2004 Audi A6 Quattro Avant Wagon 4-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: Audi R18 e-tron Quattro wins WEC opener, Toyota Mirai goes to DC

The Audi R18 e-tron Quattro has won the World Endurance Championship season opener at Silverstone. Drivers Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer piloted the number 7 hybrid racecar to a hard-fought win in the six-hour UK race. "This victory is a dream start of the season and a great reward for the whole squad for the hard work last winter," says Audi Motorsport boss Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, congratulating the team. Audi's second R18 took fifth place in the race after a couple of unscheduled pit stops ate up precious time. Read more in the press release from Audi, below. Mini and Spanish designer Jaime Hayon are presenting new versions of the Mini Citysurfer electric scooter concept at Salone del Mobile in Milan, Italy. The installation, called "Urban Perspectives" depicts an idea of the future of urban mobility. The imaginary living space houses two examples of the Citysurfer concept designed by Hayon. The first is painted to resemble blue and while porcelain, with dots and stripes to give it an upbeat look. The second uses more upscale materials like anodized metal, copper and leather to blend modern and classical elements. The foldable Citysurfer scooter can travel 10 to 15 miles on a charge, and is designed fit and charge inside the trunk of a Mini Cooper. Read more from Mini. Tesla has announced the locations of its first Superchargers in Australia. It will install eight charging booths at the Goulburn Visitor's Centre, about 120 miles southwest of Sydney. The Goulburn superchargers will be powered by renewable energy. Tesla plans to install a network of Superchargers in cities along the route connecting the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane south to Melbourne. Read more at Clean Technica. The Toyota Mirai will be on display at the National Mall in Washington DC to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Earth Day. Toyota is a sponsor of Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day from April 17 to 19, which will include speakers, musical performances and, of course, Toyota's new hydrogen fuel cell car. "Earth Day 2015 is a great platform to educate the public about hydrogen fuel cell technology and the potential of hydrogen as a future fuel," says Toyota's Bob Carter. Also in April, Toyota will continue to enlighten the public about the Mirai and hydrogen technology in Union Square Park in New York on April 19, and at Waterkeeper Alliance's "Keep it Clean" comedy event in Los Angeles on April 22. Read more from Toyota.

Power for the people who need crossovers | 2018 Audi SQ5 First Drive

The 2018 Audi SQ5 is pretty simple. It's the sporty version of the redesigned Q5. It's for the enthusiast. The buyers skew male, and Audi pitches it as the solution for when an S4 doesn't meet your needs. It's a 354-horsepower purple pill for the Dad who's resigned himself to driving a crossover — but still wants to have some fun. The SQ5 is simple, but it's also very important. The Q5 is Audi's best-seller, and a sportier sibling makes the entire family look good. The midsize crossover segment is big business, and the performance industry is hot. Archrivals Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche have formidable entries. A few years ago a hotted-up crossover was a nice thing for an automaker to develop – a bonus addition to the lineup. Now it's essential. The SQ5 definitely feels like the right vehicle at the right time. Cruising around Vancouver Island outside Victoria, the stately capital city of British Columbia, we're having heck of a good time. The crossover, based on a platform shared with the larger Q7, feels nimble and eager. Breaking free from early morning traffic, we find the Trans-Canada Highway, cue up Dynamic mode, and take off. Dynamic mode adds heft to the steering, lowers the vehicle 0.6 inches from Auto mode, and deepens the exhaust note. It's low, growly, and sounds surprisingly good. The 3.0-liter TFSI engine has plenty of punch. You know it from the S4 and S5. Like those cars, the SQ5 now ditches the supercharger for turbo power. It was a mildly controversial move as the blown motors in the S4 and S5 gave those cars true muscle-car character. We've made our peace, and turbos just seem like the natural move for the SQ5. Audi is quick to point out the wide torque curve – you get 369 pound-feet sooner than with the supercharger, and output is 23 more pound-feet than before. The horsepower remains the same, though it maxes out slightly sooner in the band. Audi says the turbo, mounted in the middle of the engine's V, makes the SQ5 more responsive, and with all of the low-end torque, we agree. It certainly feels capable as we open it up, finding gaps in traffic, side-stepping tree haulers and deftly out-maneuvering slow-moving motorists. We find a rhythm on the Pacific Rim Highway, smoothly tackling the curves, pulling the paddles for quick downshifts from the eight-speed automatic Tiptronic transmission, and aggressively accelerating before giving way to common sense. It's a beautiful drive.

Trump calls Germans 'very bad,' vows to stop their car sales in US

TAORMINA, Italy -Talks between President Trump and other leaders of the world's rich nations at the G7 summit on Friday were expected to be "robust" and "challenging" after he had lambasted NATO allies and condemned Germans as "very bad" for their trade policies. Trump's confrontational remarks in Brussels, on the eve of the two-day summit in the Mediterranean resort town of Taormina, cast a pall over a meeting at which America's partners had hoped to coax him into softening his stances on trade and climate change. According to German media reports, Trump condemned Germany as "very bad" for its trade policies in a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, signaling he might take steps to limit sales of German cars in the United States. "The Germans are bad, very bad," he reportedly told Juncker. "Look at the millions of cars that they're selling in the USA. Horrible. We're gonna stop that." White House economic adviser Gary Cohn on Friday confirmed the reports. "He said they're very bad on trade, but he doesn't have a problem with Germany." Cohn said Trump had pointed out during the meeting that his father had German roots in order to underscore the message that he had nothing against the German people. Trump's spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump had "tremendous respect" for Germany and had only complained about unfair trade practices in the meeting. Juncker called the reports in Spiegel Online and Sueddeutsche Zeitung exaggerated. The reports translated "bad" with the German word "boese," which can also mean "evil," leading to confusion when English-language media translated the German reports back into English. "The record has to be set straight," Juncker said, noting that the translation issue had exaggerated the seriousness of what Trump had said. "It's not true that the president took an aggressive approach when it came to the German trade surplus." "He said, like others have, that (the United States) has a problem with the German surplus. So he was not aggressive at all," Juncker added. In January, Trump threatened to slap a 35 percent tax on German auto imports. "If you want to build cars in the world, then I wish you all the best. You can build cars for the United States, but for every car that comes to the USA, you will pay 35 percent tax," he said. "I would tell BMW that if you are building a factory in Mexico and plan to sell cars to the USA, without a 35 percent tax, then you can forget that." Last year, the U.S.