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^M00:00:06
>> Well, here it is the new smallest of the Audi's. This is the A1. Let's hope they don't want to go smaller because they're all out of numbers unless they want to start to go, you know, the minus two series or the 0, and those don't market well. Here's the issue. This car comes out later this year, 2010. Doesn't come out to the U.S. Audi's boss says this thing's just too small to appeal to the American consumer. Apparently, he hasn't seen the sales graph for, oh, the Mini Cooper, for example. Now, yes, this car's just a little bigger than my shoe but still not off the charts at this point in history. But aside from this and its small form factor that's the interesting one. Check it out. This is the A1 e-tron. Notice, it's not like the other e-trons we've seen from Audi which are sort of R8 based, all electric super cars. This one does have an electric motor sitting side saddle up here driving the front wheels, but it also has a range extender motor which will turn a generator and keep things running beyond the initial charge like a Chevy Bolt. 30 miles or so on the charge and then continuous generation gets you about another 125 miles. It's 102 horsepower. This is not a super car in a little package. It's taking the e-tron idea and stretching it another direction toward a well sustainable city car. Again, not coming to the U.S. because of the package it's in, but the idea of using the e-tron technology in a more everyday Audi that's interesting and something we're gonna watch.
