E-tron and beyond: Audi's mobility future

Sunday, 11 August 2019

Audi's EV-SUV put through its paces in Central Otago - including skids in the snow of course.

Meeting the challenge of keeping cars relevant means looking in all directions, including upwards, according to Brendan Koehler, a 29-year-old Australian technology nerd and car nut who relishes being part of Audi's e-solutions operation, which in simple terms projects what will happen to our transportation needs for decades to come.

The door to this future opens with the car we are sharing - the Audi e-tron. A five-seat sports utility that would be set to be a good fit into the premium medium sector on style alone, the e-tron's real appeal – to those willing to divorce from Big Oil – is its electric drivetrain.

Before discussing that car though, we talk about one that might soon fly off the drawing board. Shared mobility means ride sharing today, and potentially robotaxis tomorrow – and more. Such as? 'Well, we're certainly looking into vertical mobility as well,' Koehler enthuses from the back seat.

As a part of Audi's e-solutions operation, Australian Brendan Koehler's job is to consider what will happen to our transportation needs for decades to come.

To my ears, that translates to flying cars, but it's not quite that. Realistically, it's flying autonomous Audi-emblemed pods. It's a sub-strategy within a bigger look the carmaker is undertaking into urban mobility strategies for the world in 20 or 30 years from now, when major centres will have become megacities.

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'We have around 4.3 billion people living in urban centres now. We expect that to move to 6.7 billion by 2050.' That brings mobility opportunities and challenges, Koehler continues. 'We see the two major trends being urbanisation and sustainability as really changing the way we do business in the future.

The e-tron is just the beginning - Audi has many more electric models planned, with even more advanced transport to come.

'A growing city is an opportunity for us to grow our business, (but) a city is going to be become a very different place, moving around is going to become a lot more complex. We're challenging ourselves to think about this a lot more differently.'

Hence the concept of autonomous air shuttles, for one or two people. Just for short hops and, as it turns out, no flight of fancy - Audi is in a co-operative project with Airbus and VW Group-owned Italdesign.

Such an interesting future. Yet also a fascinating 'now' with Audi's first fully electric car.

Koehler's an affirmed petrolhead, still lamenting the Volkswagen Golf R32 he had to ditch when leaving Sydney for Ingolstadt back in 2016, yet I sense he's not merely towing the company line when contending he wouldn't mind having an e-tron (it's wishful thinking - consumer demand is so strong few are being retained for staff use).

It might be electric, but it can still get wet - the e-tron is very happy in the mud.

By the time we end our trip, the following afternoon, I'm caught up in his enthusiasm.

This isn't any more of a be-all than any other EV, and the price - $148,500 for the base S 55 we've shared and $8500 more for the plusher-trimmed advanced 55 – is also going to restrict acceptance. Yet as a purely technical exercise it's quite brilliant.

The mettle of the drivetrain, a pair of asynchronous motors, feeding off a 400-volt 95kWh (with a usable capacity of 84kWh) under-floor battery, and a quattro set-up that, being wholly electronic, is the brand's most advanced yet has been proven every surface Central Otago can put up.

The Kawerau Gorge between Queenstown and Cromwell is a tricky section conquered swiftly and near-silently in Sport mode, where optimised outputs of 300kW and 664Nm (in other modes you have 561Nm) lend V8-like oomph without the snarl.

The unsealed Hawksburn Track, an 1800s' gold miners' route wending from Bannockburn to Clyde, is signposted as being unsuitable for cars; but the e-tron isn't bothered by its gloopy mud, ruts and a dizzying final descent.

If that kind of driving seems unreasonable for potential owners, then assuredly fewer still will take their e-trons to our peak challenge. The icefields of the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground, atop the Pisa Range.

Yet if they can, they should. This low grip surface brings out the best of an all-wheel-drive that undertakes the usual quattro feat of monitoring what's happening in all corners, feeding power to whichever requires it, or has the most traction, as quickly as possible with much greater alacrity and accuracy than is possible with any mechanical system.

With cars like this – and e-tron is just the first of 10 that will be in service by 2025 (a spin-off GT model comes next year) - it's perhaps no wonder Koehler is so positive about spreading the EV gospel not just to New Zealand's distributor but those in 28 other countries. Australia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, India and Pakistan plus the Middle East.

It's a job that gives this guy holding a doctorate in philosophy plenty to ponder.

He says Audi's EV enthusiasm shouldn't be misconstrued. The brand isn't finished with fossil fuels. Petrol and diesel will continue to flow for decades yet and assuredly it plans to continue to build product that feeds off those fuels.

However, Koehler says, neither are electrics a whim. They're here to stay and steadily proliferate. Like many car brands, Audi isn't just looking at battery cars that demand tapping into the national grid. It also has begun developing fuel cell electrics, that use hydrogen to recharge on-board batteries. The first comes in six years.

'Our target is for one third of our cars to be electrified by 2025, on a global scale that means about 800,000 vehicles.'