2011 Audi A4 2.0t Premium Turbocharged Auto Sunroof 29k Texas Direct Auto on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: Nissan "religious" about zero-emissions, Tesla crashes at dealership, Formula E on-board video

Nissan is pretty darn serious about being king of the EV industry. Just see what Chief Planning Officer Andy Palmer has to say at the launch of the e-NV200: "When it comes to zero emissions, we're absolutely religious. We'll be the absolute, No. 1 leader in zero emissions. No doubt. That's our positioning." Bold words, to be sure. Toyota, on the other hand, ended its collaboration with Tesla (whom Nissan mustn't forget about in its quest to reign supreme in the EV world) to build the RAV4 EV, and will focus instead on hybrids and testing the waters with hydrogen cars. Says Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota North America, "I would rather invest my dollars in fuel cell development than in another 2,500 EVs." Read more at Automotive News or Autoweek. To celebrate 25 years of TDI technology, Audi is releasing the A7 Sportback 3.0 TDI Competition special edition in Europe. The Competition uses Audi's biturbocharged, 3.0-liter diesel engine boosted to 326 horsepower, giving the car a 0-62 time of 5.1 seconds. It comes with the S line sport package and is offered in four exterior colors: Daytona Gray, Misano Red, Nardo Gray and Sepang Blue. The interior is black leather, with the option of Misano Red or Agate Gray contrast stitching. The Competition edition will go on sale in August starting at ˆ72,000 (about $97,700). Audi's first Turbocharged Direct Injection engine debuted at the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show in the Audi 100 2.5 TDI. See the press release down below for more details. There was another Tesla Model S crash recently, this one at the Tesla Store. The driver apparently crashed the freshly purchased car into the Tesla sign before even making it off the lot. According to Reddit user s1lentway, who was at the Tesla Store in Fremont, California when it happened, "We believe this is someone who just got their car. They must have been driving it for less than a minute and lost control, crashing right into the sign missing the showroom glass windows only by a few inches." Wrecked Exotics suggests the driver hit the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. Probably the best comment in the Reddit post: "Edison strikes again." See the original post at Reddit for more corny jokes, speculation and similar stories from other users. Take a lap in a Formula E racecar. The video below offers up the sights and sounds of a hot, wet lap in the open-cockpit, all-electric Spark-Renault SRT_01E.

Delphi plans automated-driving journey across the United States

Delphi is attempting to become the first company to pilot an automated car across the United States. The global automotive supplier will start a cross-country journey from a location near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco starting on Sunday, March 22, and cover approximately 3,500 miles on a trip to New York, where it will arrive sometime during the New York Auto Show. Along the way, Delphi engineers will gather data on how the car, an Audi SQ5, performs in a variety of road and weather conditions that the company says could only be tested in a real-world environment. "Delphi had great success testing its car in California and on the streets of Las Vegas," said Jeff Owens, the company's chief technology officer. "Now it's time to put our vehicle to the ultimate test by broadening the range of driving conditions." A formal announcement is expected tomorrow during the SXSW festival in Austin, TX. The company recently demonstrated many of its advanced-safety and automated driving technologies during CES, driving in Las Vegas. The cross-country trip will include tests on its radar, vision and advanced-drive assistance systems, certain vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, and intelligent software, which includes automated highway pilot with lane-change technology, automated urban pilot and automated parking functions. Though a driver will be behind the wheel throughout the journey, Delphi says its active safety technologies can make complex decisions, like stopping and proceeding at four-way stops, timing highway merges and calculating safe maneuvers around bicyclists. While California has certain motor-vehicle laws that help regulate autonomous vehicles, it was unclear whether Delphi needs special arrangements or permission from other states to conduct automated-vehicle testing elsewhere – or if those concerns might be negated by an active driver. Earlier this year, Audi turned heads at CES by driving an A7 from San Francisco to Las Vegas in a similar display of automated-driving technology. Related video: Image Credit: Delphi CES Audi Technology Emerging Technologies Autonomous Vehicles

Audi builds 3-millionth A3

About a month after Volkswagen celebrated building its 30-millionth example of the Golf, Audi has announced that it has produced three million versions of its small hatchback, the closely related Audi A3. Probably more surprising than the fact that the A3 has moved in such big numbers since its global debut in 1996 is the fact that it has done so with relatively little support in the US, seeing marginal sales in the States since 2005.
The three-millionth A3 was a Sportback TDI model, but the lineup has grown this year to include a new sedan and S3 model, and the hybrid A3 E-tron is on the way. With these new models - especially the sedan in the US - we expect the A3 to continue to be a popular entrant in the premium small segment. Scroll down for Audi's official press release.