[Auto] Audi will participate in the Dakar 2022 with an electric car, but with a trick ...

[#Steeven.™]

Audi will return to rally racing in 2022, but it will do so in a very special way: competing in the Dakar with an electric vehicle. That is why he has presented this mysterious image in which you can see an off-road vehicle with the typical proportions for this race.

Audi's arrival in this competition will coincide with its departure from Formula E at the end of the 2021 season. A category of electric single-seaters in which it has garnered a number of victories.

100% electric motor, but ...
However, while the main source of power will be a battery pack, the automaker says it will also use a "highly efficient TFSI engine" as a generator. So you cannot say that the vehicle is going to be Zero Emissions.

As Audi officials say: “With the use of an alternative concept in the Dakar Rally, Audi is now facing the most extreme conditions. The vehicle will be powered by a powerful 100% electric transmission. The energy required for this comes from a high-voltage battery, which can be charged as needed while driving through a high-efficiency TFSI motor power converter.

“The goal is to improve the performance of the electric drive and battery in the coming years. The experience gained in this process should be incorporated into the development of future electric production models.

 

Audi's change: from Formula E to Dakar
Markus Duesmann, Chairman of the Management Board and Member of the Technical Development and Product Lines Council of AUDI AG, commented that: “Formula E has accompanied the transformation phase of Audi. Today, electromobility in the four rings is no longer a dream of the future, but of the present ”.

It seems that they have reached the final phase of their relationship with this race, perhaps by exhausting their contribution in R&D for electric vehicles. We must not forget the large number of technical limitations that the participants have to assume. In relation to this Duesmann added that: “That is why we are taking the next step in electrified motorsport by tackling the most extreme conditions. The many technical freedoms offered by the Dakar Rally provide us with a perfect testing laboratory. "

It will not be the first time that an electric vehicle has competed in the Dakar Rally. In 2017, Acciona's electric vehicle prototype became the first electric vehicle to complete the rally.