Audi A2 goes over 370 miles on one battery charge.

I saw this about the same time you posted it, I find it strange that there isn't more excitment on Priuschat. :cheer2:

 

Sweet Electrons !!!

 

nice!!!

build it now!!!!!

 

There is also an electric version of the A1, with rotary engine range extender.

Review article here.

Basics are:
12 kWh battery
31 miles EV range
65 kg genset
39 mpg (US) in range extended mode

 

I did some research on the battery technology they used. It doesn't last long. You'll get 500 cycles out of it. If it gets 370 miles per change, 500 cycles would come out 185k miles. That's pretty damn good!

The real question is the cost.

 

Dennis, where did you find technical information ?

 

It uses Lithium Metal Polymer. This one dated 2005 said 300 cycles. This one said over 500 cycles after improvements but it is dated 2001.

 

Well, they claim 2,500 cycles without loss of capacity and 99.7% efficiency. It is hard to believe when others are struggling to get 500 cycles.

 

i also saw the news report and also having difficulty finding any specifics about the battery pack. but still it shows that progress can be made. now if we can just get the EVs on the road. the more on the road, the more money will invest in promoting and marketing extended range options.

 

Hmmmm. If the Audi gets 370 miles to the charge and the Nissan Leaf gets 100 miles to the charge, then I think Toyota needs to boost the plug-in Prius up a little from only 13 miles on battery only. It would be nice if it got at least 20 miles. 13 just seems waaaaaay low compared to other battery cars out there. I sure hope Toyota increases the EV range on the plug-in Prius before they release it to market.

 

Wow ... what a gas!
Oh, wait . . . . . now I'll need new terminology.



Anyway ... the A2 event actually happened last month.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hrnrEiCJ-A"]YouTube - Audi A2 Sets Record For Longest Distance Driven By An Electr[/ame]
.

 

Sweet, arguments over plug in hybrids might just become moot.

That A1 plug-in serial hybrid is also impressive. It's what GM could have done with the Volt. Use a small ICE with a high power output to save space and weight, but still efficiently produce electricity. It even uses a tiny gas tank, 3 gallons. While most Americans won't think so, a daily 30 mile EV range with a conservative 100 mile CS mode is plenty.

 

Hill, nice video and website. Thanks for posting!

 

Wow! It sure is great to see the Germans stepping up in the fight for electric vehicles. Up until this point the move to electric has been meandering at best with no one vehicle going over the 100mi mark. A range of 370 miles would be great for the majority of daily and weekly commuters.

 

I doubt it is running in EV mode for the whole 370 miles.
Consider 4miles per kWh, 370/4 = 92.5 kWh, unless it has 100 kwh battery in the car, does not compute. The battery will wight >1000 lbs.
It must be an extended range EV just like the Volt, so nothing to excite about.

 

I went through the article again and the A2 is an electric vehicle. No ICE was made reference to.

 

I also thought the same, pure electric.

 

Cool! -- And yes, according to the article it's electric. It would not be a world record if it had a range extender. Recommended speed is 80 mph, but I could live with that. The freeway speed limit here is 70.

 

If any of what the article says is true, then there is plenty to be excited about. We assume that the pack capacity is between 80 and 100 Kwh. The whole point here is that we need a high capapcity battery that is not too big and not too heavy. So I'm not sure what doesn't compute. There's no mystery as to how much energy we need to push a car this far. The only mystery is how to store it. We don't know how much the battery weighs until somebody tells us. Those who used to use lead acid wouldn't believe how much capacity they could have today with Li and for much less weight. Even if the battery does weigh 1000 pounds... so what? We have SUVs on the road today that weight 6,000 pounds with no battery pack!

In the end, we simply don't have enough information and this couuld all be bogus. Anybody can make a car that'll go this far if you throw enough money at it, consume all the interior space and have no need to recharge it thousands of times. My hope is that something great has happened here. My educated guess is that the reality of the situation will fall somewhere between "ho-hum" and "gosh that's neat but not marketable."