Home News Audi A3 e-tron Launch and Test Drive

Audi A3 e-tron Launch and Test Drive

Audi have a long term plan…and it begins with the A3 Sportback e-tron.  The clue is in the name. It’s their first toe-in-the-water venture into the electric world and some may say they’re a bit late in coming to the party.

They’re playing it cautiously, taking their highly successful award-winning A3 and converting it into a plug-in hybrid for minimal emissions and great overall economy while holding onto performance so that it can still be a versatile car for everyday use.

It may look straightforward, although each of the test cars at the launch in the north-east of England had high profile decals along the sides in addition to the badges on the boot lid, front wings and grille. But under the surface there’s a lot of technology going on, much of it developed in the 2014 Le Mans-winning Audi R18 e-tron Quattro.

Audi A3 e-tron

The market is small. There are still only 40,000 cars on Britain’s roads with any type of electric power but Audi recognise that number will grow and they’ve got to be there. The A3 e-tron is their electric vehicle start point so we can expect others in their comprehensive 48-model range to appear with the hybrid technology in the coming years.

What it offers is clean electric transport from a small 75kW motor combined with the advanced 1.4 litre TFSI petrol engine to return great economy over a range of up to 580 miles, without the fear of running out of power. Audi say it is capable of covering up to 31 miles under purely electric power at speeds up to 80 mph.

Like all hybrids, it only makes sense if it fits your lifestyle. An ideal scenario would be to use it to drive up to 20 miles to the office each morning, plug it in during the day and return home for a further recharge overnight, without using any fuel. At the weekend, the car can still be used for any family pursuits over greater distances by calling on petrol power.

The 12 volt lithium-ion battery pack is mounted in the floor under the rear bench seat which like the 40 litre fuel tank is above the rear axle so there’s no loss of load space. It comes with domestic and public charging leads which are plugged in behind the signature four Audi rings on the grille. Flip a catch and the rings fold out and move to one side to expose the connection. The charging process can even be monitored from a smartphone through an app which can also be used to remotely start or stop the charging or pre-set it.

Using a domestic socket takes about four hours to fully charge the battery but a higher power wallbox or public charging point cuts this to just over two hours.

DSC08796

On the road, the driver has three hybrid modes or one full electric mode to manage the vehicle’s response and performance.

EV gives priority to electric drive for city streets and zero emissions. Hybrid Auto is for longer drives and uses the electric motor wherever possible. Hybrid Hold preserves the electrical energy in the battery for later and Hybrid Charge uses the combustion engine as a generator to charge the battery.

The e-tron’s dash display shows how the power is being generated and used and certainly encourages more thoughtful efficient driving, using the overrun and downhill coasting to send more power to the batteries. When the driver stops accelerating, both motors temporarily deactivate, to eliminate motor braking torque, allowing the car to glide to save fuel and recuperate energy.

It feels well balanced on the road, if anything even better than the conventional A3, possibly because of the weight of the batteries and the lower centre of gravity. It is happy to accommodate a range of driving styles from ultra-efficient but when called upon everything can kick in to give a hearty response with plenty of guts.

There’s a stack of standard equipment, although the test car managed to squeeze in almost £5,000 worth of additional goodies, half of which was accounted for by the black Milano leather sports seats and the panoramic glass sunroof.

Audi are enjoying record sales, beating BMW and Mercedes-Benz and selling more than double Volvo, Jaguar and Lexus combined.

The new A3 e-tron will be in the showrooms in January 2015 and although you’re unlikely to see many on the roads, it’s just the start of things to come from Audi.

Car: Audi A3 Sportback e-tron 1.4 TFSI S-tronic

Price: £29,950 (£39,030 as tested) including Government grant

Power: 150 PS

Torque: 250 Nm

Max speed: 137 mph (hybrid) 80 mph (electric). 0-62 mph

Performance: 0-62 mph 7.6” (hybrid) 0-37 mph 4.9 (electric)

Fuel consumption: 188 mpg

CO2: 35 g/km

Previous articleSporting pretensions – The new Renault Twingo
Next articleHot Vauxhalls from across the years
Journalist, broadcaster, former Regional Journalist of the Year of the Guild of Motoring Writers and overall motoring enthusiast.