Audi Forms e-tron Division to Build Electric Cars

Following the auto show success of the two e-tron models shown so far, German carmaker Audi seems to have decided to get together a team who's job will only be building and designing electric vehicles starting 2012. According to Autonews, the first electric car to hit the market will be one based on the e-tron concept shown at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show. But that's only the start.

"You can assume we'll have not just one but two or three or even more electric cars," Filip Brabec, general manager of product planning for Audi of America told the source.

The new e-tron division consists of 100 people, lead by Franciscus van Meel, senior vice president of vehicle electrification at Audi's HQ in Germany. According to the information available so far, initial production will be some 100 units per year, with hopes the 1,000 units marks will be reached sometimes in the future.

"We want to listen to the customer," Rupert Stadler, Audi CEO said. "It will be a different experience with the electric car in terms of usage, noise, torque quality and our engineers need to get familiar with customer needs."

The e-tron boasts high-torque power units driving the rear wheels., with a combined output of 150 kW (204 hp) and 2,650 Nm (1954.54 lb.-ft) of torque. The batteries have an effective energy content of 45 kilowatt-hours and allow for a range of 250 kilometers (155.34 miles) on a single charge.

Charging time is around 11 hours, but with heavy current (400 volts, 32 amperes) outputs that time comes down cuts to about two hours.