Test Drive: Audi A3 e-tron Prototype

A funny thought occurred to me while driving the Audi A3 e-tron experimental electric vehicle: It?s a lot like driving a regular old A3. In fact, if it weren?t for the Audi A3 e-tron badging all over it, you?d never know from the outside that there was anything different about this car.

Frankly, there?s not much on the inside to distinguish it, either. There?s a different instrument cluster that replaces the tachometer with a gauge displaying a percentage of power you are using, but the A3 e-tron?s interior is largely the same as its gasoline-powered counterpart. That, according to Jeff Curry, Audi of America?s director of e-mobility, is the point. Curry tells me that Audi?s clientele don?t want a car that looks and drives like an electric-powered box of wheat germ (I?m paraphrasing here); they want an Audi. That means a car with sporty handling, a luxurious interior (lots of leather; diffused, high-tech lighting; performance-oriented steering wheel and shifter), and a sleek, no-nonsense exterior (except for the decals, of course).

Open the hood, however, and everything?s different. Where there would normally be hoses, belts, fans, a radiator, and, oh yes, an internal combustion engine, there is what can only be described as a miracle of cable management?wires wrapped in bright orange braided sleeving, running from one neatly packaged box of electronics to another, terminating in an 85-kw electric motor that resembles a shiny steel drum. You can?t exactly see it in the, er, engine bay, but at the other end of that circuit of wires is the 660-pound 26.5-kwh battery pack that runs down the center column of the car. That?s where the rear driveshaft for the Quattro system would otherwise go (for now, the A3 e-tron is front-wheel drive). Those batteries make the e-tron heavier than a standard A3, but they also have the advantage of locating the weightiest part of the vehicle down low and dead center, rather than over the front axle as in a gasoline-powered car.

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That setup should give this car lots of stability during high-speed cornering, though my 1-hour test drive through the traffic of midtown Manhattan (where all the corners are right angles) pretty much made that idea theoretical. I did get the opportunity to try out the e-tron?s signature technology trick: paddle shifters that adjust the amount of regenerative braking done by the electric motor on the fly. Toggle it all the way up and the A3 aggressively decelerates when you lift off the accelerator?it?s sort of like driving a car in low gear.

There are other quirks familiar to anyone who?s driven an electric, or even series hybrid, vehicle. The e-tron is dead quiet at stoplights and lacks the slow creep forward common to automatic transmissions. Even at full throttle, the car emits only a soft, polite whine. The motor?s 85-kw peak output rating equates to only about 114 hp, yet like most electric motors, its torque output is far more impressive. Hit the throttle hard and 199 lb-ft are at your disposal instantly, and the car skips forward with urgency. We?re not talking supercar performance, but nothing to yawn at, either. (The e-tron platform?s performance vanguard is the R18 racing car that won at Le Mans this weekend.)

The inevitable question?is this car headed for production??seems to be yes, though Audi is hinting that we?ll probably see a hybrid gas?electric vehicle if and when that happens. Audi intends to release at least one all-electric e-tron vehicle this year, however?a version of the company?s R8 supercar?though this will be available only in small numbers and to a select clientele.

For now, the A3 e-tron I tested is purely an experiment to see how a fully realized EV with a sporty disposition functions on American roads. If Audi could bring it in at a price within shooting distance of the gasoline-powered A3, I?d say it would make a compelling daily driver . . . provided you?re not driving too far?the A3 e-tron has a maximum range of 87 miles.

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