So, it appears that there's been a bit of mission creep in the plan to upgrade my partners VW Up!, following his recent switch to haemo dialysis and general feeling a a bit better and getting out and about more. We had an A3 in 2007, kept for 4ish years, which he liked, was cheap to run and own and generally a nice car. So, why not get another one :)
As usual with these things (at least in my experience...) there was a degree of scope creep. The original plan was just to buy a 1.4T petrol A3, probably in sport trim, and ideally with xenon headlights and some form of navigation. No problem, there's a 150bhp 1.4T Sport Nav. That lists at £22,350. But then add metallic paint, xenon lights, heated seats, comfort pack and a few other bits and pieces and you're looking at somewhat north of £26k before discount. So assume no less than £22k after discount.... Mmmm... Let's look at slightly used ones then...
But if you look at the Audi web site at used ones, there are very few well specced, or even moderately specced, 150 PS A3s. They're mostly diesel...and it won't do enough miles for that to be sensible. But, there are a few A3 e-trons that are pretty competitively priced, for the spec, compared equivalent petrol only ones. So I've bought one... We effectively paid £23,500 for the e-tron. It's got the full blown MMI +, LED headlights, comfort access, leather/Alcantara heated seats with lumbar, panoramic roof. List price, to this spec, is just over £40k. Knock off £5k from the taxpayer and you're at £356. It's lost a third in 6,000 miles. So in summary I'm looking at it as a very well equipped petrol A3, with the bonus of a free electric motor and battery...
It looks great in misano red I think, and it certainly makes a change to see a brightly coloured car on the drive.... My first car was red... A Fiat Uno :) The black leather/alcantara sports seats are very comfortable, and have plenty of adjustment. They're heated as well, which is good!! The steering wheel is not the usual chunky S-Line one, and I think is all the better for it. It's the standard sports steering wheel and has a nice feel to it - not too chunky, if that makes sense? And the panoramic roof lets in plenty of light... To be honest, it's not that panoramic in my opinion - it doesn't extend that much behind the front seats... It is quite wide though; maybe calling it a widescreen sunroof would be more appropriate...
Size wise the A3 seems to have grown; the last one we had was a 57 plate. This one seems much bigger inside, and you seem to sit lower as well. I'm not sure it's much smaller than the first (B5?) A4 avant I had...
But I guess what most people want to know is how is drives... Firstly, starting it is slightly odd. The car comes as standard with comfort access and keyless go. So you just get in a press the start button. But nothing happens....the dash lights up, and the MMI monitor slides up as well. But other than that, nothing... Completely silent... Stick it in drive and it really does pick up incredibly quickly. It defaults to starting in EV mode, and the 100PS motor has all 300Nm of torque available from a standing start. It'll accelerate pretty swiftly up to around 70 in EV mode - push it more than that and the engine will cut in.
But in EV mode it really is quite odd; you're going quite quickly, but there no engine noise, no vibration, no tactile indication of speed at all really. There's a hint of electric motor notice, but the real sound is that of tyre and road noise. When the engine does cut in that almost imperceptible as well - it has 150Ps, but the combined power claim is 201PS I think. When it does cut in its still not as load as the general road noise. It really is very refined for such a small car. Perhaps the standard fit acoustic windscreen helps... :p But it's entirely possible to drive pretty quickly, certainly faster than I would on a normal commute, and never use the engine.
I say never; the issue is one of range. Audi claim up to 31 miles on battery alone. The highest range I've seen after unplugging it in the morning is 27 miles. But they are not normal miles. Driven with no eye to preserving battery power - brisk acceleration on slip roads and roundabouts, 75 on the dual carriageway - my 10 mile journey to work will use at least 15 of those miles... But, I can plug it in at work so not really an issue for me... And when Andy starts using it that *should* be just about okay...
Slowing down is odd as well. The electric motor sits between the DSG (I think) box and the drive train. It uses the gears, which surprised me. But it seems to have some sort of freewheel capability - take your foot of the accelerator and there's no engin braking at all. Or, drop down a gear using the flappy paddles and the regenerative braking is really quite aggressive. It's easy to misjudge the approach to a roundabout and end up having to ease on the accelerator again... On the plus side, regenerative braking means very little brake dust on the 18" multi spoke alloys. Which is A good think I think! Although it's a good 200kgs heavier that a standard petrol A3 I'm not sure I can tell that. Though I think the new A3 is pretty light for the size of car? Certainly as the additional weight is pretty much all battery, and is at the rear under the boot floor, it can only help weight distribution in a FWD car. And possible centre of gravity too?
What is interesting is the economy. Audi claim a combined 130odd mpg per the EU cycle I think. I can get to work and back purely on battery power (with a top up charge). I've done 280 miles and used half a tank (40 litres) of petrol. 100 of those miles were done on a run to Gatwick and back which was almost entirely on the petrol. The OBC is showing 114 mpg for the 280 miles, and my commute defaults to 300mpg - that seems to be the highest that the OBC will show!
But my commute is pretty much the sweet spot for it I think - 10 ~ 20 miles each way with the ability to charge at work is pretty much the limit for this PHEV in the real world. I'm happy - it costs around 80p to charge from empty, and I charge at work when it's around half empty. So it's costing me around £2 a week, and the company the same, for me to do around 110 miles. It's pretty swift - bar the S3 it's the quickest A3 - and is perfect for the job. I'd forgotten just how nice the interior of an Audi (albeit a pretty high spec one) is. It's feels nicer, and more solid, than the Merc. The Merc feels more solid, though nowhere near as nicely designed, as the 520d that preceded it. I await with interest the 330e - estimated delivery June - to compare. I hope it's EV mileage claim is nearer reality than the Audi though - no cheat software ;)
The other key advantage to the e-tron is the ability to set the interior temperature remotely, when the car is plugged in and charging. It the heats up (or cools down) using the power from being plugged in and not depleting the battery. So set the car to be 22 degrees at 07:45 and no more de-frosting. It'll even turn on the heated seats, if they were on when you last used it :) You can do this by setting the timer, or using the A3 e-tron app.
So in summary, very pleased with it, but you do need to be able to charge it at work, and if you do more than around 30/35 miles a day then it really won't stack up... Unless you were going o spec an A3 to such a ludicrous levels anyway...
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