Audi News & Blogs

Volkswagen Teams With Stanford on a $5.75-Million Auto Think Tank

Not to be outdone by Lamborghini's recent investment in an advanced composites lab at the University of Washington, Volkswagen has announced its own $5.75 million outlay to underwrite a new joint effort at Stanford University aimed at accelerating all types of automotive-related technologies. Officially the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory (VAIL), it will complement VW's Electronics Research Laboratory, which also is located in Palo Alto, California. Volkswagen has been working with Stanford since 2005 when the two created an autonomous Touareg called "Stanley" that went on to win the DARPA Grand Challenge and followed it up in 2007 with a hands-free Passat entry dubbed "Junior" that took second spot in the annual Defense Advanced...
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Audi Confirms e-tron is a Go -- And That Other EVs are on the Way

Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen recently told Automotive News that a version of the stunning e-tron electric supercar it presented last month in Frankfurt is heading to production. The anticipated arrival will likely be sometime within the next two years, although another Audi source told Kelley Blue Book that the timing of its U.S. introduction is still under discussion and that the car could go on sale in other world markets before we see it here. Nysschen offered no other details about how a production version of the e-tron might differ from the showcar, which wraps its aluminum space frame in composite body panels and uses a Lithium-ion battery pack to energize four individual motors that turn out 313 horsepower and a...
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California Mandates Cooler Cars to Fight Global Warming

It's not quite what you think. But the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has just passed the first legislation requiring solar-efficient glass to be used in all new cars sold in that state starting in 2012. Beyond literally keeping occupants cooler in the summer, the coincident reduction in the use of air conditioning will help improve average fuel economy and decrease the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. This new regulation will be enacted using a two-stage roll. From 2012-2015, all vehicle glass must be capable of rejecting at least 45 percent of the sun's total heat-producing energy, except for the windshield which will have a 50 percent rejection requirement. Starting in 2016, the numbers will rise to 60 percent all around. CARB data...
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Obama Plan Paves Way for Unified Mileage/Emissions Standards

President Obama today presented a landmark proposal aimed at moving the country ahead on the road to a clean energy economy. Speaking in the White House Rose Garden and flanked by members of his administration and key auto executives, Obama offered a comprehensive approach that will significantly boost fuel economy numbers and resolve the ongoing legal wrangling that has long set automakers and the state of California at odds over supplemental greenhouse gas emissions issues. The president, who characterized the existing rules governing fuel economy as "inadequate, uncertain and in flux," called for the adoption of a new single-standard formula that will accelerate the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) requirement to 35.5 mpg by 2016 -- four...
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Audi Bets More on the Power of Four

Sources at Audi have confirmed that the German automaker plans to place more emphasis on its 2.0-liter turbocharged four in its 2010 U.S. lineups at the expense of both the older Volkswagen-sourced 250-horsepower/3.2-liter narrow-angle VR6 as well as its own newer, direct-injected 265-horse/ 3.2-liter six. The VR6 will no longer be offered in Audi's A3, A4 or TT models, which are currently being fitted with the turbo four-cylinders in about a 9:1 ratio. In the A3 and TT lines, the turbo four makes 200 horses while the A4's version packs 11 more ponies in the underhood corral. Even the slick A5 Coupe will see a more prominent role for four-cylinder power, as the T-charged 2.0 becomes the standard-issue motivator for 2010 while the direct-injected 3.2...
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