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Setting off for the world of tomorrow

The road to an electric vehicle suitable for everyday use remains a long one. Audi engineers, technicians, designers and economists are working on the subject at the e-performance project house. Suppliers are also involved. The e-tron sports car concept marks the first step.

COPY/ROLAND LÖWISCH

Their day normally revolves around gaps, aerodynamics and revs. But carmakers sometimes also have to contend with philosophical issues. One existential question is of particular concern to Stefan Sielaff, chief designer of the Audi brand: “Do we want to make an ecological statement with the electric vehicle, or do we want to follow the accustomed automobile aesthetic?” Not even Sielaff knows the final answer yet, but one thing is certain: “We are standing at the threshold of a paradigm shift,” he says. “Times haven’t been this exciting since the first cars replaced the carriage. We have the opportunity to make design history and engineering history at the same time.” This feeling that the time is ripe for groundbreaking ideas can be found everywhere throughout the Audi Group. Take Franciscus van Meel, for instance. The head of Project Steering/Strategy for Vehicle Electrification regularly withdraws at the end of the work day into a “secret war room” with other managers. The room is so secret that only the participants know if they have to leave the plant to get there. Once there they get down to the serious business: electrically powered cars.

Electricity has been a powerful topic for years at Audi. The e-performance project house was established in January 2009. Ricky Hudi, head of Electrics and Electronics Development, describes it as a “cross-unit pooling of expertise in order to address the essential themes of electromobility in project structures in an extremely short period of time.” The project house’s interdisciplinary groundwork includes launching in 2012 a small series of the e-tron electric sports car introduced at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA). Or the development of a plug-in hybrid – a drive system that combines a combustion engine with an electric motor, whose battery can also be charged through an electrical outlet. “While other companies completely isolate the specialists for a certain period of time for such projects, our group constantly maintains a very strong connection with the company,” adds vehicle concept chief Roman Schindlmaister. But it’s about more than just the technology. “It’s also a matter of changing something in the minds of the employees.” Audi is taking a holistic approach and reinventing the electromobile from the ground up rather than simply retrofitting conventional vehicles. “And that means starting almost from scratch,” says van Meel. Taking leave of the combustion engine, fuel tank, transmission and other components provides more creative scope for the engineers. However, the core competence of lightweight construction remains crucial for efficient use of the available energy. Everyone is forced to change their thinking, and that requires new forms of cooperation. Audi is using the project house to tap into the ideas and expertise of experienced supplier employees who are familiar with the peculiarities of batteries, for example, because they have been working for years at their companies on storage capacity. Also in demand is the expertise of telecommunications experts, who are pondering how to optimally integrate car-2-car communication. Since October 2009, the e-performance project house has also enjoyed the support of a threeyear, publicly funded project of the same name in which Audi is networking with scientists and industry partners. According to van Meel, “No one needs to be able to serve a finished meal to the others, but everyone should be able to cook.” To make sure that no outsider oversalts the powerpacked soup while seasoning it, the project house location is a completely secured area.

Even if Audi quickly manages to win the employees over to the idea of a new era, there still remains some rethinking to be done. More is required: It is not enough to simply drive an electric car. With respect to the CO2 balance, the electricity used as fuel must also be generated in an ecofriendly manner. The holistic Audi approach therefore addresses not only the further development of all the systems associated with the vehicle, the Group is also working with energy suppliers and is analyzing investments in solar energy farms in the Sahara and wind farms in northern Germany. In short, the team appreciates any and all free and creative thinkers. Of course, zero emission does not mean zero emotion. “You have to possess the ability to fly off into orbit every once in a while,” say Schindlmaister in explanation of the project house philosophy. Van Meel, who is ultimately responsible for putting the project house results into series production, sums it up: “We have to try to put ourselves into the position of people who will drive an electric vehicle so that we can identify what we need to do from a technical standpoint so that they feel good while driving it.” Even the originators of electric vehicles, which have been on the streets since Thomas Davenport invented the electric motor in 1834, had to contend with battery problems: reliability, weight and of course range. Electronics enable today’s batteries to last for roughly ten years, and new lightweight construction materials can offset the weight of the batteries, but range? The battery of a typical compact electric car can easily store the energy required for a trip of around 100 kilometers, and the average driver in Germany does not drive more than 70 per day – roughly equivalent to four liters of gasoline in a conventional gas tank. However: “Drivers get nervous with only four liters of fuel in the tank and immediately go to the nearest gas station. But suddenly they don’t have more than that available to them when they set out in a fully charged electric vehicle,” explains van Meel. Stefan Sielaff as a designer is also concerned with breaking conventions. “We are in the process of inventing a separate electric design language with the aim of completely breaking previous patterns. You have to imagine it like the change from the Renaissance to Baroque. Such a quantum leap needs time before it is accepted, of course.” An important step on the road to acceptance and everyday practicality is that the electric vehicle must become a reliable partner. It must communicate the driving style and the route that will make it possible to cover the entire distance out and back. It has to record locations where an electrical outlet might be available. It must signal if the driver forgets to hook it up to the electrical network in the evening. Why not by text message to the driver’s cell phone? When charging, it must indicate when the electrical system is too weak and the charging process will takes twice as long as planned – the requirement specification is long.

There is one thing that Audi customers will not have to give up: the accustomed level of comfort. At Audi an electric drive system does not automatically equate with austerity, although every additional kilogram of vehicle weight has a noticeable and adverse effect on the supply of energy on board and thus reduces the range. After all, the Group has a long tradition of lightweight construction with the aluminum Audi Space Frame, and this tradition is being carried on by the Audi Lightweight Design Center in Neckarsulm, where the engineers are also developing expertise with carbon fiber. Each part of the new electric vehicle is being developed specifically, all the way through to the optional extras. Innovation has priority over sacrifice. “The electric vehicle will become a status symbol,” predicts Dr. Michael Korte, who heads the project house. Take the air conditioning system, for example. The Audi technicians developed something entirely new: a heat pump for the car that uses the waste heat of the electric engines to heat and warm up the interior. The e-tron also demonstrates that Audi will tolerate no compromises when it comes to dynamics. “Today your car is an expression of your position in society,” says Sielaff knowingly. “Our sporty positioning plays right into the hands of the ‘forever young’ social megatrend.” As solid as some of the technical solutions already are, the specialists have to look into their crystal ball to see if demand for them exists and how the future will look. “If you believe the oil industry forecasts, the oil supply will be running low by the year 2050. We’ll presumably be traveling under electric power by then, particularly in the megacities. Traffic will certainly be much quieter, and also safer due to advanced driver assistance systems and sophisticated car-2-car communication,” says van Meel. By that time the e-tron will long have achieved cult status. But there will still be the secret war room – just like today. Because research never ends.

Roland Löwisch writes for Auto Bild, Ramp, brand eins, Focus, Playboy and Die Welt, among others.