Audi’s 310-Mile Pure Electric SUV Scheduled For Early 2018 Launch

Stadler said Audi's new EV will be able to get 80 percent of its charge in 20 minutes using a fast-charging station. He noted that China is developing a network of fast-charging stations covering about 10,000 miles of highways by 2020 with a station every 30 miles. Other countries have similar initiatives, he said.

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Reliance on some purported initiatives by Governments. No talk of their own charging infrastructure.

Audi says it new battery-powered SUV will have a longer range than the Tesla Model X crossover, which will go on sale shortly. The Model X has a range of up to 267 miles. Tesla this month began sales of a longer-range version of its Model S sedan with a range of 240 miles between charges.

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An implication that the Model S wasn't capable of > 240 miles up until this launch (of the 70D).

80% charge in 20 minutes for a car with >300 mile range? That's twice as fast as a Tesla supercharger. When do we get to see a demonstration of whatever the charging equivalent of vaporware is?

I hope its real and I hope it arrives in 2018 as claimed and I hope it is as competitive with the 2015 Model X in 2018 as Audi claims it will be. That would actually represent a pretty big closing of the gap, and would represent that many more electric cars being built and available for people to buy.

And it will still be a long ways behind Tesla.


The way I like to think of it - it seems like Audi is the only company that is kind of directly following in Tesla's footsteps. Start with a low volume, high performance expensive sports car. Work your way down to something still expensive but less so, and with better family utility.

They're missing out on the Supercharger network that they need to start building (or contributing to).


Who knows - maybe in the intervening 3 years Audi will have a car that I would actually cross shop against anything Tesla is building or will be building. If I were betting today, I'd take the "nope" on that one

More noise from Audi. They should stop spending so much time on press releases and actually build an EV. By 2016 (long before 2018) I am certain that there will be multiple Tesla models that have an over 300 mile range, including the Roadster! Audi will still be far behind in the EV world.

Shouldn't this thread be in the Electric-Vehicles section?

Please note that no specific information is provided on which standard they're using to estimate the 310 mile expected range. I'll bet that they are using the NEDC standard and not the EPA standard. The Model-S already has a 310-mile NEDC range (but only a 265-mile EPA range) so I bet Audi (being a European company) is using the NEDC standard. Its not as impressive once you understand that the range would be very similar to the Model-S is today. In 3 years, the Model-X might have already surpassed this range. Also, these are all estimations. When real testing is done, it may not meet those initial estimates.

FWIW, if this will be based on Q5... it sounds to me more like a competitor to the Model 3? Model X is in the Q7 size, and Model S in the A7 size... Q5 is smaller.

Well, price-wise it may of course be a Model X competitor unless Audi gets their act together.

2018, not so impressive.

If you read the article in Green car report it says says 500km = 310 miles and quite sure this is using NEDC.
Model S have 502km (311Miles) basen on NEDC.
NEDC is not a good measurement and let the car companies produce low/falce CO2 numbers. :-(
I hope the WLDP will be implemented as soon as possible, look like it is delayed to 2017.

One should welcome Audi to the EV vehicle production. With its capacity and engineering it would go a long way to reducing CO2 emissions. The prize isn't whether Tesla or Audi wins this race against global warming, it's how many manufacturers will follow the disruption of Big Oil and CO2 in the vehicle market that Tesla and Elon Musk have spent years to jump start. There is more at stake than whether Audi, Tesla or GM is producing low-zero emission vehicles. The announcement of Tesla Powerwall, aids in reducing emissions for Gas and Coal fired power plants. Keep out eyes on the real prize -- a better planet for out kids and grand kids. Go Audi and all the other comer -- That's Elon's wishes, it should be ours.

I hope this comes to fruition, but...

...<Yawn>. Call me when you have a real product or a functioning prototype that actually delivers impressive numbers in the real world. It seems like they're just trying to get Tesla purchasers to "wait it out" on the sidelines for Audi's EV. (They're probably scared of losing customers to Tesla permanently).

I don't understand why someone would compare a product they plan to sell 3 years from now (at best) to a product that starts selling in a month. That seems like a big marketing mistake to me...especially when the difference between the two numbers (assuming NEDC range) is not all that significant. Do they think Tesla's numbers are going to stay still?

Again, they're skating to where the puck is instead of where it will be 3+ years from now.

"Wait 3 years, folks! We think we have a design that might have a few more miles range than the SUV you can get in a month!"

Where are the plans for the multiple huge battery gigafactories needed to support more than token sales of this expected product?
280 kW charging? Really? Hmmm. Sounds nice. Do you have a functional prototype? No? OK. Call me when you do.
Charging infrastructure? Get on that!

So many promises. As of yet nothing to show.

vandacca said:

Please note that no specific information is provided on which standard they're using to estimate the 310 mile expected range. I'll be that they are using the NEDC standard and not the EPA standard. The Model-S already has a 310-mile NEDC range (but only a 265-mile EPA range) so I bet (Audi being a European company) is using the NEDC standard. Its not as impressive once you understand that the range would be very similar to the Model-S is today. In 3 years, the Model-X might have already surpassed this range. Also, this is all estimations. When real testing is done, it may not meet those initial estimates.

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I don't think they are using any standard - NEDC, EPA, or anything else. They are 3+ years away in the press release, which means they may not have a single driveable version of any kind, much less a car that is enough baked to run through any mileage testing process and generate an answer. The range is as much a wish as a belief / hope / guess / intent of what the physics of the car they intend to design and build will achieve.

So wrap some generous uncertainty bars around it, and IMHO, be excited that we've now (by my count) got 3 companies talking about long range BEVs - 4 if you count a supplier (Tesla, Chevy, Audi, LG Chem). That's about 3 more than (again by my count) we had talking about long range BEVs at this time last year. If they intend 310 miles and then in 2018, what they actually deliver is an SUV with 200 miles of real world driving range, is that reason for disappointment or joy?

Anything 3 years ahead of time is going to have so much uncertainty and issues that can arise that there's little to do but be happy they think its important enough to talk about, and then go on with ignoring them until they have something tangible that can be compared to other options.

At least for me, 2015 is shaping up as lots of things to be excited about, and to continue ignoring

Welcome to the EV fray Audi.
Best of luck with your announcement and ambitious plans.

IF Audi currently had a full-size EV that was capable of 150 real miles of range, this might not be so shocking.
IF Audi already had displayed their rapid charging station(s) and network, this might be understandable.
I am certain that the graphic of the SUV did take some talent and time, but it is merely a designer's sketch, not even a clay model.

As it is, I think the 310 mile range for Audi's SUV in 2018 is vaporware.
Same for their charging stations/network: smoke and mirrors.

Oh, and I hope Audi doesn't think Tesla will be sitting on their hands and not continue to improve on their product line and charging network in the next three years, because they will be well into developing the next Model after Model 3.

Aljohn said:

One should welcome Audi to the EV vehicle production. With its capacity and engineering it would go a long way to reducing CO2 emissions. The prize isn't whether Tesla or Audi wins this race against global warming, it's how many manufacturers will follow the disruption of Big Oil and CO2 in the vehicle market that Tesla and Elon Musk have spent years to jump start. There is more at stake than whether Audi, Tesla or GM is producing low-zero emission vehicles. The announcement of Tesla Powerwall, aids in reducing emissions for Gas and Coal fired power plants. Keep out eyes on the real prize -- a better planet for out kids and grand kids. Go Audi and all the other comer -- That's Elon's wishes, it should be ours.

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There is absolutely room for both Tesla and Audi to succeed and compete in the EV space (which will rapidly grow in the next few years). Just wish these other companies would put their money where their mouth is and actually build a *real* EV that even remotely competes with Tesla in the range, charging, price, and performance numbers. Until that time, these are nothing but empty promises.

Todd Burch said:

280 kW charging? Really? Hmmm. Sounds nice. Do you have a functional prototype? No? OK. Call me when you do.
Charging infrastructure? Get on that!

So many promises. As of yet nothing to show.

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Audi talks a big game, but the article quoted Audi management as placing higher priority on hybrid and plugin hybrid over the next decade. The reason they have nothing to show is that they are still all in with petrol engines.

A long range battery is definitely insufficient by itself to sell a mass market EV. Without a fast charging network in place, the puzzle is not complete. I won't take any of the big automakers seriously on EVs until they actually show something real that is competitive.

Todd Burch said:

I don't understand why someone would compare a product they plan to sell 3 years from now (at best) to a product that starts selling in a month. That seems like a big marketing mistake to me...

...

"Wait 3 years, folks! We think we have a design that might have a few more miles range than the SUV you can get in a month!"

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It's an attempt of course to make the Audi faithful settle for a Q5 or a Q7 now in the hope that they can get an Audi EV SUV in 3 years. There's surely plenty of concern in the Audi boardroom about all the Q5/7 sales that are going to be lost to the Model X.

Todd Burch said:

I hope this comes to fruition, but...

...<Yawn>. Call me when you have a real product or a functioning prototype that actually delivers impressive numbers in the real world. It seems like they're just trying to get Tesla purchasers to "wait it out" on the sidelines for Audi's EV. (They're probably scared of losing customers to Tesla permanently).

I don't understand why someone would compare a product they plan to sell 3 years from now (at best) to a product that starts selling in a month. That seems like a big marketing mistake to me...especially when the difference between the two numbers (assuming NEDC range) is not all that significant. Do they think Tesla's numbers are going to stay still?

Again, they're skating to where the puck is instead of where it will be 3+ years from now.

"Wait 3 years, folks! We think we have a design that might have a few more miles range than the SUV you can get in a month!"

Where are the plans for the multiple huge battery gigafactories needed to support more than token sales of this expected product?
280 kW charging? Really? Hmmm. Sounds nice. Do you have a functional prototype? No? OK. Call me when you do.
Charging infrastructure? Get on that!

So many promises. As of yet nothing to show.

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mmmm Todd... and how long have we awaited the Model X?? It is the nature of technology break through. Audi will not release a problematic vehicle, neither will Tesla. Unfortunately, can't say the same GM. If not for having my current Q7 for 7 years, it would be a possible replacement SUV alternative (but the Q5 size chassis is too small for my needs). But a 2018 Launch for Audi is a production vehicle ready for deliver 2 years later ... Tesla like.... lol.

Yet another Audi EV press release.

Yawn. Into the overflowing round file with all the rest they've put out in the past 10 years. Number of delivered customer Audi EV's in that time? Still zero...