audi

Every year, for the past four years, Green Car Journal picks its Green Car of the Year at the LA Auto Show. Well, the LA Show will be here before you know it, so it's time to start thinking about this year's contestants, which have been narrowed down to five finalists.

The finalists include the Audi A3 TDI, the Honda Insight, the Mercury Milan Hybrid, the Toyota Prius, and the Volkswagen Golf TDI. That's two VW turbodiesels and a trio of hybrids; or four small hatchbacks and a small sedan. No matter how you look at it, … Read more

A lot of cars from a variety of manufacturers made their world debut at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show. Perhaps one of the most noteworthy automobiles to emerge out of Frankfurt was the Audi R8 E-Tron concept car. Yes, it is certainly flashy and eye appealing. But what may be more appealing to an increasingly eco-friendly world of car consumers, this car has no engine (WHAT?!!!). Yeah, I said it - NO ENGINE. This baby is powered by a feisty lithium ion battery packs, and supposedly runs completely off electrical energy. Impressive, eh?

Today we're putting the "Tech&… Read more

I love coupes. I would go so far as to say that the coupe is the best style of car in the world. Limiting a full-size car to two doors may fly in the face of practicality, but it allows for much more body style than a sedan. Automotive designers get to play with the roofline and equip a coupe with real fenders, making for a sporty-looking package. The best a sedan can do is look stately.

Roadsters are loads of fun, but a soft top just says you're not taking driving that seriously. A coupe means business, ready … Read more

Automakers are like forum trolls. Every time you turn around another one of them is yelling, "First!"

This time it's Audi claiming to be the first carmaker to develop its own virtual area in Sony's PlayStation Home. Audi Space, as it will be known, will come on line in late 2009. Audi Space will at first feature an Audi TV channel delivering video content relating to the German automaker.

In December of '09, Audi Space will be expanded to include Vertical Run, a futuristic racing game featuring Audi's e-tron concept. Players will collect electrical energy … Read more

With all the very expensive new cars being unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show, you would think the economy never went into recession. It did, and yet here they are, a parade of new automotive objects of lust from the likes of Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, and Rolls-Royce. Some emphasize sport, some luxury, but all have way more of each than your standard economy sedan.

Leading the parade is the spectacular new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, a monster of a supercar with retro styling evoking the gull-winged 300 SL. Porsche shows off a couple of 911s, the styling only … Read more

The 2011 Bentley Mulsanne was officially announced at the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, but the luxury automaker was keeping quiet with the details regarding its newest land-yacht's power train and tech. However, with the 2009 Frankfurt auto show, the veil has been pulled back and we're finally able to share the goods.

Let's just get this out of the way: 752 pound-feet of torque--that's how much twist is generated by the Mulsanne's 6.75-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 engine. There's also 505-horsepower being generated, but we can't get past that number: 752.

The … Read more

As is becoming common at auto shows these days, a number of electric cars were on display at the Frankfurt auto show, with automakers showing off research into next millennium's generation of vehicles. On hand were concepts from Peugeot, Renault, Audi, Volkswagen, and Ford. Two entrants from Tesla were on hand, one a Roadster tuned up by Brabus, the only current production car available out of this lot, and the other the upcoming Model S, expected to begin production in 2011.

The most exciting concept shown at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show is an electric sports car, the Audi e-tron. Borrowing body lines from the Audi R8, it can't help but look good. And boasting specs like 3,319 pound-feet of torque, it can't help but make gearheads drool.

Audi achieves that torque number by using four electric motors, one at each wheel. The drooling gearheads should be able to close their mouths again after hearing that the combined horsepower is only 313, making for a zero to 62 mph time of 4.8 seconds. But electric car enthusiasts … Read more

We see our fair share of odd promotional materials in this line of work, but every now and then we get something that's just plain clever.

The package contained a kite branded with the new Audi logo, the ElectricityUntamed.com URL, and a date "9.15.09," which is the opening day of the 2009 Frankfurt auto show. Attached to the kite, Ben Franklin style, was a small metal key-shaped USB drive (a LaCie Iamakey, for all of our techies). The drive contained a few of the videos that we've already seen on Audi's microsite, … Read more