Ready for the world

The excitement is mounting as the countdown to the international unveiling of Audi’s first ever all-electric production vehicle enters its final week.

For many months now, the heavily camouflaged Audi e-tron prototype has been seen on the road all over the world, as well as in places where roads are frankly, optional, being put through its paces to ensure the final series production model is up to anything the world can through at it.

That equates to more than five million kilometres, across four continents under conditions so extreme in many cases, that the series production vehicles will never experience in their lifetimes. 

But that’s how Audi operates with the development of any new model, and for such a groundbreaking model for the brand – the first series production, all-electric vehicle – nothing can be left to chance.

From the freezing, 20 degrees below temperatures of the arctic circle, to 50 degrees above through Africa, a fleet of some 250 Audi e-tron prototypes have been pushed, evaluated and pushed again.

From the famed Pikes Peak, to high in the mountainous altitudes of Asia or on the north loop of the Green Hell – the infamous Nürburgring – usually home to the world’s fastest race cars, the e-tron prototype has proved its mettle.

To test it in the cut and thrust of city traffic, Audi technicians and engineers took on the super cities of China, as well as cruising the American highways to see just how it would perform and continue to perform, hour after hour, kilometre after kilometre.

In addition to the sheer distances travelled, the charging technology has also come under intense scrutiny worldwide – an important safeguarding criterion for battery-electric models. The individual charging standards are tested on proving grounds and in public areas to validate the full range of different charging options. 

A mammoth task, but one that will deliver the best outcome when the covers come off the production ready model in San Francisco in just under a week (September 17th). There is no denying the importance of the Audi e-tron SUV as the first of many new all-electric models to come from the brand over the next years. So 85,000 hours of driving and the equivalent of 125 times around the earth probably isn’t so extreme.