Green Options

The Audi E-Tron electric sports car is a go, according to Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen. The super-futuristic electric car that debuted at the Frankfurt Auto Show was such a hit that de Nysschen thinks there will be working examples on the road within two years.

I’ve been happy with all the recent efforts by European auto manufacturers to bring fuel-efficient diesels back to the States. From Volkswagen to Mercedes, diesels seem to be the new attempt at pleasing the US “green” crowd with classy, low-emissions fuel-sippers.

Reading that last sentence over, it seems funny to call them a “new attempt” because these high mileage diesels have been available to Europeans for a LONG time — but that’s another story.

So, while it’s debatable whether a gasoline-powered Prius at 40 mpg is more “green” than a diesel-powered Jetta at 40 mpg — it all has to do with how much of each type of fuel comes out of one barrel of oil — It’s a fact that having these new clean diesels as an option is certainly something the US has been lacking for a long time. And I appreciate having that option, I really do.

Set your DVRs: The Science Channel’s “How It’s Made” covers Audi clean diesel technology. Debuting TODAY, September 18th, 2009 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with an encore broadcast on the Discovery Channel on Thursday, September 24, 2009, 7:00 and 11:00 p.m. ET/PT.

“How It’s Made” is one of those head scratchers of a show for me. Take one part horrible muzak and one part kind-of-boring monotone narrator; mix it with some cool behind-the-scenes manufacturing footage of stuff that you normally take for granted; throw in some occasional history and you’ve got yourself… a winner? As much as the show bores my wife to tears, for some reason I love it. It’s so cheesy and cool at the same time.

So I was excited to hear that the show will be doing a segment on the building of an Audi V6 3.0 TDI clean diesel engine. Audi has recently started a push to bring their new clean diesels to the US and market them as a green alternative to gas cars and even electric cars. In fact, Johan de Nysschen, President of Audi America, recently got himself into a bit of hot water by extolling the virtues of diesel while insulting the people who would buy electric drive cars like the Chevy Volt.

Yesterday we brought you news of the impending debut of Audi’s e-tron concept at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Today Audi released more details on the the eco-luxe electric car, and it’s a monster. The car has four electric motors which, together, produce an impressive 313 HP coupled with a jaw-dropping 3,319.03 lb-ft of torque (!!).

To give you an idea of how much torque that is: the not-yet-released, 6.7-liter, turbocharged, 400 HP, Ford Power Stroke Diesel truck engine only produces a wimpy (by comparison) 725 lb-ft. And the “world’s strongest truck” (according to Volvo) — the 700 HP Volvo FH16 semi — produces merely 2,323 lb-ft of torque. The Audi e-tron produces a full thousand more lb-ft of torque than the “world’s strongest” semi truck.

Exciting new pictures of a hotly anticipated Audi electric car concept have been leaked, a week before the ‘official’ unveiling at the Frankfurt Motorshow.

The car will apparently be called the ‘e-Tron,’ and as you can see from the pictures, will take a lot of its design cues from the R8, but with a different front grille, LED headlights, wheels and rear end. Inside, the cabin is also quite different, featuring a driver-biased center console with two screens; one for the rear view camera and one showing a navigation map (see picture gallery after the jump).

It’s an Audi-tastic day! Johan de Nysschen, President of Audi US, certainly took some major heat over the interwebs today for his inflammatory and derogatory statements that the Chevy Volt is a “car for idiots” and that electric cars are only for intellectual elites to “make a statement.” They were especially curious comments because they came at the same time that Audi launched a website touting the power of electricity.

So, knowing how these things usually go, after some serious damage control conference calls between the Audi communications folks and higher level management, de Nysschen was probably forced to respond with a much more diplomatic take on his positions — what he should have done in the first place. It’s so hard to backpedal once you’ve said something as concrete as “you’re an idiot if you buy this car.”

Just ahead of the upcoming Frankfurt Auto Show, Audi is sending out *extremely* mixed signals on how involved it’s going to get in the development and production of electric cars. In the wake of the proclamation by Audi US President, Johan de Nysschen, that the Chevy Volt “is for idiots” and that electric cars are a mistake in general, Audi has just released a barrage of videos teasing about the power of electricity and hinting that they will be developing an electric car.

So which one is it Audi? Are you for or against EVs? Or is it that you just want to appear to be for EVs so that you can tame the “elite intellectual” crowd that you so heavily rely upon, while secretly being against? Perhaps a bit of nefarious greenwashing?

Bring on the war of words. In a frank conversation with MSN writer Lawrence Ulrich, Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen has said that the Chevy Volt will fail and that anybody who buys the car is an idiot. Not only that, de Nysschen has lumped proponents of any type of electric car into a category of “intellectual elite who want to show what enlightened souls they are.”

I’m guessing that means a fair amount of the people reading this would be considered idiots and pompous intellectual elites in Mr. de Nysschen’s book. Funny that. Hearing an Audi executive mocking any other car as being for intellectual pompous elites is, err, interesting, given that Audi is known for being in exactly that category themselves. Agh.

Several weeks ago, I filled you in on Bentley’s upcoming ethanol supercar, promised to be the fastest, most powerful Bentley ever offered.

In the days since, Bentley has kept the world’s journalists hungry for more details, releasing only this “Project Victoria” teaser video, a March reveal date, and precious little else… but has one of Volkswagen’s lesser-known suppliers inadvertently given away Project Victoria’s horsepower secrets?

You bet! Read it here first, after the jump.

The Ricardo Company has a long history of innovation. From the day Harry Ricardo founded the Two-Stroke Engine Company in 1905, to their direct-injection engine patents that date back to the 1930’s, and to the development of several key technologies found in Audi’s dominant LMP sportscars, they seem to always have something up their sleeves.

So, then, it might not be surprising to learn of the Ricardo Company’s latest new project: a true ethanol efficiency breakthrough that Ricardo promises will turn the gasoline vs. ethanol equations upside down.

Ricardo is calling it’s new process Ethanol Boosted Direct Injection (EBDI). Find what you should think about the new tech (and read the original press release) after the jump.

At the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, Audi announced that their Clean Diesel A3 TDI would be available in US by early 2010.

The Audi A3 is by far one of Europe’s cleanest and most fuel-efficient cars, and Audi is hoping the car will kick some major Prius butt. Pitching the car as a hybrid-fighter, Audi is pairing it off against both the Prius and the Honda Insight.