2012 Audi R8 Gt Coupe 2-door 5.2l on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: New and old Audis get greener, as does US electricity

Audi has made environmental improvements to the its TT while boosting performance. The new TT sees an 11-percent reduction in emissions, and up to 14 percent more power. Audi says that each TT will save around 5.5 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over its lifecycle. Additionally, the TT's manufacturing process has been cleaned up a bit, reducing emissions by about nine percent. Read more in the press release, below, or see Audi's lifecycle assessment here. Speaking of greening up Audis, Al Swackhammer of Washington converted his 1960 Audi DKW 1000S to run on electric power. Swackhammer first fell in love with the Audi Ur-Quattro, became an enthusiast of Audi and Volkswagen cars, and has owned nothing else ever since. With his DKW, he combined his passion for the classic car with his responsibility to the environment. "I am pleased that I did this project," says the happy owner, "and I enjoy driving it very dearly." Meet the man and his beloved electric Audi DKW in the video below. Toyota has chosen a sustainable design firm, Corgan, as the lead architect for its new North American headquarters. The new campus will be built in Plano, TX, and will be the workplace of about 4,000 Toyota employees. Corgan, who has already done 47 LEED certified projects, is already designing a temporary office for the site while it finishes the project. Toyota expects to begin working from the site in late 2016 or early 2017. Learn more in the press release below. In July, all new electrical generating capacity in the US came from renewable sources. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Office of Energy Projects' newest "Energy Infrastructure Update" report says new electric generation put into service last month came from wind (379 megawatts), solar (21 megawatts) and hydro (5 megawatts). So far this year, 53 percent of new energy generation capacity has come from various renewable sources, and none from coal or nuclear. Currently, renewable energy accounts for 16.3 percent of the US electric generation capacity, providing about 14 percent of actual electricity. Read more in the press release from the Sun Day Campaign below. Positive life cycle assessment for the new Audi TT Compact sports car scores high for dynamic performance and efficiency Emissions reduced by 11 percent compared with predecessor Customer benefits from the very first mile Ingolstadt, August 18, 2014 – Dynamic performance and efficiency: The new Audi TT* impressively combines both qualities.

Audi supercar not yet approved, R4 not quite dead, still room for an MPV

According to a report by Autocar, all we thought we knew of the in-development Audi supercar we might not actually know. A piece in Car and Driver, not even a month old, said the diesel-hybrid halo car was in the design stages, would get the engine from the R18 E-Tron Quattro and its carbon fiber tub. Now we get word that that while the coupe is indeed being designed, it hasn't yet been signed off and there's no business case for it yet. Said business case, whenever it is built, is also dubious of the diesel aspect of the car at the moment - diesels aren't known for creating Pavlovian purchase responses in buyers in the two key markets of the US and China.
The report suggests that instead of a diesel, the 2014 Le Mans regulations changes "could swing the favour back towards petrol models," which would give the so-called Scorpion a better tie to racing technology. Of course, that also assumes that Audi would contest next year's Le Mans with a gas-powered car. If so, that would be an about-face on the original reasons for the halo sportscar in the first place.
In other news, seems Audi also believes it can slot another sportscar below the R8, it just needs to get the financials sorted. The R4 - a Porsche Boxster-sized roadster - that has been chattered about for years is still in on the table but appears a long way off. Company R&D chief Wolfgang Durheimer said it would need to be mid-engined and bring plenty of tech to separate itself from the TT, but mass-market price point is the catch as is the focus on other segments in the portfolio.

Autoblog Podcast #413

Episode #413 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Chris Paukert, and Brandon Turkus recap all of the big debuts that took place this week at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Of course, the podcast starts with what's in the garage and finishes up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the rundown with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #413 The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics 2015 Detroit Auto Show In The Autoblog Garage 2015 Chevrolet Trax 2015 Audi RS 5 2015 Ford F-150 Long-Term 2014 Jeep Cherokee Hosts: Dan Roth, Chris Paukert, Brandon Turkus Runtime: 01:xx:xx Rundown Intro and Garage - 00:00 2015 Detroit Auto Show – 37:49 Q&A - 01:32:48 Get The Podcast UStream – Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Feedback Email – Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes