Audi e-tron Quattro
The debut of its first electric car is coming, the Audi e-tron Quattro, which will be presented on September 17, 2018, and the German company delves into another distinctive technical aspect, the recovery of energy. The electric crossover has two electric motors for a maximum power of 408 hp and is able to travel up to 400 km with a charge, according to the new WLTP approval cycle. This is also possible thanks to an effective system for energy recovery in slowdowns and downhills, which Audi wanted to test none other than on the route of the Pikes Peak uphill hill, where some examples of the e-tron Quattro have faced in descent of the 1,900 meters of difference in height provided for in the race. According to the house, in 31 km of descent the crossover has recovered enough energy to travel as many (in plan). The recovery of energy in slowdowns or descents is done by making the engines that normally provide the car drive work as generators. In the case of the Audi e-tron Quattro when they act as generators, the engines are able to deliver 300 hp, ie 70% of the maximum peak compared to when they push the car (408 hp). These 300 hp are used to generate energy that recharges the batteries. The energy recovery system plays a fundamental role on the Audi e-tron Quattro, which, according to the manufacturer, is able to provide 30% of the car’s energy needs. This translates into an increase in autonomy.
The driver can decide how to operate the energy recovery system, which has a manual and two automatic mode: in the first case it will be the driver to determine how much energy to recover during a slowdown, for example before a hairpin (to do so must use the paddles on the steering wheel), but in the second it will be up to the software to decide whether to activate it in a predictive way (using the on-board sensor data) or when the person on the steering wheel presses the brake. The driver can also decide whether to have a more or less decisive energy recovery in slowdowns, which will allow him to “scroll” the Audi e-tron Quattro more or to maximize the production of energy at the expense of linearity (the car it will tend to slow down more visibly when the gas rises). The technicians of the German company have worked to ensure that the system recovers as much energy as possible, so much so that by pressing the brake pedal not always the discs and pads come into operation: this only happens when the slowdown is at least 0, 3 g. The driver should not notice anything, even more so considering that thanks to the brakes will be very fast and responsive: according to the Audi will be enough 150 thousandths of a second to get the maximum performance from the system. It is up to a software to decide whether the disc brakes, the energy recovery system or both are activated when the pedal is pressed. This is done according to the driving conditions and with the aim of recovering as much energy as possible, so much so that the Audi e-tron Quattro uses the on-board sensors to suggest to the driver when to lift the pedal from the brake and work the energy recovery system: this happens thanks to radar sensors, images coming from the front camera and data from the satellite navigator. The Audi e-tron Quattro will be shown in September 2018 and will be a large crossover very comfortable and luxurious, but able to shoot like a sports versa: the German house talks about a time less than 6 seconds for the 0-100 km / h and a maximum speed limited to 200 km / h.
