2011 Audi A8 Hybrid Concept Car Review

2011 Audi A8 Hybrid Concept Review Now, if you haven't noticed, all the German guys are hybrid-izing their big, flagship sedans. The 7 series, the S class, the A8 now all going to a hybrid version, at least available. This is the newest one. This is a near-production concept from Audi. The idea is to hook up a little, tiny 2-liter turbo direct-injection gas engine. Yes, a 4-cylinder in an 8 series, hooked up of course to electric motors and a lithium-ion battery. So, they're looking at the next generation of battery packs. The end result is 245 horsepower, 350- something foot-pounds of torque. Now, that is 8 class in terms of those numbers. It goes out through a new 8-speed Tiptronic transmission and gets about 38 miles per gallon equivalent. No, that's not real green but the folks in the high net worth community don't want to go so green as to drive a truly efficient car; they just want to be better than they used to be. So, this fills the bill. Now, those lithium-ion batteries live back here in the trunk; at least on this concept. They’re probably be a little more submerged and hidden on a real car. But they're accountable to the electric motors for 45 of the horsepower and 155 of the foot-pounds of torque, a significant contribution to help out that little four-banger. Zero to 60 in 7.6 is kind of the bottom line. It keeps you from getting left at a stop light by the guy in the S class or the 7 series. It can go up to 40-some-odd miles per hour electric only. It's a full hybrid, not a mild hybrid system, which again, that's a little more tech forward. But notice it's not a range extender. That's a little too goofy for this crowd. It's a hybrid, straight up. Other technologies on this car that are very cool are coming into the 8s generally. We've got the navigation system with the live Google integration which, among other things, lets the nav system tell the powertrain, "We've got a steep grade coming up; you might want to downshift or rev up now.” It’s an interesting mash-up of the software side and the hardware side. In the back, we've got some very generous rear seat entertainment screens, and we've shown you before the handwriting recognition pad that lets you draw on this black pad to enter things like destination names.