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One plus one EV sparks up Frankfurt show, boasting wireless recharging - drive in and fill up It is no surprise, given the minimalist aspirations, that Audi’s two-seat eco-star at the Frankfurt motor show – the “urban concept study” electric vehicle – shows similarities with two other similar concepts also appearing at the show:  Opel’s two-seat EV  and  Volkswagen’s singe-seat NILS . Both the Volkswagen and the Audi roll on outrigger, F1-type wheels, while the Opel’s frontal body section embraces the wheels, but leaves the two rear wheels exposed to the elements. The VW has given us base outline specifications of its single-seater, as has Opel with its two-seater, but Audi has kept mum on its effort. Until now. With the car’s unveiling at the show, Audi has revealed some of the urban concept’s secrets, including a few of the things it is developing to allow users to segue into EV motoring with minimal disruption. One of these is the development of contactl...

Ingolstadt manufacturer will use Frankfurt motor show to whip the covers off its all-new challenger for the prestigious DTM touring-car championship BMW recently revealed its all-new V8 tin-top racer  for the German DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) touring-car championship, and now Audi has fired a riposte by releasing the first renderings of its A5 DTM concept, which makes its public debut at September’s Frankfurt motor show. The ultra-brawny coupe replaces the existing A4-based racer, which has bagged four DTM titles since 2004, and although the A5 carries over the 340kW V8 and six-speed sequential gearbox employed by its predecessor, the latest-gen car debuts an armoury of cutting-edge tech in line with new regulations being ushered in for the 2012 DTM championship. Audi says these artist’s impressions “merely suggest the looks” of the new DTM car, which will adopt the cosmetic changes administered to the recently updated A5 and S5, rather than the pre-faceli...

Audi sets course for the future of urban mobility with its wacky-but-wondrous design study Never one to let BMW have any territory to itself for long, Audi is about to crash its Bavarian rival’s new i sub brand with a revolutionary, clean, prestige city car of its own. Taking up considerably less real estate than BMW’s i3 electric car, the Audi UrbanConcept is a semi-open wheeler design narrow enough to be easy to drive and park in crowded city streets. With two offset seats, the UrbanConcept will be fully electric – unlike the i3, which will also be available as a range-extender hybrid – and will drive its 21-inch wheels via two of Audi’s e-tron electric motors. The radically styled UrbanConcept will be built from a combination of aluminium and carbon-fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP), which promises both enormous strength and safety in concert with light weight. Audi has made neither performance nor economy claims for the UrbanConcept, but when it makes its debut at ...

Local pricing announced for lighter, more efficient Audi A6 featuring alongside e-tron EV concept and 412kW R8 GT Audi is driving home the significance of its quattro all wheel drive system by making it standard across the board with its all-new A6 model, which was introduced to the public at the Australian International Motor Show in Melbourne. The new executive-class Audi comes well-laden with three six-cylinder turbo petrol and diesel engine choices, seven-speed S Tronic auto transmission and the availability of head-up display and night vision. With very similar dimensions to the outgoing model, the seventh generation A6 weighs in lighter than its predecessor, to the tune of as much as 80kg depending on variant. This has been achieved through more extensive use of aluminium in the car’s construction. According to Audi “Its stiffness, vibration characteristics and crash performance are impressive, as are its aerodynamics and aero acoustics.” Equally as impress...

Five coupes are gone, and there are five convertibles on order The fastest and most expensive Audi ever sold in the Australia – the Lamborghini-powered R8 GT – is a sell-out success. All five of the V10 super-coupes are sold in Australia, and Audi has ordered five R8 GT convertibles on the back of their popularity. The $470,700 R8 GT is powered by a high output version of the 5.2-litre V10 found in the Lamborghini Gallardo, with 412kW and 540Nm. The R8 GT sprints from 0 to 100km/h in just 3.6 seconds. “All five cars are accounted for and allocated to dealers and customers,” said Audi Australia boss Uwe Hagan. “So we have ordered five convertibles also. These are spoken for among the dealers and some have customers against them, there are maybe one or two left.”  The R8 GT is the lightweight, road-going version of the R8 LMS car developed for 24 hour circuit racing. It tips the scales art 1525kg, at least 100kg less than the regular R8 model. Customers can m...

Four-ringed brand releases the first renderings of its upcoming go-faster R8 roadster Audi will next year launch a hardcore GT version of its R8 Spyder, and the first tangible proof comes in the form of these teaser sketches. According to UK’s  Autocar  magazine, the R8 GT Spyder will be previewed at the Le Mans 24-hour enduro in June, ahead of its official public debut at September’s Frankfurt motor show. The Le Mans launch is hardly coincidental, reports  Autocar , as some of the technical innovations pioneered by Audi’s R8 LMS racer are said to feature in the road car. The roadster will derive propulsion from the same 412kW/540Nm 5.2-litre V10 engine as its coupe sibling, but the ragtop’s less slippery shape means its v-max will be 310km/h — 10km/h less than the coupe. The V10 will be hooked up to a strengthened version of Audi’s six-speed R-tronic sequential manual gearbox, with drive channelled to front and rear axles in a 15:85 split. ...

Australian team robbed of victory after botched pit stops Audi R8 supercars cruised to a 1-2 victory in the Bathurst 12 Hour yesterday — but the race-favourite Australian drivers were left to play second fiddle to their teammates after they were forced to circulate slowly behind a safety car on two separate occasions, while the German Audi team made timely pit-stops. The German team car of Marc Basseng, Christopher Mies and Darryl O’Young completed 292 laps in a formation finish ahead of the Australian driver trio of Craig Lowndes, Warren Luff and Mark Eddy. Local Porsche drivers Tony Quinn, Klark Quinn and Craig Baird finished third in their 911 GT3R — one lap down on the Audi duo and ahead of a trio of Porsches and a Ferrari. While the podium Porsche team led on a couple of occasions during the day, the event was effectively a two-horse race within the factory-backed mega-dollar Audi supercar squad. Although the Australian Audi team had qualified on p...

A7 Sportback is due next month and A6 will debut at AIMS in Melbourne Audi MD Uwe Hagen revealed to the local media this week that the prestige brand is anticipating some important new models over the next 12 months or so. The first to roll out is the A7 Sportback (pictured), which is scheduled for a local launch around mid-March. That will be followed by the new A6, which is definitely to be unveiled to the public at the Australian International Motor Show in July. AIMS will be an important medium for exposing the importer’s new product to the public, Hagen told the Carsales Network. “[AIMS] is a form of showing that we think this market is really important for us, and using those display possibilities — so we launched the R8 Spyder and the RS5 [in Sydney last year]… Audi therefore remains committed to AIMS for the foreseeable future, according to Hagen, but principally for the local market. There’s little to no prospect of global debuts at the Aussie shows. “We’...

German luxury car maker accelerates its motorsports program by unveiling 'affordable' $160,000 ready-to-race coupe in China The Audi TT could become a weapon of choice for semi-professional racers if the new GT4 Concept is anything to go by. Unveiled at the 2010 DTM race in Shanghai, the GT4 Concept will be priced at around €120,000 (AU$163,000) and is good for 250 kilowatts of power. Power is routed through an S-Tronic twin-clutch gearbox. The new model is pencilled in as a production model for 2012, designed to “extend Audi’s new modular customer sport program from 2012 forward,” according to the German car maker. It’s clear to see from the images that Ingolstadt’s new TT is not your garden variety German prestige coupe — a range of ventilation aids in and around the bonnet evidence of its improved cooling systems and the lowered ride height adding to its Playstation appeal. Underneath the skin, the Audi TT GT4 Concept features a roll cage, along with a “safety-op...

Audi's stunning Paris coupe concept looks likely to hit the road – and soon… Audi says building its stunning Quattro concept car from the Paris Motor could add an exotic edge to its sportscar line-up. The chunky, turbocharged, five-cylinder coupe polarized opinions in Paris, with its clear A5 waistline and huge, open grille area mixing unhappily in some eyes. But design chief Wolfgang Egger’s styling isn’t the biggest source of controversy. While actually building the Quattro might not be a technical issue (the showcar is a full ‘runner’), it seems that agreeing on how many to build might be. While Quattro GmbH head, Stephan Reil, claimed it would only go into production as an exotic, limited-run Audi, VW Group boss, Dr Martin Winterkorn, thought Audi might build 35,000 per year. “This car is more than pure fantasy. We have started looking and we are rethinking standard processes to make it possible, but we haven’t decided yet,” Reil insisted. “There are two impo...

Audi has shocked Paris with a hybrid diesel roadster that boasts near-supercar performance If Audi shook the Detroit Motor Show with its baby electric sportscar in January, it has absolutely rocked Paris today with a long-range, plug-in hybrid, convertible version of its e-tron. The e-tron Spyder is not just a pointer to Audi’s new design language, but it sits on a fully-engineered, modular, mid-engined chassis and debuts the latest generation of Audi’s V6 turbodiesel family and thanks to a part electric powertrain has very low emissions. While the original e-tron family was fully electric, this one uses a 221kW twin-turbo common-rail diesel to drive the rear wheels and two 32kW electric motors to drive the front wheels. The result is a very fast convertible indeed, with Audi claiming the e-tron Spyder will hit 100km/h in just 4.4 seconds. The car is so fast that it has been limited to 250km/h. But all that speed comes at very low environmental cost, because the e-tron Sp...

Audi's best designers competed to get the job to build a tribute to the original quattro German powerhouse Audi is using the Paris Motor Show for much more than the serious business of its version of an eco-friendly hybrid future. While its e-tron Spyder might be stealing the headlines, Audi design teams fought and won an internal contest for Paris to design this 30th anniversary homage to its original ground-breaking quattro coupe. Based on a cut-down version of the RS5 coupe, the quattro concept runs a five-cylinder turbocharged engine and, naturally enough, quattro all-wheel-drive to remain true to the basic layout of the original. The quattro debuted at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show and went on to become a rallying legend. Thus Audi’s bosses briefed its two design chiefs, Stefan Seilaff and Wolfgang Egger, to go head-to-head to revive its spirit 30 years later. The six-speed manual quattro concept has nothing to do with ‘green’ this or ‘eco’ that, but could p...

Audi renews e-tron concept for Detroit Audi has used the Detroit show to reiterate its intentions in the EV sector, rolling out a renewed e-tron concept — the third in less than six months. On the heels of the original e-tron — the hit of last September’s Frankfurt show — and a modest makeover of that car for the LA show, comes a slightly shorter, lighter package with substantially reworked drivetrain and interior. The basic design concept remains the same, but the package is smaller and simpler. The biggest change is a retreat from AWD to RWD. Instead of the original’s wheel motors on all four corners, this one has just two, each with its own cooling system, mounted on the rear axle. Between them they put out 150kW and — okay, it’s not the original’s 4500 but it’s still staggering — 2650Nm of torque. Audi claims a 0-100km/h sprint in 5.9sec. That’s around a second slower than its predecessor, but this one delivers substantial improvements in midrange overta...