My Desultory Blog

Not a bad week for Audi; they continue to dominate with diesel powered Le Mans racing TDIs and show of the tweaking o their diesel-hybrid technology in the e-Tron Spyder plug-in diesel as well. From my perspective the supercar styling isn’t half bad either. 

It was a big weekend for Audi, which debuted a new e-Tron diesel plug-in Spyder. And after losing two of three cars to horrifying crashes, an Audi diesel went on to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Audi just dominated the track and the news all weekend, starting with the debut of the e-Tron Spyder plug-in diesel hybrid concept. A twin-turbocharged 3.0 liter turbo diesel TDI engine sends 300 horsepower and 479 ft-lbs of torque to the rear wheels, while dual electric motors send 87 horsepower and 260 ft-lbs of torque to the front wheels. For those of you doing the math, that is a grand total of 387 horsepower and 739 ft-lbs of torque. Oh, and there’s a seven-speed transmission all up in there. I’d hate to be an Audi mechanic reading this right now.

Now here’s the impressive part; this concept could get as much as a 107 MPGe rating on the EPA cycle, thanks to its 31-mile all electric range. On top of that it emits just 95 grams of CO2/mile. A single fill-up of the 13-gallon gas tank can take you as far as 621 miles, which would average out to around 47 mpg on the road. Not bad for a car that can go from 0-60 in 4.2 seconds, and has a governed top speed of 155 mph. I hope we see more diesel-hybrids soon.