You live your life a quarter-mile at a time, but you still care about the environment. So, you’ve patiently awaited Audi’s hybrid Spyder. It’s latest tease is a far cry from the aforesaid ghost, but the A3 e-tron — an entry-level Sportback begging to be modified — is certainly sexy in its own right.  The A3-Tron prototype, an electric car derived from the current A3 Sportback.  The design is fully intact in the original model and the only difference is easily spotted on the different instruments.

Not exactly Fast and Furious material,  the A3-Tron is a pure electric.  It has a synchronous electric motor capable of peak power of 136 hp, 270 Nm of torque, a  declared weight of 65 kg and is liquid-cooled. Front-wheel drive, with a top speed of 145 km / h it touches the 60 km / h acceleration in 5.3 seconds and 100 km / h in 11.2 seconds.

Lithium-ion batteries (30 modules equipped with liquid cooling) with 26.5 kWh total are positioned in the center tunnel in the back, where normally there is the fuel tank and below the rear seat.  The range is 140 km, with 9 hours recharge time with 230V power and 4 hours in case of voltage of 400V.  The recharge management, among other functions, may be controlled by a specific remote application for iPhone.  You are given a choice of three driving modes: “dynamic” gets you maximum power from the engine and air conditioning,  “automatic” optimizes the values ​​for extended battery life, lastly “efficient” power is limited to 68 hp, maximum speed drops to 110 km / h and air-conditioning is kept to a minimum.  Sinking the accelerator to kick-down mode you can switch immediately to full power for over taking.

While the weight of the battery pack is 300 kg, the total weight is 1592 kg, only slightly higher than a normal A3 TDI.  No hard word on availability or pricing — the company likely wants it on the streets by 2013.