New Audi e-tron GT, green light

This article is published in issue 2-3 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until January 19, 2021

Swe are at the height of the greatest revolution that has involved the automotive world since its origins. Driving it is above all the ever more urgent need to reduce the emissions produced by our travels. Thus, the year that has just opened will bring with it more new electric models than with any other type of power supply.

An invasion of e-car that finally manage to make us dream also for style and driving fun, like the Audi e-tron GT, the next object of desire for conscious drivers.

The green car, which began to create anticipation as early as 2018 when the prototype was unveiled at the Los Angeles motor show, today went into production. “For me it is the most beautiful car that my team and I have ever designed,” confessed Marc Lichte. The head of Audi design, who has designed over a hundred cars in his career, found himself facing a new challenge. “Today is an incredibly exciting time for automotive designers,” says Lichte. “Digitization and electrification are transforming mobility and opening up entirely new design opportunities.”

Aesthetics, but also performance. The e-tron GT is the most powerful electric car of the German company, with solutions directly derived from the world of racing and, in particular, from Formula E: two versions of 440 and 598 hp, one shot 0-100 km / h less 3.5 seconds for the RS variant (the top of the top), four-wheel drive and double electric motor.

Attention to the environment does not only concern exhaust emissions, but also the interiors where recycled fabrics have been used as an alternative to leather. And there’s more: the new e-tron GT is sustainable even before being switched on, because it is born in Böllinger Höfe, a carbon neutral certified factory which is located in Heilbronn, north of Stuttgart, and which has been using only renewable energy since the beginning of 2020.

In the factory, logistics are mainly organized by rail and, for example, in the sorting area there are engines powered by compressed natural gas. Only by using trains powered by renewable energy for the transport of goods does the company avoid the emission of 13 thousand tons of CO into the atmosphere every year.2. Instead, most of the shipments are entrusted to specialists who work with LNG trucks, i.e. liquefied natural gas.

Emissions that cannot otherwise be avoided are offset through environmental projects e carbon credit certified internationally. Furthermore, the waste of paper is banned in the plant (the stickers for the control and cataloging activities are replaced by apps and digital labels) and, instead, aluminum and plastic are used several times. The waste from the press work, for example for the realization of the side sections of the body of the Audi e-tron GT, goes directly to the supplier who reprocesses them. Then Audi still uses the sheet metal thus made. Translated? In one year, the emission of about 150 thousand tons of CO into the atmosphere is avoided2.

In the same way, plastic waste is also reused, creating another closed and virtuous circle: the pyrolysis oil obtained from the recovery, and called bio-crude, feeds the 3D printers that are used to make the customized mounting supports. . In addition to 3D printing, virtual reality is widely used in the futuristic plant: The assembly processes, procedures and actions of employees have been tested and optimized using virtual models of the spaces. VR technology has earned another first within the Group: for the production of the Audi e-tron GT it was not necessary to use real prototypes.

New technologies that, alongside the craftsmanship, make processes more efficient in the immediate term and more sustainable in the long term. The brand’s goal, in fact, is the carbon neutral balance of all its activities by 2050.

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