Off-road vehicles are not something you'd expect to get triple-digit fuel economy, even with a hybrid drivetrain. And yet that's exactly what Audi claims you'd experience in the TT Offroad.
If you could actually buy one, that is.
Audi rolled into the Shanghai Auto Show with a one-off cute-ute that's got four doors, two motors and an engine. It's essentially a jacked-up TT with a sophisticated plug-in hybrid drivetrain, but you don't actually need a cord because it also uses an inductive system charged by parking on an inductive pad. The juice is stored in a 12 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery good for an all-electric (claimed) range of about 31 miles.
There's a 40 kilowatt motor integrated into the six-speed gearbox, and an 85 kilowatt motor bolted to the rear axle. They augment the 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine (turbocharged, of course) that produces 292 horsepower. All told, the system produces 408 horsepower and 480 pound feet of torque. That's considerably more than the SQ5--in a vehicle about the size of the Q3. Even with truck-like ground clearance, Audi claims the TT Offroad can hit 60 miles an hour in 5.2 seconds. Even crazier, Audi says it'll get an average of 123.8 mpg.
The engine and two motors work together in a variety of ways, depending upon what you want. Choose EV mode and you're all electric, all the time. The rear motor does all the work, to a maximum electric-only speed of 80.8 mph. In Hybrid mode, the engine and two motors work together in whatever way the computer deems best; in most cases, the front electric motor serves as a generator (driven by the engine) to charge the battery--a system not unlike that of the Chevrolet Volt. Choose Sport mode and the engine and rear motor work together to maximize acceleration.
Audi's long been a leader in interior accommodations and technology, and the Offroad is no exception. This being a concept, it's a showcase for some cool tech you might see in future models, stuff like online traffic light information, which tells you precisely how fast to go so you hit nothing but green lights. But the coolest feature might be the 1:8 scale radio controlled version of the car stashed in the trunk.
Audi has hinted that the TT Offroad may be a harbinger of future models, but for now, it's a concept car meant to show off what could--if not should--be.
