2023 Audi E-Tron drifting through winter tuning and calibration
Audi is working on the 2023 E-Tron and E-Tron Sportback at the Volkswagen Group testing facility in northern Sweden. KALT 1 is the name of the Lapland location, kalt being the German word for cold. The automaker says engineers spend about ten weeks per year there, away from family, friends and humans not employed by VW, calibrating driving systems in ways that ensure every customer says of every Ingoldstadt production, “This is an Audi.” The automaker says wet- and cold-weather tuning takes 1.5 Swedish winters, the Scandinavian results measured against calibrations derived from prototype drives on a variety of Spanish roads during the other seasons. Said one calibration engineer, on top of steering response, steering turn-in, traction, and steering properties, “The ABS, ASC and driving dynamics control have to correspond to Audi DNA.”
Testing happens on plowed courses running through the 8,896-acre grounds as well as on a frozen lake. Audi says that when the lake ice hasn’t reached the minimum 9.8-inch thickness to drive on, some in-house Zamboni drivers hop in their hovercraft to push snow off the ice. That gets the ice to thicken faster, and sounds like an awesome way to spend a Lapland morning before a 10-hour workday that ends with colaweizen and discussions about whether the electric crossover should allow 78.5 or 78.6 degrees of oversteer.
The photos lead us to believe Audi’s focusing on prepping the 2023 E-Tron this winter. The mid-life refresh is expected in the latter half of the year, sporting tweaks to the front and rear, as per usual with such makeovers. The big news happens underneath, Autocar reporting a few months ago that the Audi E-Tron will enjoy the second half of its life with a new-generation battery, more efficient motors with greater energy recuperation, and new electronics that enable more brake recuperation. The battery is expected to hold steady at 95 kilowatt-hours of capacity, but in Europe, anticipated range could grow nearly 50%, going from 259 miles on the European WLTP cycle to 373 miles. Our EPA-rated 222 miles in the E-Tron and 218 miles in the E-Tron Sportback should hit about 300 miles.
There have been recent rumors that Audi might give the E-Tron a numerical designation for its half-life, too. We know the brand plans to replace the E-Tron with a Q8 E-Tron around 2026; the UK’s WhichCar believes Audi might start with the Q8 name on the 2023 E-Tron, which would provide quick clarity among the other E-Trons filling up the range now and over the next few years, like the Q4, A6 and Q6.
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