Audi pulled the cover off their shiny new plug-in hybrid A1 Sportback concept this week at the Paris Auto Show.
The five-door sub-compact four seater is fitted with a 150 horsepower (HP) 1.4 liter TFSI engine along with an electric motor, which drive the front wheels through a S Tronic dual-clutch transmission. Needless to say, this isn’t your Aunt Emma’s pokey hybrid. The A1 Sportback’s 27 HP electric motor delivers an extra 110.6 foot pounds of torque during acceleration, and can provide a very respectable range of 62 miles when driven at low speeds in full-electric mode. Leave it to Audi to build a hybrid that can both crawl and fly. The simultaneous drive provides the A1 Sportback with the ability to reach 62 miles per hour (MPH) in 7.9 seconds, with a top speed of 124 MPH.
While the A1 Sportback’s automatic start/stop and Lithium Ion batteries help the hybrid hatch to achieve a claimed 60.31 US MPG, it’s unclear if that figure is for city, highway, or combined. The vehicle can be recharged from a standard outlet.
So, if a normal Audi is around 30k, what is this going to go for? Well above 50k I would guess. The concept looks awesome except for the grill, of course I’m sure the production version will be a watered down boring version.
This thing is sick looking !!!! I am officially offering my services to field test this car if Audi is looking for any stateside testers to drive and test one of these for feedback !!!
Let’s hope that James is wrong and somehow Audi can get a vehicle like this into the market for less than $50K !!!