The Audi A7 is different. The executive five-door fastback sits nearly atop Audi’s lineup, starting out at $59k with my tester wearing $80k on its window sticker. Excluding limited run sports models, a fully decked-out A7 is the third most expensive car Audi sells, placing only lower than the massive A8 sedan and R8 supercar. Still, even looking like a modern and practical station wagon, the A7 is a niche car but perhaps one with a broad appeal. → Read More
Audi has just announced details of another EV to be produced under their e-tron moniker in the form of the A3. The A3 e-tron is a battery electric vehicle, similar to the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Roadster. The Audi has a front mounted electric motor powered by two lithium-ion batteries, one in the middle and one in the rear, with 26.5 kWh of total energy. Total output of the A3 e-tron is just over 130 horsepower with 199 lb-ft or torque. → Read More
Earlier this week we saw that McLaren got together with Specialized to make their exquisite Venge road bike. Apparently Audi felt left out of the party, and has announced the fruits of its collaboration with Portland bike-maker Renovo: the “duo” series.
The bikes’ primary differentiating feature is, of course, the wood frames. Audi has built them out of “woods selected to match the look of Audi vehicle interiors.” One assumes they also picked the wood based on its strength and weight, but they don’t really mention that. → Read More
High-end Audi vehicles pack more technology than many office complexes and the company is going to tap the services of T-Mobile (now AT&T?) for constant Internet connectivity. The Audi Connect infotainment suite brings real-time news, weather, traffic, fuel prices, WiFi hotspot along with Google services such as Local Search and Google Earth to the car. The vehicles will come with a six-month complimentary trial period, but after that, owners simply need to activate the T-Mobile SIM card that’s inserted into the Audi MMI Navigation Plus system.
Audi Connect should hit the all-new 2012 Audi A7 along with the 2012 A8, A6, Q7 and the upcoming Q5 Hybrid. No word on pricing after the free period ends. → Read More
Audi was once known as the German car that came with all-wheel-drive. That notoriety is changing and Audi is becoming a huge player in the tech game; their interfaces are fantastic and run with exceptional speed and style. And now, they are bringing the internet to their navigations systems: the Google maps of navs, if you will. → Read More
Green vehicles were the focus of this weeks North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Many carmakers are finally coming out with product lines full of new electric or electric-hybrid vehicles. And by “many,” think “everyone” in some way — even Porsche. So, it comes as no surprise that, along with the new Audi A6, comes the A6 Hybrid.
The A6 Hybrid is part of Audi’s Electrification plan, which is all about getting the mileage up. They’ll tell you that fuel consumption is going to be better and the tech is very advanced, which it is, but they won’t tell you that they’ve had the technology to get similar fuel economy for years. → Read More
The first ever electric vehicle with Quattro is still a few years away, but we were invited to Ingolstadt, Germany to try one out. E-tron is the name of Audi’s new line of electric vehicles including an R8 and an A1. We didn’t get to drive the red concept E-tron that’s all over the internet, instead we drove one that looked and drove more like a real production car. The supercar was pretty interesting to drive even though it’s not complete. The main difference is that nowhere in the car is a gasoline engine, instead batteries take up the place of the engine and electric motors power the wheels. → Read More
Here’s another round of iPhone car monitoring apps, this time from Audi. It’s no secret that VW and Audi are gunning for top positions on the market, and if they keep up on their technology it might just happen. Take for instance this iPhone app, it works by using the cars OBD-II port to read out large amounts of data. The data includes everything from emissions information like how much CO2 the car is putting out every time you mash the peddle to data logging with GPS and the ability to find where ever your kids have taken the car.
App users can then upload their information to www.myAudiLabs.com to further analyze and share the data–pretty neat. Audi is currently showing this technology off at SEMA along with wireless iPhone chargers for in-car charging without the wires. Can’t wait to see more auto companies add features integrating smart phones into the car.
Press Release after the break. → Read More
The automotive space is quickly turning into a gadget wonderland and so it feels right to have the chairman of one the world’s most advanced auto makers speaking at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Ruper Stadler joins the list of keynote speakers that includes Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, CEA President Gary Shapiro, Verizon’s CEO Ivan Seidenberg, and Samsung’s President and GM of Visual Display Buisness, Boo-Keun Yoo. However, this isn’t the first time an auto maker headlined CES. Last year Ford’s President, Alan Mulally, delivered a keynote address as well. → Read More
When you think of a supercar, speed and power are usually the things that jump to your mind — not gadgetry. Keeping that in mind, when I was invited to drive Audi’s new R8 Spyder, I jumped at the chance. It wasn’t until later that I started looking into the vehicle and realized that while the R8 is a supercar, it’s a special breed of supercar that uses technology to allow the driver to choose between high performance and touring. → Read More
With the Super Bowl yesterday came the time-honored Super Bowl commercials, each costing $2.5 million for a 30-second spot. Even Google got in on the game with its first ever spot receiving rave reviews (although the commercial wasn’t new). But which commercials went beyond TV to score on the Web? Reprise Media released a report that ranks Super Bowl advertisers based on the level of integration between their television commercials and presence on the web in terms of search and social media. According to Reprise’s scorecard, Boost Mobile, HomeAway, E*Trade and Google were the marketing standouts out of last night’s commercials.
Reprise decreed that Boost Mobile and HomeAway, which were both first-time Super Bowl advertisers, had the best cross-channel promotion from the tube to the web. E*Trade and Google followed with compelling ad spots that encouraged users to look to the web for more information. Who fumbled? The Pop Secret/Emerald Nuts, Prudential, Dodge Charger and all movie commercials had the least amount of cross-channel integration. → Read More
Cars are increasingly becoming more circuits than gears and the 2011 Audi A8 is a prime example of this transformation. There is likely more tech packed in the full-size Audi sedan than the International Space Station. In fact, if you think the laptop steering wheel table is the ultimate driver distraction, click the read link below to see what the flagship Audi packs. → Read More
Volkswagen is taking great strides in making the roads safer and remove the dangerous fun from driving by developing fully autonomous vehicles. I had a chance to talk to Dr. Burkhard Huhnke, director of the Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) about the future of the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory (VAIL) at Stanford University and how the technology developed there is being integrated into Volkswagen Group vehicles. You may be able to buy a real-life K.I.T.T before you know it. It probably won’t be a Pontiac though. You may recall that Volkswagen was the first team to complete the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005 by having a fully autonomous Volkswagen Touareg SUV (his name was Stanley, btw) drive 132 miles through the Mojave Desert. Then for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, a VW Passat Wagon took second place behind Tartan Racing team from Carnegie Mellon University in a 60 mile urban course. But those two challenges are nothing compared to what’s on tap for next year: Pikes Peak in an autonomous Audi TT-S. → Read More
It’s not quite as exciting as you want it to be, but an Audi dealership in Sydney has added a hologram of sorts to its sales department. It’s not projected by a maintenance droid and it’s probably just a 2-minute loop, but it’s still kind of cool. → Read More
Generally, convertible owners concede audio fidelity when the top is down but Bang & Olufsen’s new audio system will should let drivers rock-out topless. The system uses some crazy digital processing that involves a dashboard-mounted microphone that compensates for road noise. Currently the 12 speaker, 10 amp’ed, 500 watt system is only available in Audi’s A5/S5 Cabriolet and the pricing hasn’t been released yet. But it’s a B&O system so it probably sounds like a million bucks and with a price tag to match. B&O via BornRich → Read More
