Audi Commits To Nationwide 150 kW Fast Charge Network In U.S.

[apacheguy]

... based on how far the lightening bolts are from each other ... yes, but even farther. As one example, Denver to Chicago is 1000+ miles.

Yeah, their "nationwide" network will be pretty limited if that schematic represents the blueprint. I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Yeah, that US charge point graphic pretty much says it all. It bears no relation to real highways. It was created by a graphic artist with only a faint understanding of what they were drawing. Meaning no thought whatsoever has been done on charger placement yet.

 

[AB4EJ]

All fair comments, but remember that Audi has deep pockets (at least, until Volkswagen goes bankrupt, which they actually might do...)

 

[Johan]

All fair comments, but remember that Audi has deep pockets (at least, until Volkswagen goes bankrupt, which they actually might do...)

Audi's pockets may be deep but they're not bottomless. They have huge financial obligations and their liquidity isn't all that great. And if all they have to show for the next 5 years is another steady flow of press releases I'm not sure the credit markets will be so eager to increase the depth of the aforementioned pockets. They better get this thing in gear (pun intended) if they don't want the future of their business to evaporate in fumes (pun intended) or burn up in smoke (pun intended).

 

[Rocky_H]

I wouldn't keep discounting the big boys. They have some know how.

But they don’t seem to have any want to.

 

[iadbound]

Audi's BEVs and charging network might end up being vaporware, but at least Audi is talking about going in the right direction, which is more than we can say for a lot of other car manufacturers (Toyota, are you listening?). Also, if Elon is to be taken at his word: the more BEVs the better - no matter the manufacturer.

 

[miimura]

It will be interesting to see how VW group's initial foray into US charging infrastructure plays out. This was announced as the VW & BMW joint initiative to install CCS charging stations on the east and west coasts. So far on the West Coast, I only see four 24kW units and one 50kW unit. Not much progress for 10 months of work. Hopefully they will have learned something that they can apply to the new Audi high power charging initiative.

 

[Lloyd]

Can we get an adapter in the works!! :smile:

 

[thegruf]

gets a yeah right from me too

this from a UK Autoexpress report today

At the same time, VW Group has announced it's cutting €1billion off its "investment activities" from €13bn a year to €12bn. A new design centre in Wolfsburg and paintshop in Mexico have been put on hold, as well as the successor to the Phaeton – a pure-play electric model.

Some €100 million of the savings from projects will be ploughed into alternative drive train research next year, including the development of its electric system.

So that's the Electric Phaeton binned already!
This is from the group that have set aside 4.7bn when analysts suggest 25bn+ is likely.
Going to need to find a few more savings then.

 

[RDoc]

gets a yeah right from me too

this from a UK Autoexpress report today

At the same time, VW Group has announced it's cutting €1billion off its "investment activities" from €13bn a year to €12bn. A new design centre in Wolfsburg and paintshop in Mexico have been put on hold, as well as the successor to the Phaeton – a pure-play electric model.

Some €100 million of the savings from projects will be ploughed into alternative drive train research next year, including the development of its electric system.

So that's the Electric Phaeton binned already!
This is from the group that have set aside 4.7bn when analysts suggest 25bn+ is likely.
Going to need to find a few more savings then.

So... suppose they took the 4.7bn and got seriously into FanDual and DraftKings for a year or so?

 

[stopcrazypp]

gets a yeah right from me too

this from a UK Autoexpress report today

At the same time, VW Group has announced it's cutting €1billion off its "investment activities" from €13bn a year to €12bn. A new design centre in Wolfsburg and paintshop in Mexico have been put on hold, as well as the successor to the Phaeton – a pure-play electric model.

Some €100 million of the savings from projects will be ploughed into alternative drive train research next year, including the development of its electric system.

So that's the Electric Phaeton binned already!
This is from the group that have set aside 4.7bn when analysts suggest 25bn+ is likely.
Going to need to find a few more savings then.

EPA just got admission from VW that the V6 diesel model also had a cheat so there's more costs coming ahead.
http://jalopnik.com/epa-volkswagen-admits-3-0-liter-v6-diesels-violated-em-1743809215

The only thing is with their diesel reputation tarnished, perhaps they genuinely will focus more on electrics.

 

[brianman]

Dare I say, some of you sound like a bunch of Kodak employees around the water cooler mocking other companies' digital camera plans 20+ years ago.

Edit - Now that I've had a second cup of coffee, maybe not the best analogy, what I meant was this thread is full of "Yeah, our team's #1! Everyone else is stupid! No one else can figure out what we have!" Puh-leeze. Someone cue the "Big Oil and Big Auto are in cahoots for world domination" conspiracy theories.

Is there a 200+mi. EPA EV range sedan from Audi that that I can reserve for $5k (or less)? Show me the link please.

 

[scottf200]

Is there a 200+mi. EPA EV range sedan from Audi that that I can reserve for $5k (or less)? Show me the link please.

Did you say the same thing before Tesla showed up? Isn't there always a beginning?

 

[jerry33]

Did you say the same thing before Tesla showed up? Isn't there always a beginning?

There is buy when you cry wolf as many times as Audi has, no one listens anymore.

 

[MikeC]

gets a yeah right from me too

this from a UK Autoexpress report today

At the same time, VW Group has announced it's cutting €1billion off its "investment activities" from €13bn a year to €12bn. A new design centre in Wolfsburg and paintshop in Mexico have been put on hold, as well as the successor to the Phaeton – a pure-play electric model.

Some €100 million of the savings from projects will be ploughed into alternative drive train research next year, including the development of its electric system.

So that's the Electric Phaeton binned already!
This is from the group that have set aside 4.7bn when analysts suggest 25bn+ is likely.
Going to need to find a few more savings then.

Hilarious. At least VW is improving its efficiency...with which it submits and retracts press releases. Just over a month for this one.

October 16, 2015: Volkswagen Phaeton Flagship Will Be Electric Tesla Rival

In the wake of the diesel emissions cheating scandal that has already cost the company tens of billions of dollars, VW plans to cut spending on “unessential” new models by as much as $1 billion dollars. What’s most interesting, however, will be something that is being considered essential: an all-electric Phaeton flagship that’s set to rival the Tesla Model S.

November 20, 2015: VW emissions scandal: recalls, compensation is your car affected? | Auto Express

At the same time, VW Group has announced it's cutting €1billion off its "investment activities" from €13bn a year to €12bn. A new design centre in Wolfsburg and paintshop in Mexico have been put on hold, as well as the successor to the Phaeton – a pure-play electric model.

 

[wjhepworth]

This is truly a sad state of affairs. Right now the only aggressive companies in both selling EVs and providing a robust enough network for cross country travel are Nissan and Tesla. Chevy is making the EVs but not backing them up solidly with a viable charging network. Ford? Showing signs of life. BMW.. starting to register a bit. But still, I never would have thought there would only be two companies leading the charge. Sadness.

 

[flankspeed8]

I wouldn't consider Nissan as being particularly aggressive right now. Better than sitting on the side-lines but there is too much discrepancy from dealer to dealer. At least they are subsidizing 3rd party with the no-charge to charge program which may be the best way to go in the long run. I don't want to see a fragmented nationwide network of fast chargers.

 

[Chipper]

I do not understand why other companies are not taking advantage of the free patents offered by Tesla. Tesla obviously has the best engineered product. Why do others want a proprietary or less-than-optimal system?

 

[Iz]

I do not understand why other companies are not taking advantage of the free patents offered by Tesla. Tesla obviously has the best engineered product. Why do others want a proprietary or less-than-optimal system?

Could be upper management egos that think they can build a better battery and product. Some of these companies do have a lot in the technology area. It is possible they feel EVs are a passing fad, which was also said of digital cameras years ago.

 

[pvogel]

Could be upper management egos that think they can build a better battery and product. Some of these companies do have a lot in the technology area. It is possible they feel EVs are a passing fad, which was also said of digital cameras years ago.

Yep. And dissing the digital camera effectively killed Kodak, DID kill Polaroid (they've kind of zombied), etc. Nikon almost missed the boat but got there just a little late with an incredible product that worked just like and felt just like their flagship F-1 product, similarly Canon. Olympus got on the digital bandwagon early but missed a critical professional play where Nikon and Canon were there in time, causing Olympus to struggle quite a while (arguably still are).

Same kind of shock is on its way for the car industry and, even more so for the car industry service market (gas stations, jiffy lubes and the like) just as the film suppliers like Kodak, Polaroid, Agfa, Fuji were hit hard and even more so the film development places like 1 hour developers.