A3 E-Tron - Gerdes review, etc.

Hadn't seen this posted here yet: http://www.cleanmpg.com/community/index.php?threads/53050/

A few fun things, including:

- It is rated 19 miles AER, he got almost 35 miles electric. (Note: He is the one who did the record 112 miles electric on a Gen 2 Volt. Ari then nudged past him at 114 miles.)

- The factory EVSE is dual voltage and comes with two dongles - one for a normal 120v 5-15 receptacle, the other for a NEMA 6-50.

- Single electric motor in series with the ICE.

The main thing that will be controversial is that the 2016 E-Tron has a 'Charge Battery' mode. This allows the ICE to recharge the traction battery - similar to how Mountain Mode works in the Volt. Gerdes found a case where he claims it is efficient - if you are driving mostly highway miles:

1.) Run in EV mode until the battery is depleted.

2.) While on the highway, turn on Charge Battery mode. Leave it there for most of the remainder of the trip. (It will automatically switch to Hybrid Mode when the battery is full.)

3.) Towards the end of the trip, switch to EV Mode, and drive the last few, presumably slow in-town, miles all electric.

In conclusion, he states "I was skeptical that driving the A3 e-tron as a Serial Hybrid and then consuming the SoC added would even come close to just driving it as a Full hybrid until I did the calculations. As they revealed, force charging the 8.8 kWh Li-Ion pack on the highway for later heavy inner city use is not only feasible but recommended!"

Interestingly, Audi apparently removed "Charge Mode" from the 2017 cars.