Audi e-tron Spyder

The e-tron Spyder concept car from Audi definitely has a “Tron”-ish appeal with lines reminiscent of the 2035 Audi that Will Smith drove in the movie “i, ROBOT”. But I’m not so sure about hitting the mark on the “e” (as in “electric”) part of the name. While this two-seat roadster is undeniably a thing of beauty, it still runs a diesel V-6 power plant “at the rear axle”, as the announcer puts it in the above promotional video. The Spyder also sports two electric motors up front, but it sounds like that V-6 diesel is doing most of the work.

Audi says the car is capable of running on pure battery power for up to 50 km at a top speed of 60 km/h. For those of us on the latter half of the international date line that’s a range of about 31 miles at a top speed of 37mph. Those aren’t exactly impressive numbers, especially for an Audi-priced EV. However, the e-tron Spyder seems to make up for weak EV performance when the diesel V6 is switched on. Apparently running on all engines, the Spyder achieves a 0-62mph (0-100km/h) time of 4.4 seconds and gets an impressive 60 miles to the gallon (if my math is right). In today’s world, that’s a pretty darn impressive combination of performance and economy.

That being said, perhaps the e-tron Spyder isn’t really Audi’s car of tomorrow as the “e-tron” name implies, but rather should be their car of today. The Spyder is definitely a head-turner and is an impressive performance hybrid. Audi should save the “e”-nameplates for the truly electric vehicles and fast-track this baby into production before hybrid technology goes the way of the cassette tape.