Audi Goes Electric

Audi unveiled its first electric car and we got a sneak preview of the car at a photo studio before its glittering world premiere in San Francisco that we also attended, in the heart of the global tech world on the west coast of the US of A.Yogendra Pratap reports.

- A. Yogendra Pratap

It was no surprise that Audi chose the SUV silhouette for its first electric car and chose to stay close to conventional car design rather than go as radical as the new configuration allows or as radical as its competitors like BMW and Jaguar have gone.

The e-tron uses a modified version of the same MLB platform, that is modular and serves as a base for its other large SUVs like the Q7 and the Q5 and hence leads to the more traditional look. However, the electric car has certain distinguishing design features like the inverted grille-frame, the accents on the sides that emphasize the location of the heart of the car, the battery pack.

In terms of dimensions the e-tron sits firmly between the Q7 and the Q5, with both its wheelbase and length falling between the two large Audi SUVs. It is wider than the Q5 as well but narrower than the Q7.

Even if the e-tron is an SUV, particular attention was paid to the aerodynamics from early on in the development process that resulted in things like the virtual mirrors (more details in box) and a totally flat but dimpled underbody that help give it a coefficient of drag of 0.27 that compares well with competition like the Tesla Model X that has a CoD of 0.25 and the Jaguar i-Pace at 0.29.