At the Charge event in San Francisco, Audi unveiled their first all-electric vehicle, the e-tron luxury mid-sized SUV, and US customers can place reservations immediately with a $1,000 down payment. Pricing for the e-tron SUV begins at $74,8000.
Audi acknowledges that while they aren’t the first to come out with an electric vehicle, their e-tron offers the highest charging speeds in the industry. It’s also packed with tons of tech.
The new e-tron all-electric SUV is focused not just on being luxurious and futuristic, but also convenience thanks to its home charging feature. A compact charging station comes with each e-tron SUV which is able to charge your e-tron overnight at 9.6 kWh per hour.
Audi has partnered up with Amazon Home Services for the home charging installation. Electrify America, which will soon have 2,000 charging stations across the country, will also be providing each vehicle with 1000 kWh of complimentary charging power with the purchase of an e-tron SUV.
The new e-tron measures 193 inches long, 76.3 inches wide and 65.5 inches high. It offers plenty of space to fit 5 passengers comfortably, along with a luggage capacity of 28.5 cu ft, or 57 cu ft with the seats down.
The exterior of the e-tron is very much an Audi with its proud design. It’s strutting Audi’s iconic octagonal-design single-frame grille with vertical struts and it bears a continuous shoulder line that extends from the headlights all the way to the rear lights.
The e-tron SUV is powered by Audi’s unique Quattro system, their first electric all drive system. Under the hood the e-tron SUV is powered by two electric motors. It’s able to go from 0-60 mph in 55 seconds and it’s able to reach a top speed of 124 mph. Audi says that the driving experience will be comparable to that of a sports car.
Pricing for the #etron begins at $74,800 #audi @audi @AudiOfficial #electriccar #alexa pic.twitter.com/KYqhmT4Gzk
— GEEKSPIN (@geekspinco) September 18, 2018
While the exterior is impressive, it’s the interior of the e-tron SUV that really screams futuristic. The cockpit is all black until you turn the car on and then all of the digital displays turn on to create a neat floating elements effect. The cockpit architecture has also been designed to wrap around the driver. To that effect, the infotainment display is even angled to face towards the driver. All of this helps make the driver feel like they are in control and helps keep them from getting distracted.
Inside of the door is a virtual mirror made of an OLED touchscreen display. This OLED display is the first of its kind inside of an auto.
You can pinch to zoom in on it and operate it much like it’s a smartphone display. The virtual mirror receives its feed from an HDR camera.
The car also comes with Alexa. Alexa is connected through a built-in LTE data connection inside of the car.
Pricing for the Audi e-tron SUV begins at $74,800. There will be 999 limited build First Edition models available in the US that come completely loaded. The first edition models are available on a first come, first serve basis for $86,700.
It’s worth noting that Audi says that in addition to the e-tron SUV, they plan on releasing more than 22 hybrid and all-electric models through 2025.