Thursday, April 18, 2013

Audi’s Diesel-Electric Supercar Codenamed “Scorpion”


scorpion-e-tron

What happened to cars with cool names? These days most new cars either use an old name resurrected from the grave, or a series of pointless letters and numbers. Audi is one of the great offenders of this alpha-numeric naming system, though rumor has it their upcoming diesel-electric supercar has a much cooler codename; “Scorpion.”
Of course the likelihood that Audi will name their car Scoprion is highly, highly unlikely, especially since this diesel-electric supercar is supposed to be a street-legal version of the Le Mans-winning Audi R18 e-tron Quattro. Reports suggest that Audi will pull the turbocharged 3.7 liter V6 directly from the race car and drop it into the road car.
The drivetrain will also include the dual electric motor hybrid system driving the front wheels; no word on whether it will be a plug-in hybrid setup, or use a flywheel system like the race car. Output is expected to be on the order of around 600 horsepower. The estimated Top Speed could be on the order of 200 mph or more.
Audi will also be using the carbon fiber tub that helps make the race car so light..and expensive. With diesel-electric hybrid setups finally getting the attention they deserve, this could be one sexy and fast hybrid supercar.  But that leaves me wondering…what of the Audi all-electric supercar? Rumors suggest thatAudi’s EV dreams are dead (or maybe not)…and maybe the Scorpion is the official response to this.
Which would you rather have? An all electric Audi, or a diesel-electric hybrid?


Source: Car & Driver

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