This week is an important week for the EV industry as Mercedes will be debuting its first electric vehicle, the Tesla-fighting EQC. Its main competitor, the Audi e-tron, is slightly late to the party, however. Originally, Audi was going to lift the covers off the e-tron last month, but the arrest of the automaker’s CEO has delayed the reveal event until September 17th in San Francisco, several weeks after the Mercedes EQC debuts.
To temporarily distract us from the Mercedes EQC’s forthcoming reveal, Audi has announced the e-tron has entered production at the company’s factory in Brussels two weeks before the electric SUV’s world debut. A new teaser shot shows the automaker’s first ever all-electric vehicle hiding under a sheet with a small section uncovered showing the LED headlights and front fascia finished in Misano Red.
Since the summer of 2016, Audi has extensively rebuilt its body shop, paint shop and assembly line and also set up its own battery production to prepare for the Audi e-tron’s series production. Thanks to Audi’s extensive teaser campaign, we already know what to expect from the e-Tron. The automaker has confirmed the e-Tron will utilize two electric motors developing a combined output of 355 horsepower and 414 lb-ft of torque. Activating the boost mode increases the output to 402 hp and 490 lb-ft of torque for up to eight seconds.
Thanks to its large 95-kWh battery pack, the eTron will also offer a range of over 248.5 miles in the WLTP cycle and hit 0-62 mph in less than six seconds. It will be the first production vehicle to feature side cameras instead of conventional door mirrors. Suffice to say, there probably won’t be many new details left to reveal since the production model is expected to closely resemble the e-tron prototype. Nevertheless, as one of the most important model launches in Audi’s history, the e-tron has a lot to live up to, so we’re eager to see if the final production model can deliver.
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