quattro on-demand can switch between all-wheel drive and front-wheel drive in a fraction of a second by monitoring driving dynamics, road conditions and driver behaviour. As a result, potential CO2 emissions and fuel consumption is reduced compared to a car with permanently engaged all-wheel drive. Yet you still have all the benefits of quattro, as the system is always ready to step in when needed.

Article source: www.audi.co.uk

• Production of the Audi Q8 crossover SUV to start in Bratislava in 2018
• Audi Q4 compact utility vehicle from Győr as of 2019
• Board of Management Member for Production Prof. Dr. Hubert Waltl: “Increased competitiveness in the SUV segment”

Audi is to expand its portfolio with two new Q models and has announced where they will be built: production of the Audi Q8 will start in Bratislava (Slovakia) in 2018 and the first Audi Q4 will drive off the assembly line in Győr (Hungary) in 2019.

“We will integrate two completely new Q models into the existing production network and will thus increase our competitiveness in an extremely important segment,” stated Audi’s Board of Management Member for Production and Logistics, Prof. Dr. Hubert Waltl.

With the Audi Q8, the brand will open up a new segment for its top-end models. The premium SUV in a coupe style combines great spaciousness with emotive design and offers the latest technologies in assistance and infotainment systems. Audi will produce the model in Bratislava as of 2018. The Audi Q7 has already been produced at the Slovakian plant since 2005. Meanwhile, the second generation of the large SUV is in production there, as an S version and as the Q7 e-tron plug-in hybrid.

In 2019, production of the Audi Q4 will start at Audi Hungaria in Győr. With this model, the brand is entering the segment of compact utility vehicles (CUVs). Featuring a typical coupe-style silhouette, the Audi Q4 will be positioned between the Audi Q3 and Q5. And as of 2018, Audi Hungaria will also be responsible for production of the Audi Q3 compact SUV, which until then will continue to be produced in Martorell, Spain.

Article source: www.audi.co.uk

Audi reveals its second all-electric concept, capable of reaching 62mph in just 4.5 seconds and covering in excess of 310 miles.

• In production from 2019
• Emotional and powerful Audi coupé design
• Illuminating: e-tron light communicates with its surroundings
• Electrified quattro: torque delivered to all four wheels via three electric motors

Ingolstadt/Shanghai, April 18, 2017 - Design study and technology demonstrator, electric car and power pack in the guise of a coupé: Audi presents a versatile concept car at the Auto Shanghai this spring. Powered by a 320 kW electric drive, the four-door Gran Turismo Audi e-tron Sportback concept combines classic Audi elements with an array of trendsetting details: an electrifying architecture, tailored consistently to the technology and the package of the electric drive.

The Audi e-tron Sportback represents an important milepost for Audi along the road to electric mobility. Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, confirmed: “Our Audi e tron will be starting out in 2018 – the first electric car in its competitive field that is fit for everyday use. With a range of over 310 miles and the special electric driving experience, we will make this sporty SUV the must-have product of the next decade. Following close on its heels, in 2019, comes the production version of the Audi e tron Sportback – an emotional coupé version that is thrillingly identifiable as an electric car at the very first glance.”

In its consciously light-coloured interior the Audi e tron Sportback concept offers a blend of functional clarity and reductive controls as a formal principle. Expansive touch-sensitive screens below the central display, on the centre console and in the door trims supply information and interact with the on-board systems. Horizontal surfaces on the dashboard and the seemingly floating centre console convey a sense of open perspectives for the occupants of the four individual seats.

The concept car’s lighting technology is an innovation that is visible by both day and night. Digitally controlled Matrix LED units at the front and rear produce an excellent light yield. Minuscule Digital Matrix projectors literally make their mark on the road ahead, turning light into a versatile, dynamic channel of communication with the surroundings. The brand with the four rings was the first in the world to adopt full LED headlights, and gave Matrix LED technology, laser lighting and OLED technology a significant push towards their breakthrough. The technology study for Shanghai now premieres a whole host of complex functions that steer vision and interaction with the surroundings in a new direction.

Narrow light strips on both sides below the front lid – the daytime running lights – become the eyes on the face of the study. Thanks to a combination of LEDs and a micromirror-studded surface plus complex control technology, a large number of animated movements and signatures are possible. When the e tron Sportback starts and also when the doors are opened, the system uses switchable segments to generate dynamic visual welcome signals.

Below the daytime running lights, to the left and right of the Singleframe, there are two large-area light fields each comprising an arrangement of around 250 LEDs. They offer a vast array of possibilities for creating engaging graphics or specific communicative signs, even while on the move.

For its drive, the e tron Sportback uses a configuration that will also be adopted in future production Audi models with all-electric drive: One electric motor on the front axle and two on the rear power all four wheels, transforming the high-performance coupé into a quattro in typical Audi style. 320 kW of power – which can even reach 370 kW in the boost mode – provide a fitting level of propulsion, with the sprint from 0 to 62mph a done deal in just 4.5 seconds. With the battery’s energy content of 95 kilowatt-hours, its range is in excess of 310 miles.

As previously on the e tron quattro concept, the technology study’s liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery is positioned between the axles below the passenger compartment. This installation position provides for a low centre of gravity and a balanced axle load distribution of 52:48 (front/rear), giving outstanding driving dynamics and driving safety compared with other vehicles in the segment. The battery can be charged by the Combined Charging System with dual connections for alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC).

Dr. Dietmar Voggenreiter, Member of the Board of Management for Marketing and Sales at AUDI AG, understands the special significance of electric mobility for the market in China: “We have made a conscious decision to give the Audi e tron Sportback its first showing here in Shanghai, because China is the world’s leading market for electric automobiles. That applies as much to the infrastructure and financial support as it does to sales. There are already about 150,000 charging stations in the country, with another 100,000 due to come on stream by the end of 2017. We are well equipped for this rapid growth. In the next five years we will be offering five e tron models in China, including purely battery-powered vehicles with ranges well in excess of 310 miles such as the Audi e tron Sportback.”

The study vehicle’s front end displays the familiar octagonal Singleframe with an overtly wide, horizontal cut – the greatly reduced amount of air required by the electric motor means the large opening can be omitted here. The sculptural surface painted in the body colour has a structured pattern emblasoned with the four-rings logo – just like the grille of the classic Singleframe.

The edges of the central surface are drawn back, allowing air to flow through at the top. The air inlet is bracketed again by an octagonal, black-painted frame that structures almost the entire width of the front end.

Between the front lid extending low down, the front apron and the wheel arches, it combines with the light units to give this Audi an unmistakable face. The Audi designers also adopt a new tack for the air flow through the front lid. Above its front section, which dips deeply at the front, a bridge running parallel with the nose connects the two wheel arches and also doubles up as an air deflector.

This gives the front end a much more dynamic character than the hefty forward structure of a car with a combustion engine installed at the front.

At the sides of the concept car, the wheel arches extending well out from the cabin with pointedly horizontal top edges define the conspicuous quattro architecture. As well as providing visual evidence of a wide track and dynamic potential, they also bind the e tron Sportback into the brand’s DNA. Large 23-inch wheels in a technical 6-spoke design highlight the confident presence of the imposingly dimensioned coupé. An exterior length of 4.90 metres, a width of 1.98 metres and a height of 1.53 metres with a wheelbase of 2.93 metres position the e tron Sportback in the C segment, close to the Audi A7.

Small cameras replace the exterior mirrors. This technology offers other advantages besides improved air flow and reduced wind noise. The blind spot of the physical exterior mirror is virtually eliminated, as is the obstruction to the diagonal forward view. The camera images are shown on separate displays in the doors. Audi is showing this technology as a concrete foretaste of the production version.

At the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show Audi unveiled the Audi e tron quattro concept – the forerunner of the brand’s first all-electric-drive production automobile. As a radically reconfigured SUV it offers a range of up to 310 miles with the spaciousness and comfort of a typical full-size automobile from Audi. It has the road performance of a high-performance sports car – the Audi e tron quattro sprints from 0 to 62mph in only 4.6 seconds. The production version of this pioneering electric SUV will appear on the market in 2018. The Audi e tron Sportback concept car will be followed by its production version in 2019.

Article source: www.audi.co.uk

• Luxury saloon lives up to its reputation as an innovation driver in lightweight design
• Comfortable entry and improved view thanks to roller hemming
• Extraordinary torsional rigidity delivers gains in driving dynamics and acoustics
• Intelligent mix of four materials: aluminium, steel, magnesium and CFRP
• Know-how based on more than one million series cars with Audi Space Frames

Neckarsulm, April 5, 2017 – Audi is writing a new chapter in its lightweight design success story. For the next generation of the Audi A8, an intelligent mix of four materials is being used for the first time in the weight-bearing body structure – more materials than in any of the brand’s previous production models. The luxury saloon is thus once again rightfully claiming its role as an innovation driver in automotive lightweight design: Its low weight and impressive rigidity offer greater performance, efficiency and safety.

The lightweight design experts at Audi long ago abandoned the fixation on using a single material in lightweight design. With a mix of aluminium, steel, magnesium and carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) they are establishing a new stage in multi-material construction in the Audi Space Frame (ASF) for the next generation of the Audi A8 – in keeping with the principle "right material in the right place and in the right amount."

Audi consistently applies new material technologies and designs that directly benefit the customer – and not only in terms of weight. The upcoming flagship’s torsional rigidity – the critical parameter for precise handling and pleasing acoustics – surpasses the excellent values of its predecessor by a factor of about one quarter.

Innovative production process – the carbon rear panel in the new Audi A8

In terms of its overall dimensions, an ultra-high-strength, torsionally rigid rear panel made of CFRP is the largest component in the occupant cell of the new Audi A8, and it contributes 33 percent to the torsional rigidity of the total vehicle. To optimally absorb longitudinal and transverse loads as well as shearing force, between six and 19 fibre layers are placed one on top of the other, ensuring a load-optimised layout. These individual fibre layers consist of tapes 50 millimetres wide and can be placed individually in a finished layered package, with any desired fibre angle and minimal trimming of the fibres. The innovative direct-fibre layering process specially developed for this purpose makes it possible to entirely dispense with the normally needed intermediary step of manufacturing entire sheets. Using another newly developed process, the layered package is wetted with epoxide resin and sets within minutes.

A high-strength combination of hot-formed steel components make up the occupant cell, which comprises the lower section of the front bulkhead, the side sills, the B-pillars and the front section of the roof line. Some of these sheet metal blanks are produced in varying thicknesses using tailoring technologies – meaning they are customised – and others also undergo partial heat treatment. That reduces weight and increases the strength, especially in areas of the vehicle that are particularly critical for safety.

The aluminium components make up 58 percent of the new Audi A8 body, the largest share in the mix of materials. Cast nodes, extruded profiles and sheets are the elements characteristic of the ASF design. And here too the competition of materials has been driving progress. New heat-treated, ultra-high-strength cast alloys attain a tensile strength of over 230 MPa (megapascals). The corresponding yield strength in the tensile test is over 180 MPa, and for the profile alloys it is higher than 280, i.e. 320 MPa – significantly higher values than seen previously.

Rounding out the intelligent mix of materials is the magnesium strut brace. A comparison with the predecessor model shows that it contributes a 28-percent weight savings. Aluminium bolts secure the connection to the strut tower domes, making them a guarantor of the body’s high torsional rigidity. In the event of a frontal collision, the forces generated are distributed to three impact buffers in the front end.

Benefits for customers and the environment – the new body shop for the Audi A8

In addition to the complete redevelopment of the Audi Space Frame for the next generation A8, the production halls at the Neckarsulm location were specially built for the upcoming flagship. A total of 14,400 metric tonnes of steel were needed just for construction of the new, 41-metre-high body shop, twice as much steel as was used for the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

The highly complex yet energy-efficient production operation uses 14 different joining processes, including roller hemming at the front and rear door cutouts. This mechanical, “cold” technology is used to join the aluminium side wall frame to the hot-formed, ultra-strong steel sheets at the B-pillar, roof line and sills. The engineers thus realised improvements of up to 36 millimetres at the door cutouts compared to the predecessor model. That in turn makes getting in and out of the car even more comfortable and widens the driver’s field of vision around the A-pillar, an area that is key to safe driving.

As for the “warm” joining processes, Audi stands alone among the premium automakers by virtue of its development of remote laser welding for use with aluminium. Exact positioning of the laser beam in relation to the welding edge considerably reduces the risk of hot cracking during the production process. The new process makes it possible to precisely control the penetration depth of the laser by means of the heat input. In this way, process control can immediately determine the gap width between parts being joined, and this can effectively be closed using regulating controls. The laser beam’s high feed rate and low energy use reduce the CO2 emissions of this production step by about one fourth.

This new process also results in a 95 percent savings on recurring costs in series production because it eliminates the need for costly process controls required with conventional laser welding. The remote laser welding technology perfectly symbolises the entire production of the new Audi A8.

In 1994 it was the first generation of this luxury saloon, with its aluminium unitary body, that made the Audi Space Frame an established presence in the automotive world. Since then the company has built more than one million production cars in accordance with this design principle, and it has been continually building upon its know-how in the use of materials and joining techniques.

Article source: www.audi.co.uk