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Written by Ollie Kew
If at first you don"t succeed, stop thinking logically and design something so white-hot radical it burns a hole straight through the middle of the drawing board and lands smouldering on the floor. We can assume that"s the brief at Audi"s Design Loft" in Malibu, California, which has dreamt up this concept for a shooting brake electric hypercar inspired by Audi"s dominant decade in Le Mans racing. This 23rd century rollerskate is the Audi PB18 e-tron. Ignore the underwhelming name, merely initials referring the car"s unveiling at the Pebble Beach festival of brightly dyed corduroy and champagne pricier than liquid platinum. Concentrate instead on details like a low, mid-mounted 95kWh solid-state battery, capable of accepting a full, 361-mile charge in only 15 minutes, thanks to 800-volt charging capacity. Or, if you"re less stung by range anxiety, a claimed 0-62mph sprint of two seconds flat. That comes courtesy of three electric motors: one shared between the front wheels, and one each for the rears, developing a combined 661bhp, but capable of short overboost" spurts up to 753bhp. So far so generic electric supercar concept". But what makes the PB18 different is its love for you. Yes, you. The driver. Audi wants you there to enjoy yourself. Which is why this is the first battery powered hyper-pod we can remember which doesn"t twin its bowel-bothering acceleration with utopian visions of a self-driving, computer-controlled future. There"s none of that you enjoy the twisties, then let the chips take over for the commute" rhetoric here. In fact, Audi says the skunkworks codename for the PB18 was Level Zero", to ram home the fact it couldn"t be further in philosophy from the Level 4/Level 5 grades of self-driving autonomy it"s currently scrambling to offer in flagship models. Should"ve stuck with Level Zero", Loft-scribblers. It"s better than PB18" at any rate. Unless you fetishize accurate private numberplates.
Date written: 24 Aug 2018
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 13060
If at first you don"t succeed, stop thinking logically and design something so white-hot radical it burns a hole straight through the middle of the drawing board and lands smouldering on the floor. We can assume that"s the brief at Audi"s Design Loft" in Malibu, California, which has dreamt up this concept for a shooting brake electric hypercar inspired by Audi"s dominant decade in Le Mans racing. This 23rd century rollerskate is the Audi PB18 e-tron. Ignore the underwhelming name, merely initials referring the car"s unveiling at the Pebble Beach festival of brightly dyed corduroy and champagne pricier than liquid platinum. Concentrate instead on details like a low, mid-mounted 95kWh solid-state battery, capable of accepting a full, 361-mile charge in only 15 minutes, thanks to 800-volt charging capacity. Or, if you"re less stung by range anxiety, a claimed 0-62mph sprint of two seconds flat. That comes courtesy of three electric motors: one shared between the front wheels, and one each for the rears, developing a combined 661bhp, but capable of short overboost" spurts up to 753bhp. So far so generic electric supercar concept". But what makes the PB18 different is its love for you. Yes, you. The driver. Audi wants you there to enjoy yourself. Which is why this is the first battery powered hyper-pod we can remember which doesn"t twin its bowel-bothering acceleration with utopian visions of a self-driving, computer-controlled future. There"s none of that you enjoy the twisties, then let the chips take over for the commute" rhetoric here. In fact, Audi says the skunkworks codename for the PB18 was Level Zero", to ram home the fact it couldn"t be further in philosophy from the Level 4/Level 5 grades of self-driving autonomy it"s currently scrambling to offer in flagship models. Should"ve stuck with Level Zero", Loft-scribblers. It"s better than PB18" at any rate. Unless you fetishize accurate private numberplates.
Date written: 24 Aug 2018
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 13060
