Audi A1 e-tron 2011 Review - International

Audi A1 e-tron

Mazda has stuck with Wankel to this day, investing enough in it to see the 2000’s RX8 pick up COTY awards worldwide, including Wheels magazine’s in 2003. But even after improvements to its reliability and performance, it has remained an oddball outsider all its life.

If Audi has its way, it could have a bigger future than many might have thought – albeit in much smaller form. As spokesman Heiko Seegatz explained at the press conference, the company saw good reason to take the rotary option for the range extender engine in its A1 e-tron. It’s compact enough to sit in the spare tyre space beneath the boot floor, it weighs just 65kg and it’s extremely low on noise and vibration.

Seegatz said the key focus for the vehicle as a whole was on integrating the drive technology into the package to ensure minimum intrusion into the lives of users. An engine this compact and light helps ensure buyers get a car with full capacity for people and things.

And, here tasked with powering a mere generator rather than an entire car, it’s clean and fuel efficient into the bargain. Audi claims that under the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) testing regime for range extender equipped vehicles, the A1 e-tron is good for an overall 1.9L/100km and gives off just 45g/km CO2, meaning it meets Euro 6 emissions targets. (The company is quick to point out the procedure is still under development and yet to be ratified, but it’s still the best indicator available, giving the nearest thing possible to an ‘official’ fuel consumption figure.)

Turning up for the road test in Hakone, the A1 e-tron proves not to be whisper quiet. The range extender’s small-generator whirr is easily audible from both within and without the car, but it’s not offensive. It also should not be forgotten that despite its clearly advanced stage of development, this car is still a prototype. Ironically, as they work to keep the engine as quiet as possible, they’re simultaneously scratching their heads over what to do about making enough noise to make it safe for pedestrians.

Outdoors, the car is A1 through and through, save for subtle badging and some not-so-subtle decal work on the sides. Inside is the same, with virtually nothing away from the controls to signal the differences underneath from the donor car.

Those differences are major. Conceptually, the A1 e-tron correlates with GM’s Volt. That is, it uses an electric motor to power the car, a battery to power the electric motor and the small (rotary) petrol engine to help power the battery. There is no direct relationship between the burner and the wheels.

The reason for that food processor whirr and the tiny fuel consumption figure is that the range extender engine is tiny, displacing just 254cc and putting out all of 15kW. That said, it’s so utterly different in its workings from conventional piston engines like that found in the Volt that talking displacements can mislead – Mazda’s RX8 gets about 150kW out of just 1.3 litres.

The idea behind a range extender is to give owners something like the best of both worlds, urban and highway. Its battery pack is no match for full EVs like the A3 e-tron on test alongside it. That’s clear in the difference in size – at 150kg, the A1’s is half the size of the A3’s. Mounted underfloor across the rear and part way down a central tunnel in a T-configuration, it’s enough to give the 1190kg car 50km of all-electric driving – enough to fulfil most European commuters’ workaday travel needs.

For those times they want more, the range extender engine delivers enough top-up time for up to 250km.

Like the exterior, the interior is essentially standard A1. Until you look at the controls, at which point you find a power output meter in place of a tacho, and a strange low-end setting on the otherwise standard looking auto transmission gearstick. It’s marked by a triangular rotor logo, denoting Range Extender mode.

So, what’s it like to drive? Six kilometres – actually 2x3 kilometres – isn’t a lot of track on which to gauge the day-to-day reality of a vehicle. But first impressions are positive.

Turn the key and you’re met with the usual dashboard Christmas lights and... silence. Pull the stick into Range Extender mode and the little engine boots up. The system doesn’t depend on the driver for this – with the single-cog transmission in Drive, the ECU will switch it on automatically when it detects battery power getting worryingly low.

Up front, depressing the accelerator elicits a turbine-like whine from under the bonnet. Audi claims a 0-100km/h sprint time of 10.2 seconds. It feels faster, probably because of the electric motor’s characteristic ability to deliver its full 240Nm whack of torque off the mark. Floor it and the power needle flies up into the red and bangs against max-power with alarming speed. It’s not hard to get the whole package rubbing up against its electronically limited 130km/h top speed.

The drive motor is good for a sustained 45kW with short spikes of peak 75kW available when it’s needed. The test track was no alpine pass, but the A1 e-tron appeared untroubled by the short stretch of uphill available.

Audi fits its e-tron cars with a paddle-switched, four-stage energy regeneration system, allowing drivers manual access to a setting most appropriate to each journey and a useful braking device. It’s easy to get used to – the right paddle shifts the system up 0-1-2-3, the left shifts it down. At zero, the system is off, allowing maximum roll. Paddle it up and it’s easy to feel the resistance rise with each setting. It takes no time at all to incorporate the device to full effect in your driving. Flicking it up to max washes off speed very quickly indeed, giving the A1 a slot-car feel. Used properly, it’s also a safer way to brake, absorbing momentum through the drivetrain and reducing the risk of going into a slide.

Like most generator engines, the range extender runs at stable revs. Rotaries are by nature responsive and revvy, but here Audi has programmed the ECU for two running speeds – a normal 5000rpm and a half-speed setting with commensurate limitations on its contribution to battery power.

The steering is Audi-light, while the chassis shows the benefits of the low centre of gravity provided by the battery. On this short drive along a carefully selected stretch of road, it felt well planted and eminently manageable, even at speed.

We had a minor hiccup when the thing went dead and had to be rebooted. That we’ll write off as a ‘junior moment’, of the kind inevitable to prototype vehicles. It’s not on the market for a couple of years yet, running behind the R8 e-tron due out in the first half of 2013.

The A1 e-tron showcases Audi’s transition technology deemed a mid-term phase between today’s high-efficiency fossil fuel engines and the full EV packages it wants on the market within a decade. If this is anything to go by, it’s going to be a smooth transition indeed.

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