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Audi creates new diesel fuel from carbon dioxide and water

What if you could power cars of the future with pollution created by the cars of the past? That's what German automaker Audi is hoping to achieve by creating a new synthetic fuel using renewable energy to turn water and carbon dioxide gas into a new kind of fuel they call "e-diesel." The new diesel is being produced at Audi's pilot plant Sunfire in Dresden, Germany. Only a few gallons were created, which the German Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka put into her Audi A8 to prove the fuel's bonafides. The base fuel is known as "blue crude" and begins from a green source. Audi uses electricity from wind, water or solar power sources to separate hydrogen from oxygen in water. The hydrogen is then mixed with carbon dioxide which has been converted in carbon oxide. The blue crude is then further refined to create the e-diesel. The carbon dioxide is currently supplied by a biogas facilities, but some of that CO2 was captured from the air. "The engine runs quieter and fewer pollutants are being created," says Sunfire CTO Christian von Olshausen. The fuel can be combined with conventional diesel fuel, as biodiesel fuels already and would be competitively priced against regular diesel, according to Gizmag. Sunfire can produce about 42 gallons of e-diesel a day. That seems like barely a drop in the bucket in terms of Europe's energy use, but Audi is ready to commercialize the technology with plans to expand production with a bigger facility in the future.

Audi joins the car-sharing party with Shared Fleet

Seeing the success Zipcar and Daimler's Car2Go, more auto manufacturers are cutting out the middleman and jumping into the car sharing business. General Motors, Ford, and BMW have all introduced or announced their own programs. And now Audi has now thrown their hat into the ring with its Shared Fleet program. Like its competitors, Shared Fleet will be accessed through an app. The fleet consists of a mere three all-new and fully loaded 2017 Audi A4s and will be rolled out in a small pilot program in Durham, North Carolina. Audi plans a nationwide fleet for sometime in 2017. Through the app, customers will be able to locate and unlock vehicles. Pricing is currently unknown, but it is likely to be based off the time used, not the distance driven. The pilot program will be based at American Underground, a technology incubator in North Carolina. This will give Audi the chance to get the program into the hands of tech savvy users who have likely used competing programs. More than 700 employees at 200 companies are based at the facility. This isn't Audi's first foray into the car rental business. They previously invested a large amount into Silvercar. They also operate Audi on Demand in San Francisco, a similar program to Shared Fleet. With Audi on Demand, users can drop cars off at their destinations. Related Video:

First official Audi R8 photo leaks

The next-gen Audi R8 makes its grand debut in a just a few days at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show. However, leaks aren't uncommon for such a highly anticipated model, and it appears that the first official shot of the future supercar is now online. Autoblog en Espanol claims this is the first leaked factory photo showing the new Audi R8 completely undisguised. The single image depicts the supercar from the front, and it looks a lot like both Audi's own official teaser and the previous blurry image from Instagram. Based on this picture, the German designers thickened the outline around the grille at the front and added vertical slats at each corner. They also removed the gentle curve in the headlights in favor of a completely angular look. While the side blades were one of the major styling features of the original, their appearance has been toned down by removing the vertical, contrasting strip running up the body. Though the exterior design seems to evolve the R8 slightly, there are some big changes for the powertrain. Audi is ditching the V8 for the latest model and opting for two tunes of the 5.2-liter V10. The standard version gets 540 horsepower, and the Plus pushes output up to 610 hp. The top trim can reportedly hit 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds and reach a top speed of 205 mph. Although, there are already the rumors of other variants, including a turbo V6, coming later. Related Video: