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Written by Dan Carney
At the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show, Audi exhibited its thinkingon the future with a pair of vehicles, one showing its direction for exteriordesign and the other highlighting the future of electric drivetrains. The Prologue concept car is a full-size luxury coupe thatforetells the company"s styling plans for new models above the current A8sedan, presumably to be called A9. The concept coupe itself is, at 5100 mm (200 in) in length, slightlyshorter than the A8 sedan. But the car"s styling is meant to introduce themesthat will apply to smaller cars too, and is not intended as a literalrepresentation of one specific future model, according to the car"s Chief Designer, Andreas Mindt. "This is a hint for the future," he explained. For example, the Prologue wears a broad, six-sided grille,which is to be Audi"s new standard for cars, while SUVs will have octagonalgrilles, he said. The Prologue"s crisp lines are meant to keep Audi"sstill-familiar styling moving in a contemporary direction, Mindt said. "Audi isa design brand," Mindt noted, and as such must continuously evolve its stylingtheme. The Prologue rolls on show-car-typical 22-inch wheels andfeatures Audi"s new signature laser headlights. The lasers don"t fire directlydown the road, because that would obviously be a uselessly narrow beam.Instead, the laser strikes a projection lens that lights the whole street. Thatbeam is supplemented with five smaller lenses fed their light via fiber optics,letting the light adapt to the conditions. In contrast to some all-aluminum Audis today, the Prologuemixes aluminum with high-strength steel in its construction, perhaps toreinforce strategic areas for crash safety. At the rear, the LED taillights continue the form languageof today"s production lights, but underscore the Prologue"s width. Fine linesin the light"s glass impart a 3D effect when illuminated that creates theillusion of the light moving toward the observer when the brake lightsilluminate. Audi aimed to introduce significant innovations in thePrologue"s cabin. Upon entering, the caridentifies occupants by their smartphones and adjusts the seating and climatesettings accordingly. The dashboard contains an expanse of three flat-panel touch-screen LED displays that stretch across its entire width. Two are them are infront of the driver, with the left one used to manage lighting and assistancesystems, while the right one handles media duties. The passenger uses the third display panel to individuallycontrol entertainment features. The passenger can also set navigation routes,and with the flick of a finger, send them to the driver"s display. The Prologue has a fourth, high-resolution organic LED(OLED) display on the center console, which is used to manage climate controland to input handwriting gestures. Underneath, the Prologue"s significant innovation is the useof four-wheel steering. While this technology has so far found little favorwith customers, Audi is confident that its time is coming, according to UlrichHackenberg, Volkswagen Group Board Member for Technical Development."Four-wheel steering will be a typical feature in premium cars like this," hesaid. In the Prologue, the rear wheels steer as much as fivedegrees opposite the fronts for easier parking maneuvers, while they steer inparallel with the fronts at higher speeds for stability"s sake. The car features a 445-kW (597-hp) 4.0-L turbocharged V8engine that produces 750 N m (553 lb ft) driving through an eight-speedTiptronic automatic transmission to power all four wheels using Audi"s quattrotechnology. A new wrinkle is the addition of a 48-voltbelt-alternator-starter mild hybrid system. It can recover as much as 12 kW ofenergy under braking and seamlessly restarts the engine when it is off. Thecompany says that the system will soon be introduced in a production Audimodel. Under the more conventional shell of a production A7, Audialso introduced an innovative fuel-cell drivetrain that incorporates a plug-inhybrid electric drivetrain using a lithium-ion battery pack. Audi has developed fuel-cell technology because of the slowprogress in battery development, Hackenberg reported. Fuel cells look like a better solution today,but "the performance of battery cells is increasing," he said. "We have tocompare which technology is the winner. We can"t answer now." With currently available technology, the company decided ablend of fuel cells and batteries would be best. The A7 Sportback h-tronquattro concept car"s primary drivetrain is a fuel-cell stack powering frontand rear electric drive motors that power all four wheels. Total power is 170 kW, with a combined 540N m (398 lb ft) of torque, which accelerate the 1950-kg (4300-lb) car to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 7.9s, reaching a top speed of 180 km/h (112 mph). Maximum driving range with fullhydrogen tanks is more than 500 km (310 mi), and refilling those tanks takes threeminutes, both factors that give fuel-cell EVs advantages over battery EVs. The fuel cell achieves efficiency of 60%, making italmost twice as efficient as an internal combustion engine. Audi rates theconcept car"s ability to travel 100 km on a kilogram of hydrogen as theequivalent of 62 mpg. Audi says the fuel cell is guaranteed to operate attemperatures as low as -28 C (-18 F). Its four carbon-fiber composite outershell/aluminum inner hydrogen tanks lie beneath the floor of the trunk andtogether store about 5 kg (11 lb) of hydrogen at 700 bar (10.2 ksi). With this electric drivetrain in place, failure to recaptureenergy under braking would be a waste, so the engineering team added an 8.8kW h lithium-ion battery pack borrowed from the A3 Sportback e-tron.It not only increases the car"s efficiency through the use of recaptured brakeenergy, it contributes as much as 50 km (31 mi) of reserve driving range in the eventthere is no hydrogen available. The plug-in battery pack charges in about four hours using230-volt service, according to the company. Hackenberg pronounced the A7 Sportback h-tron quattro"s fuel-cell technology ready for production, saying that the sole obstacle to the saleof such cars is the construction of a hydrogen fuel infrastructure to supportit. "The first market will be the onewith the infrastructure," he said. "Right now, that is California, with Germanynot far behind."
Date: 03-Dec-2014 11:47 EST
More of this article on the SAE International website
ID: 1065
At the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show, Audi exhibited its thinkingon the future with a pair of vehicles, one showing its direction for exteriordesign and the other highlighting the future of electric drivetrains. The Prologue concept car is a full-size luxury coupe thatforetells the company"s styling plans for new models above the current A8sedan, presumably to be called A9. The concept coupe itself is, at 5100 mm (200 in) in length, slightlyshorter than the A8 sedan. But the car"s styling is meant to introduce themesthat will apply to smaller cars too, and is not intended as a literalrepresentation of one specific future model, according to the car"s Chief Designer, Andreas Mindt. "This is a hint for the future," he explained. For example, the Prologue wears a broad, six-sided grille,which is to be Audi"s new standard for cars, while SUVs will have octagonalgrilles, he said. The Prologue"s crisp lines are meant to keep Audi"sstill-familiar styling moving in a contemporary direction, Mindt said. "Audi isa design brand," Mindt noted, and as such must continuously evolve its stylingtheme. The Prologue rolls on show-car-typical 22-inch wheels andfeatures Audi"s new signature laser headlights. The lasers don"t fire directlydown the road, because that would obviously be a uselessly narrow beam.Instead, the laser strikes a projection lens that lights the whole street. Thatbeam is supplemented with five smaller lenses fed their light via fiber optics,letting the light adapt to the conditions. In contrast to some all-aluminum Audis today, the Prologuemixes aluminum with high-strength steel in its construction, perhaps toreinforce strategic areas for crash safety. At the rear, the LED taillights continue the form languageof today"s production lights, but underscore the Prologue"s width. Fine linesin the light"s glass impart a 3D effect when illuminated that creates theillusion of the light moving toward the observer when the brake lightsilluminate. Audi aimed to introduce significant innovations in thePrologue"s cabin. Upon entering, the caridentifies occupants by their smartphones and adjusts the seating and climatesettings accordingly. The dashboard contains an expanse of three flat-panel touch-screen LED displays that stretch across its entire width. Two are them are infront of the driver, with the left one used to manage lighting and assistancesystems, while the right one handles media duties. The passenger uses the third display panel to individuallycontrol entertainment features. The passenger can also set navigation routes,and with the flick of a finger, send them to the driver"s display. The Prologue has a fourth, high-resolution organic LED(OLED) display on the center console, which is used to manage climate controland to input handwriting gestures. Underneath, the Prologue"s significant innovation is the useof four-wheel steering. While this technology has so far found little favorwith customers, Audi is confident that its time is coming, according to UlrichHackenberg, Volkswagen Group Board Member for Technical Development."Four-wheel steering will be a typical feature in premium cars like this," hesaid. In the Prologue, the rear wheels steer as much as fivedegrees opposite the fronts for easier parking maneuvers, while they steer inparallel with the fronts at higher speeds for stability"s sake. The car features a 445-kW (597-hp) 4.0-L turbocharged V8engine that produces 750 N m (553 lb ft) driving through an eight-speedTiptronic automatic transmission to power all four wheels using Audi"s quattrotechnology. A new wrinkle is the addition of a 48-voltbelt-alternator-starter mild hybrid system. It can recover as much as 12 kW ofenergy under braking and seamlessly restarts the engine when it is off. Thecompany says that the system will soon be introduced in a production Audimodel. Under the more conventional shell of a production A7, Audialso introduced an innovative fuel-cell drivetrain that incorporates a plug-inhybrid electric drivetrain using a lithium-ion battery pack. Audi has developed fuel-cell technology because of the slowprogress in battery development, Hackenberg reported. Fuel cells look like a better solution today,but "the performance of battery cells is increasing," he said. "We have tocompare which technology is the winner. We can"t answer now." With currently available technology, the company decided ablend of fuel cells and batteries would be best. The A7 Sportback h-tronquattro concept car"s primary drivetrain is a fuel-cell stack powering frontand rear electric drive motors that power all four wheels. Total power is 170 kW, with a combined 540N m (398 lb ft) of torque, which accelerate the 1950-kg (4300-lb) car to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 7.9s, reaching a top speed of 180 km/h (112 mph). Maximum driving range with fullhydrogen tanks is more than 500 km (310 mi), and refilling those tanks takes threeminutes, both factors that give fuel-cell EVs advantages over battery EVs. The fuel cell achieves efficiency of 60%, making italmost twice as efficient as an internal combustion engine. Audi rates theconcept car"s ability to travel 100 km on a kilogram of hydrogen as theequivalent of 62 mpg. Audi says the fuel cell is guaranteed to operate attemperatures as low as -28 C (-18 F). Its four carbon-fiber composite outershell/aluminum inner hydrogen tanks lie beneath the floor of the trunk andtogether store about 5 kg (11 lb) of hydrogen at 700 bar (10.2 ksi). With this electric drivetrain in place, failure to recaptureenergy under braking would be a waste, so the engineering team added an 8.8kW h lithium-ion battery pack borrowed from the A3 Sportback e-tron.It not only increases the car"s efficiency through the use of recaptured brakeenergy, it contributes as much as 50 km (31 mi) of reserve driving range in the eventthere is no hydrogen available. The plug-in battery pack charges in about four hours using230-volt service, according to the company. Hackenberg pronounced the A7 Sportback h-tron quattro"s fuel-cell technology ready for production, saying that the sole obstacle to the saleof such cars is the construction of a hydrogen fuel infrastructure to supportit. "The first market will be the onewith the infrastructure," he said. "Right now, that is California, with Germanynot far behind."
Date: 03-Dec-2014 11:47 EST
More of this article on the SAE International website
ID: 1065
