Pure-electric 2019 Audi e-tron ditches door mirrors

The forthcoming Audi e-tron electric SUV will ditch conventional door mirrors and replace them with the world's first 'virtual' exterior mirrors, in a bid to lower drag and boost its pure-electric range.

Despite being a large SUV, the Audi e-tron features a drag coefficient of just 0.28Cd – the same as the Nissan's current 2018 LEAF.

Part of the reason the Audi e-tron slips through the air so easily is its far slimmer rear-view cameras, which are a fraction of the size of conventional mirrors and reduce the total width of the SUV by 150mm.

Projecting the view behind on small screens located between the doors and the dash, the displays will offer three views -- for highway driving, turning and parking.

Audi claims the use of the camera is a world-first -- but it's not the only air-bending trick it's relied on while creating the e-tron.

The pure-electric SUV also comes with active aerodynamics and air suspension that lowers at speed.

There's no conventional grille up front and, underneath, golf ball-style 'dimples' on the underbody are claimed to make air flow smoother than a conventional flat surface.

At speed, the Audi e-tron has neat louvres and an active grille that can open to cool the electric motors and channel air to the air-conditioning or even the brakes when driving hard on your favourite road.

Without all the clever aero, the large SUV would offer almost 34km less range, says Audi.

With them, Audi claims the e-tron will cover 399km on the new, tougher WLTP test cycle that's designed to produce more realistic figures.

Releasing images to show the e-tron in the wind tunnel it spent over 1000 hours testing in, Audi says its engineers concentrated on shaping the e-tron's body panels to ensure the lowest possible drag and turbulence to optimise range.

The Audi e-tron, which is set to be unveiled in August ahead of the Paris motor show, will come with dual motors that provide for all-wheel drive.

Powering the large pure-electric SUV will be an energy-dense 95kWh lithium-ion battery that can withstand 150kWh DC fast-charging -- 30kWh more than a Tesla using its Supercharger network.

As well as the fast DC charger, the e-tron will also get an 11kW on-board AC charger with the option of a 22kW charger. Both can recover energy on the move.

Audi has confirmed the e-tron can be fully charged in 8.5 hours when connected to a 300-volt three-phase outlet. The German car-maker is yet to disclose how long the e-tron's batteries take to charge using a conventional household socket.

It's also still unknown how powerful (or quick) the e-tron will be, although performance variants are expected to arrive following its launch.

Due to be unveiled on August 30, the Audi e-tron is set to go on sale in Australia in early 2019 priced from around $170,000.