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Audi A3 E-Tron launching at $51,500 in Germany

Audi has put a price tag on the A3 Sportback E-Tron plug-in hybrid, for which presales begin this month in Germany. To get your hands on one of these little guys, Audi is asking for ˆ37,900, or about $51,537 according to current exchange rates. Of course, the base MSRP doesn't include any incentives, but in Germany, those savings would come from certain annual tax exemptions that apply to PHEVs. Buyers in other countries might have more luck in getting into an A3 E-Tron for less. Audi lists its most important markets for the A3 E-Tron as Germany, Sweden, Norway, Holland, the UK and, despite no firm date for the car's arrival here, the United States. These countries, according to Audi, are where buyers are willing to spend their green (or the more colorful banknotes of Europe) on green cars. These places also enjoy nice things, or in Audi's words, "They appreciate the classic strengths of the Audi brand: high-end technology, uncompromising workmanship, sportiness and elegant design." In Germany, Audi will sell the A3 Sportback E-Tron at select dealerships. The service departments of those 100 or so dealers will get special training to work with the high-voltage technology used by the plug-in hybrid. These locations will also feature free-to-use charging stations for customers. The Audi A3 Sportback E-Tron's lithium-ion battery stores 8.8 kWh of juice, and is supplemented by a four-cylinder, 1.4-liter TFSI engine which works parallel to the electric motor. Total output is 204 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque, directed to the front wheels via a six-speed S Tronic transmission. The car can reach 60 miles per hour in 7.6 seconds and has a top speed of 138 mph. It can travel of to 31 miles on battery power alone. Deliveries for the 2015 Audi A3 Sportback E-Tron will begin in Germany and Central Europe this winter.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

2017 Audi S4 Avant is what forbidden fruit looks like

Take a good look at this lemon yellow Audi S4 Avant at the Geneva Motor Show, because you're not going to see one on the road in the US. That's really a shame, too, because for a family that wants to combine performance and utility, this seems like a great package. The S4 Avant takes the wonderful aspects from the latest S4 Sedan and adds just a little more to sweeten the deal. Drivers still get a turbocharged V6 and eight-speed transmission. Plus, Audi's famous all-wheel drive system and torque vectoring provide tons of traction whether motoring through a snow storm or taking a corner. In addition, customers get up to a massive 53.3 cubic feet of cargo space in the wagon, versus 17 cubic feet in the sedan. The only downside of the extra room is that the 0-62 sprint takes 4.9 seconds in the long roof versus the 4.7 seconds of the sedan. We'd take that trade-off. The Avant even looks better. Neither version is ugly, but the longer roof flows beautifully to the raked rear hatch. The result looks more elegant than the four-door. Unfortunately, these advantages simply add to the S4 Avant's status as very sweet forbidden fruit. American tastes might turn from crossovers to wagons someday, but until that unlikely prospect happens, enjoy these great shots of an enviable vehicle. Related Video: From 0 to 100 km/h (62.1 mph) in 4.7 seconds with fuel consumption of less than 7.4 liters of fuel per 100 km (31.8 US mpg) – the new Audi S4* and the new Audi S4 Avant* are advancing to the peak of the competitive field with strong performance and exemplary efficiency. Its newly developed turbo V6 engine outputs 260 kW (354 hp). New solutions in networking and assistance systems round out its features. Audi is transferring many technologies from the full-size class into the mid-size class. Lightweight and strong: the 3.0 TFSI The strong heart of the two new S models from Audi is a newly conceptualized 3.0 TFSI engine. The direct gasoline injection engine with turbocharging has an output of 260 kW (354 hp) and produces a hefty torque of 500 Nm (368.8 lb-ft) from 1,370 to 4,500 rpm. In terms of power and torque, it surpasses the previous model while achieving considerably lower figures in weight and fuel consumption. The turbo V6 engine accelerates the Audi S4 from 0 to 100 km/h (62.1 mph) in 4.7 seconds, and on up to an electronically governed top speed of 250 km/h (155.3 mph). The standard sprint takes two tenths of a second longer in the S4 Avant.