Following the debut of the Audi A1 e-tron at the Geneva Motor Show, the German brand’s technology chief says five percent of its total vehicle sales by 2020 could be electric.
Although it has not yet officially announced production plans, Audi’s Michael Dick has revealed the A1 e-tron is very likely to hit showrooms after an anticipated three-year development phase.
The A1 e-tron is expected to be the second electric vehicle from Audi after it previously revealed two larger e-tron sports car concepts.
Due for a 2012 launch, Dick told Automobilwoche that three or four test vehicles will be put through their paces by the end of this year.
But the A1 will be the volume product, with the concept capable of travelling 50km in electric mode and using about 1.9 litres/100km with the range extended to 210km by the 254cc rotary engine.
Audi produced 932,260 vehicles in 2009, which was 9.4 percent below 2008’s result. If Audi’s sales increase by 30 percent by 2020, total sales will top 1.2 million and sales of electric vehicles will be close to 60,000.
What is the point to electric cars. They aren’t emission free. Whilst you drive them they are, but their emissions are created when you plug them into the wall and use the power created from coal fired power stations. It would be interesting to see the difference between the emissions of a combustion engine of similar performance to an electric car used for the same duration as it takes to charge an electric car, compared to the emissions created by charging the car.
I agree, to an extent. When centralising the emissions, you then have the opportunity to focus all of your emission reduction technologies on the energy producing sites, as opposed to having to wait for the technologies to be gradually rolled out to the public (it can take many years before people switch their cars over to newer ones).
That said, my concern is whether our power suppliers could cope with the growth in need for electricity, especially in the hotter months where power stations are already struggling to meet the demands (with all the air conditioners running etc).
We all know there’s a near-immediate solution if we want it. We just have to get over the stigmas associated with it. Of course I’m referring to nuclear power. *awaits backlash*
Agree, many arguments about charging batteries from coal fired plants being counterproductive from an emmissions view point.
Don’t forget though, it is also about reducing dependance on oil, which depending upon who you talk to, hit peak production years ago……….from here on in it is a declining resource with india and China coming on line with growing car numbers, this only makes having less dependancy on oil more important.