car, the A2, never found a real audience and failed to translate into big sales. Still, the automaker hasn’t given up on the idea of an A2 revival, especially since small cars from logical competitors, like the MINI from BMW, have proven so popular.
According to Michael Dick, the German brand’s chief of R&D, the next small car in the works has moved to the concept stage and is reportedly recognizable as an A2 but will be designed from the start to house both standard internal combustion engines and electric powertrains. The firm’s A1 will do battle with the smart fortwo and Toyota iQ on the city car front while the revived A2 will be a bit larger and will be based on a separate platform.
Gallery: Audi A1 Sportback concept
[Source: Autocar]
Audi working on new A2, including an electric version originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Audi News - Next gen Audi A4/A5 to go on a major diet and get smaller engines
March 16, 2009 by tsikot · Comments Off
Next gen Audi A4/A5 to go on a major diet and get smaller engines
Filed under: Audi, Lightweight
The cars built off of Audi’s B8 platform, including the A4 sedan, A5 coupe and their derivatives, have much too recommend them. Light weight is not among those characteristics. The lowest mass four cylinder front wheel drive A4 sedan weighs in at nearly 3,600 pounds and the V8-powered AWD S5 runs nearly 4,100 pounds. For mid-sized cars of very reasonable dimensions, these are prodigious numbers. Of course, modern safety regulations feed into this as does the continuing proliferation of feature content.
Audi is aware of the problem and is actively working to address it in its next generation of cars. Global product engineering boss Michael Dick talked to Car and Driver in Geneva last week and explained that lighter weight materials would be accompanying downsized powertrains in the next round of models. According to Dick, an early prototype of the next S5 is currently running 880 pounds lighter than the current model (pictured above). The next A6 chassis in 2011 is expected to top the 69 percent aluminum content of the current TT and A4/A5 will have more than that. The new 3.0L supercharged V6 that is going into the S4 that is launching this year will be replaced by an even smaller turbocharged four cylinder unit
[Source: Car and Driver]
Next gen Audi A4/A5 to go on a major diet and get smaller engines originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Audi News - Audi provides TDI celebrity shuttles at Miami Film Festival
March 10, 2009 by tsikot · Comments Off
Audi provides TDI celebrity shuttles at Miami Film Festival
Audi’s latest appearance doing celebrity shuttle service is taking place this week in Miami at the International Film Festival. Just as Audi and other automakers do at such events, the German automaker is providing a fleet of vehicles to move the “special people” around. In this case, transport comes in the form of Audi’s Q7 TDI. The Q7 is powered by the VW group 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel that gets 240 hp and is rated at 19/25 mpg city/highway. It’s certainly no Prius, but it does give a big dose of luxury while still getting decent mileage. You know, considering that sometimes you need to move an entourage around.
[Source: Audi]
Continue reading Audi provides TDI celebrity shuttles at Miami Film Festival
Audi provides TDI celebrity shuttles at Miami Film Festival originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Audi News - Audi R15 TDI may add two more races to 2009 ALMS schedule
March 7, 2009 by tsikot · Comments Off
Audi R15 TDI may add two more races to 2009 ALMS schedule
Filed under: Diesel, Audi, Racing
American Audi race fans were hugely disappointed when the German automaker announced at the end of 2008 that it would not be competing in the full 2009 American Le Mans Series season. This came as a particular blow since Audi has built an all new car for 2009, the R15 TDI. Instead, Audi planned to run the car only at the season opener at Sebring later this month and at Le Mans in June.
We now have an unconfirmed report that R15s will take to the track at least two more times this year. The R15 is now expected to appear at the last two ALMS races of 2009. The 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta typically draws a big field including Audi’s arch-rival Peugeot. With the cars already in the U.S., it makes sense to hit the season finale at Laguna Seca as well.
With only three races on the schedule in ALMS, Audi obviously won’t be a challenger for the full season Green Challenge championship, but it will be interesting to see how they fare when they do run.
[Source: Bleacher Report]
Audi R15 TDI may add two more races to 2009 ALMS schedule originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Audi News - Audi’s new A4 allroad 2.0 TDI rated 36.75 mpg (U.S.), not for sale here
February 20, 2009 by tsikot · Comments Off
Audi’s new A4 allroad 2.0 TDI rated 36.75 mpg (U.S.), not for sale here
Audi has just launched a new allroad variant of the A4 Avant wagon in Europe that applies the Subaru Outback approach to the German premium wagon. Like the A6 allroad that was launched some years ago, the A4 adds wheel flares and increased ride height for the psuedo-SUV look and 7.09 inches of ground clearance allowing you leap tall pebbles in a single bound. In spite of that increased frontal area and aerodynamic drag, the A4 still manages to post some pretty impressive mileage when equipped with the 170 hp 2.0L TDI diesel. The four cylinder diesel pushes the A4 allroad to 62 mph in 8.9 seconds and gets combined 36.75 mpg (U.S.) on the Euro combined drive cycle. This engine is a higher output variant of the engine in the VW Jetta TDI. The allroad is also available with a 2.0L TFSI gas four cylinder and the 3.0L TDI diesel V6 which still manages 33.1 mpg (U.S.) and bumps the 0-62 mph time down to 6.4 seconds. As far as we know, Audi has no current plans to offer the A4 allroad quattro here in North America.
Gallery: Audi A4 allroad quattro
[Source: Audi]
Continue reading Audi’s new A4 allroad 2.0 TDI rated 36.75 mpg (U.S.), not for sale here
Audi’s new A4 allroad 2.0 TDI rated 36.75 mpg (U.S.), not for sale here originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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