Before e-tron became THE e-tron at Audi, it was the name of the plug-in version of the Audi A3. A very successful car in the Netherlands.
That's why they're releasing a plug-in hybrid version of the new generation as well. Or rather, they're releasing two plug-in versions.
And they're not called e-tron anymore, because that's now an electrical SUV in Audi's range. Instead, they're called 40 and 45 TFSIe.
And because we're very modest here at AutoWeek, we're driving the least powerful version today; the 40 TFSIe. Luckily, they're pretty much...
the same cars.
That's right, there actually isn't a technological difference between the Audi A3 Sportback 40 TFSIe and the 45 TFSIe. Both cars have a 1.4-litre...
4-cylinder TFSI petrol engine, producing 150 horsepower and 250 Nm of torque. Both cars also have an electric motor producing...
110 horsepower and 330 Nm of torque and both cars have the same 6-speed S-Tronic double clutch automatic gearbox.
But there are more similarities. Both have a 13 kWh-battery pack and both can charge up to 2.9 kW. The only difference is that the programmer...
who did the 45 TFSIe was much more enthusiastic. That means the stronger version produces 245 horsepower and 400 Nm of torque...
and this only produces 204 horsepower and 350 Nm of torque. However, after driving the 40 TFSIe for a few hours now, I wouldn't know why...
you would want the more powerful version. That's because the more power you start using, the less enjoyable the experience becomes.
That's pretty common with plug-in hybrids with this kind of drivetrain. If it's possible, you'll be driving electrically. Even when the battery...
doesn't have enough capacity to drive fully electrically. However, the moment you start asking for power, the S-Tronic-gearbox will have to...
search for a gear, then the engine has to start and then it all has to be glued together. That means you might have to wait for a full second...
before it goes. Maybe even longer. And that doesn't add to the experience. So cramming more power in it just won't work.
It won't be at it's best when you start driving it fast, or in a sporty way. I mean, it just isn't sporty at all.
Even when you put it in Dynamic-mode and start using the flappy paddles, it just takes way too long for something to happen.
It's not a sporty car, but that's not a bad thing. If you keep that in the back of your head and drive it that way,
it's a very nice total package. Even when you're not using all of the power, you're able to easily go with the traffic.
The electric motor is able to process all small dips of the combustion engine, and it becomes a very smooth and comfortable drivetrain.
And with a battery pack of 13,2 kWh, it's got a pretty big range as well. On a single charge, you should be able to do around 70 km according to...
WLTP, but I don't think it will be able to. However, when I picked it up this morning, it was very cold. Also, it's on winter tires, so the...
circumstances aren't very good either. But still it was able to reach 50 kilometres, and that's very good.
For most families, that's enough to travel 80 or even 90 percent of the journeys fully electrical.
Those are very cheap and possibly very clean kilometres, so that's a very good thing.
Also, of all cars built on the MQB-platform, it's the least annoying car to work with, because it still has physical buttons for its airconditioning for example.
If you want to turn off lane departure, which I always do because I hate it when things start meddling with my driving style,
you can do that with a button instead of going through all kinds of menu's. Changing the volume isn't done by a turning knob,
but some sort of touchpad which you have to turn like this. That's much better than a slider or something.
It's just less annoying to live with every day. And like I said, it's a very nice car to drive and a very nice place to be in.
Of course, there are a few drawbacks. Because the battery pack is that big, it takes up quite a lot of size. As a result, the boot can only...
fit 208 litres of luggage. That isn't a lot, especially considering you have to put the charging cables somewhere.
So it's not a really practical car. Also, it's heavier than the regular A3. The mass is low, incorporated in the floor, but it's there nonetheless.
That means it's a tad less comfortable and there isn't as much grip when you start looking for the limit.
As a whole however, it's a very good driving compromise. If you can afford the price, because it's quite costly.
It helps that the added taxes are pretty low, so it's only €2.000 more expensive than the regular A3 35 TFSI with S-Tronic,
but then you do get the Edition, which has some features like cruise control as standard. So you don't have to pay extra for those.
So what you get for your money is pretty decent, according to Audi-standards, but then you have start ticking boxes to make it complete.
Even though it's not an e-tron anymore, it's still an Audi.