Want a Hot Test Drive? Try the Audi e-tron on your PlayStation

No chance of driving a Tesla roadster? Well, you can drive Audi’s high-performance e-tron concept car – at least virtually – if you have PlayStation 3. Audi has added the e-tron to its Audi Space on PlayStation Home, making Audi the first carmaker to develop its own virtual area there. It’s a strategic move. According to Audi, most young people gain their first driving experience from video games, thus this move could help establish loyalty to the brand.

The Audi e-tron is available on the 3-D Vertical Run driving game. The goal here is to beat the competition by collecting enough electrical energy and avoiding driving errors in order to reach the highest possible speed. While all PlayStation Home users can access Audi Space – with its centrally placed tower reminiscent of major cities like Shanghai and Chicago – only the best drivers can reach the Audi apartments located above the city.

In real life, the actual high performance, all-electric Audi e-tron sports car concept was first shown at the 2009 Frankfort International Motor Show. It features four electric motors, two each at the front and rear axles, providing 313 horsepower and an awesome 3,319 lbs-ft of torque. This combination accelerates the e-tron from 0 – 62 (0-100 km/h) in 4.8 seconds. The water-cooled lithium-ion battery provides a range of approximately 150 miles. Top speed is limited to 125 mph.

The four motors allow the e-tron's lateral dynamics to be intelligently controlled for torque vectoring (targeted acceleration of individual wheels). Understeer and oversteer can be corrected not only by targeted brake application, but also by precise increases in power lasting just a few milliseconds. Naturally, the e-tron has regenerative braking.

The concept car’s body structure is based on Audi Space Frame technology with doors, covers, sidewalls, and roof made of a fiber-reinforced plastic to provide excellent rigidity coupled with low weight. Audi plans to use this technology in production vehicles soon. Despite the complex drive system layout and battery pack, the Audi e-tron weighs just over 3500 pounds.

Other advanced features include a heat pump – the first in an automobile – for interior cooling and heating. The heat pump requires less electricity from the battery compared to the electric heaters normally used in electric vehicles. High-efficiency LED lighting and electromechanical steering boost, which varies with speed and provides boost only while steering, help reduce load on the battery.

The e-tron is networked to its surroundings via car-to-x communication. For example, information about traffic signal cycle times and traffic flow provided by the surrounding infrastructure and other vehicles is used to compute an optimal driving strategy. It can also communicate a warning should there be a stalled vehicle or accident ahead and guide a driver to an open parking spot at a crowded shopping center. In contrast to today's telematic systems, car-to-x communication does not require a central server, with the participants themselves performing the monitoring and communicating by spontaneously networking with one another.