The new Audi e-tron Spyder

The new Audi e-tron Spyder

The new Audi e-tron Spyder

The new Audi e-tron Spyder

The new Audi e-tron Spyder at the Paris Motor Show 2010

Audi at the Paris Motor Show: Audi quattro concept (right) and Audi e-tron Spyder

The new Audi e-tron Spyder at the Paris Motor Show 2010

Audi presented the Audi e-tron Spyder, the study of an open sports car, at the fall 2010’s largest auto show, the Paris Motor Show.

The Audi e-tron Spyder features what is without a doubt the most advanced and simultaneously the most consistent evolution of the current Audi design language, while also providing initial hints at the design language of future Audi sports cars. It reinterprets the most important design elements that already characterized the previous e-tron concept vehicles. This also ensures the necessary formal differentiation to the purely electric-powered Audi e-tron shown at the 2010 Detroit Motor Show.

In an apparent homage to motor sports, the frameless side glass surfaces taper downward toward the rear. They form a unit with the windshield, which is strongly bowed and inclined like the visor of a helmet.

Another element borrowed from race cars characterizes the hood: the wide central air inlet, whose curve further accentuates the dynamics of the car’s front end and provides a visual and functional link to the Audi R8 LMS customer race car. The carbon application that is mounted flush in the front and side windows and wraps completely around the glass testifies to the design and manufacturing expertise that went into the car.

The front the silhouette of the e-tron Spyder are characterized by a sharp, sweeping line that immediately identifies the two-seater as an Audi. The sharply tapered front end lends the Audi e-tron Spyder show car a distinctly wedge-like basic shape. The trapeze of the single-frame grille dominates the distinctly wedge-shaped front end and is flanked by two large air intakes. They serve as cooling intakes for the electric drive system and also for the TDI engine at the rear of the vehicle.

All light units use ultra-efficient LED technology. As with the R8 and the e-tron sports car concept cars, the trademark four rings are located above the single-frame. Beneath the trademark is the charging station for the batteries. The rings disappear beneath the front hatch, exposing not just the charging plug but also a display showing the charge state and a map graphic indicating the current electric range.

Behind the seats are two cowls that gradually taper toward the rear and also flank the opening for the TDI engine and the implied cooling fins of the engine cover. They also contain the normally hidden rollover bars, which like in the production R8 Spyder shoot up within milliseconds and lock into place in the event of an emergency.

The Audi e-tron Spyder, Audi, Paris Motor Show 2010. SOURCE: Audi. No part of this web site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Morfae and the copyright owner.