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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.

CO2-neutral* Audi A3 G-Tron goes on sale in Germany

The Audi A3 Sportback G-Tron has been on our natural gas-powered radar since it was unveiled at last year's Geneva Motor Show. Just before the big show starts up again this year, Audi put the new G-Tron vehicle on sale in Germany today, starting at 25,900 euros ($35,400 US). Anyone who opts for the Audi e-gas fuel card will be able to cruise the Autobahn knowing that their emissions will be CO2-neutral. That's because Audi has built an e-gas plant in Werlte in Lower Saxony, Germany that creates a synthetic methane that is compatible with natural gas from a process that uses "green electricity" to "[bind] as much CO2 as is released when the Audi A3 g-tron is driven in gas mode." Your own A3 G-Tron doesn't burn the carbon-neutral fuel directly, but the automaker will track how much is spent using the fuel card and make sure "that exactly this amount of Audi e-gas is fed into the German natural gas network." Audi charges 14.95 euros a month to use the card. Burning that e-gas in the A3's 1.4-liter TFSI engine can put out 110 horsepower (you can also burn regular natural gas or gasoline) and offers fuel economy of between 3.2 and 3.3 kilograms of gas per 100 kilometers on natural gas Audi A3 g-tron: Advance sales get the green light Ingolstadt, 2014-02-13 Audi A3 Sportback g-tron available to order from February 13 CO2-neutral mobility with the Audi e-gas fuel card Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg: "Audi e-gas is an important pillar of our sustainability strategy" The Audi A3 g-tron is all set to hit the roads. Advance sales at dealerships in Germany will kick off on February 13. The basic price will be 25,900 euros. Using the Audi e-gas fuel card, customers can opt for Audi e-gas to power their A3 g-tron without impacting the environment if they wish. The Audi A3 g-tron forms part of a new, integrated and sustainable mobility concept from the brand with the four rings. Its 1.4-liter TFSI engine developing 81 kW (110 hp) can be operated using either natural gas, e-gas generated by Audi or gasoline. In pure e-gas mode the g-tron is entirely CO2-neutral. Audi e-gas is a synthetic methane that is produced at the Audi e-gas facility located in Werlte in Lower Saxony, Germany – the world's first industrial power-to-gas plant. An A3 Sportback g-tron fueled by Audi e-gas is currently the most environmentally friendly form of long-distance mobility.

Stanford goes from Pikes Peak to Thunderhill with autonomous Audi TTS

In the years since Stanford University engineers successfully programmed an Audi TTS to autonomously ascend Pikes Peak, the technology behind driverless cars has progressed leaps and bounds. Back then the Audi needed 27 minutes to make it up the 12.42-mile course – about 10 minutes slower than a human driver. These days, further improvements allow the vehicle to lap a track faster than a human. The researchers recently took their autonomous TTS named Shelley to the undulating Thunderhill Raceway Park, and let it go on track without anyone inside. The Audi reportedly hit over 120 miles per hour, and according to The Telegraph, the circuit's CEO, who's also an amateur racing driver, took some laps as well and was 0.4 seconds slower than the computer. To make these massive technological advancements, the Stanford engineers have been studying how racers handle a car. They also hooked up drivers' brains to electrodes and found the mind wasn't doing as much cognitively as expected. It instead operated largely on muscle memory. "So by looking at race car drivers we are actually looking at the same mathematical problem that we use for safety on the highways. We've got the point of being fairly comparable to an expert driver in terms of our ability to drive around the track," Professor Chris Gerdes, director of Stanford's Revs Program, said to The Telegraph. With progress coming so rapidly, it seems possible for autonomous racecars to best even elite drivers at some point in the near future. Related Video: