Audi: A New ‘Electrified’ Model Each Year

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You’ll have to wait a bit for the first one, but Audi says it will roll out one “electrified” model a year starting in 2018.

The announcement, made at the company’s annual meeting in Germany last week, doesn’t get very specific about what degree of electrification Audi’s talking about, but presumably it will be a mix of battery electrics and plug-in hybrids.

First out of the box will be a battery-electric crossover, previewed at the Frankfurt Auto Show last year as Audi’s e-tron Quattro concept.

In U.S. trim, the production version is expected to deliver somewhere between 200 to 250 miles on a single charge. Audi has said it expects the European version to be rated with at least 300 miles of range on the European fuel efficiency test cycle. That test procedure typically results in BEV range estimates that run 20 to 30 percent higher than would be certified in the U.S. test.

Audi presently markets one plug-in hybrid model in the U.S., the A3 e-tron, which delivers 16 miles of all-electric range before reverting to conventional hybrid mode.

Audi CDEO Rupert Stadler also told shareholders at the annual meeting that Audi plans to endow its redesigned 2017 A8 luxury sedan with low-speed self-driving capabilities. The company, he said, expects to have fully automated driving ready for market by 2025.