alexlear

Audi is showing off plug in versions of many of its cars at the upcoming Geneva Auto Show. I've owned a Chevy Volt for 8 years and found it to be a nice stepping stone towards a full EV and a nice compromise given the state of the charging infrastructure during that time. I was curious if anyone here is considering Audi's plug-in offerings? The information I read mentioned the ability for these to run in EV mode for ~25miles.

https://www.greencarreports.com/news...-geneva-reveal

LavaGrau_A3

I would definitely consider one of the new offerings, especially the A7. I'm coming up on lease termination of my Porsche Cayenne S e-hybrid. I have enjoyed the car immensely and it suits my mix of driving very well, even with a mere 15 miles of EV range. I commute to work about 4 times per month with a 90 mile roundtrip drive. That is literally the only time during the month I use the gas engine. The rest of my normal local stuff is handled by the battery, which is smallish and recharges fully in only 2.5 hours. It is quite normal for me to get 800-900 miles on a tank of gas. For the few times I need to drive long distances, the car's performance is phenomenal and I can cover the drive from here to Eugene, OR in under 8 hours. No stress.

The downsides? I think the PHEV drivetrain has got to stress the engine with constant start stop. Most of my drive time is electric, so sometimes the idea of lugging around a supercharged V6 seems just stupid.

In the big scheme of things, the PHEV idea needs to stay around for awhile. Smaller batteries mean more cars can take advantage of the technology and carbon emissions from battery production are more quickly payed back. Like I once read, "a 1 mpg improvement in the mileage of the F-150 can zero out the savings from all the EV's ever sold". True? I don't know, but they sell 2 F series trucks every minute.

ted99

Yes, I'm thinking about them. I've owned a BMW i3 for 3 years and now have two BMW PHEV's on lease. I consider the PHEV as an ideal transition car. Both of the BMW PHEV's serve 90% of my and my wife's local driving on pure electric. On a road trip, the 330e gets 45 MPG and the X5 40e 35 MPG, without charging. The ICE drivetrain weighs less than the extra battery would for a 200+ mile range pure EV AND the ICE drivetrain doesn't take up any space for storage that is on offer from the e-Tron. So, the e-Tron and the M-B EQC are also transition vehicles, using adapted ICE platforms and suffering weight and space use issues. My two PHEV leases toll in mid-late 2020 and I just got on the e-Tron deposit list to preserve my options in mid-2020. If it looks like my number will come up before then, I'll ask to transfer to the e-Tron GT list, if one is extant.

Why am I considering an Audi PHEV? I have two vehicles and I want both to be from the same family so that all the interfaces are similar and there is no "reset" needed when switching from one to the other. If one of my vehicles is a pure EV, I want the other to be a PHEV for maximum utility, so that I don't have to restrict myself to an EA fast charger breadcrumb trail. So: e-Tron and A6 PHEV.

But the jury is still out on whether I will exercise my option on the e-Tron. It's a transition EV, with compromises, like weight, space use and charging rate. After my experience purchasing the i3, I think I'd be a fool to purchase the e-Tron; so the lease deal will be paramount. On the other hand, the e-Tron GT will be a "real" EV. I'd consider purchasing that one, if I decided to keep it more than 3 years, which is a real possibility.

Yes, one can have paralysis by analysis, but early adopters ALWAYS pay a price. Back in the olden days before finance became the tail wagging the dog, GE was always a more profitable company than Westinghouse because it was second to market with a superior industrial product.