dream | act | succeed

The first drive is always something special, isn’t it? Well, maybe it’s just me, but I think that it’s quite interesting to communicate with a car for the first time. You give it some steering input, you brake, you accelerate and feel how the car is reacting to it. Sounds a bit strange, I guess, but it’s important to know how your car will behave. Especially if it’s a new concept you haven’t driven before.

Sure, with this thing being still a front-wheel driven car, the concept might stay the same, but the electric drive, the battery underneath the rear seats and the tank underneath the trunk will make things slightly different. You don’t understand anything? Don’t worry. It’s simply explained.

The advantage of this hybrid system is that you can either drive electrically, with your normal combustion engine, or with both at the same time. While the electric drive has its maximum torque from a stand still, it will cause your tires to spin once hitting the accelerator too aggressively. Therefore you will need to be careful with that, or do you want to change your front tires every year? With the weight of the battery added to the drivetrain, the weight distribution of the car changes. Normally, the Audi A3 has the most of its weight in the front due to the engine and gearbox being positioned there. But with the battery and the tank both acting as counter weights in the back, the weight distribution gets better in terms of a more similar distribution between the front and the rear. But sure, the extra weight is not really a good thing, is it? The car is definitely getting heavier and needs to carry this around all the time. But well, it’s just the acceleration of the car and in corners where this is a disadvantage. Due to the reason that the electric drive can recuperate, it can actually get some energy back when slowing down. Therefore, the weight is helping at least with this point or when sailing downhill.

But we do not want to be too technical today, right? I mean, it’s a car that each and everyone of us can drive without knowing anything about what is going on underneath the bonnet. I guess that’s the interesting thing about cars these days. They have such a perfect setup that you can not even do something terribly wrong. There are so many safety systems and precautions. And sure, some people actually just want to get from point A to point B in life and do not care about all these other things.

Therefore, how does it drive? It drives very good! It’s not too soft, but also not too stiff. Give this car someone who knows at least the basics of driving and it will be too quick anyways.

But isn’t the charging thing very annoying? I understand what you mean. Back in the days when I was driving the electric formula student race car, charging was indeed a very annoying thing! You would sit there for ages and wait until it’s finally ready for the round two or round three. But I guess in my current situation, this is not a big problem. I can drive to work and back without the need for charing and sure, if I want to drive more, I use the combustion engine which makes it more fun anyways. Therefore, where is the big deal, right?

I guess there is no big deal. Just look at our current lives. If someone might have told you a year ago how life will look like due to the COVID-19 thing, who would have believed that person? Nobody, right? But we are getting used to anything if we want to! Therefore, the question is just that. Are you ready for a change or not? Do you want to have an electric/ hybrid car or not? And don’t tell me any environmental arguments, I am an engineer! I know that it’s not better for the environment! But it’s a start.

See you next time!