Comment by ceocoder | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ceocoder | Hacker News Reader

I went to the launch event in San Francisco where they had this (in cobalt blue) and another hypercar (R8 e-tron I think). What bugged me then and still bugs me now is how they are treating "electric", as in trying to add electric motors in the same Q5 chassis, including keeping some vestigial things around - like pedal shifters[2] that are still present in the pictures from article. When I asked about what purpose they serve, people running the event replied something along the lines of "they make the car go faster". Compared to amount of space you get in a Model X - a frunk and a massive trunk, there was rather limited space in this car.

I really wish Audi/Benz/BMW would treat electric cars more seriously, and not as PR projects like the i3 or e-Golf.

[1] http://www.thedrive.com/news/23364/third-gen-audi-r8-will-be...

[2] https://i.imgur.com/qEp4aOi.png

Those are called paddle shifters, not pedal. In the e-tron, they control the aggressiveness of the regenerative braking.

I like vehicles like the i3, but the styling isn’t for everyone and many buyer prefer a traditional looking vehicle. The Honda Insight for example was quite ugly IMO, but I would’ve bought one that looked more like a Civic or Accord.

Also the R8 isn’t a hypercar, that’s more like a McLaren P1 or Porsche 918.

The i3 is a totally new, designed from scratch electric car. How is that not taking electric cars seriously?

What do the pedal shifters do?

He meant “paddle shifters”. They allow manual shifting of an automatic transmission.

But there are no gears to shift in electric.

Tough. It's a luxury Audi, so it has paddle shifters. They just have to figure out something for them to do.

In this vehicle they control the regenerative braking, i.e. make it more or less aggressive.

Electric cars could have gears (e.g. Formula E)

Also, the koenigsegg hybrid uses the paddles to control things other than the gear (Since AFAIK it has a CVT)

I have a Chevy Bolt, and the 'brake more' paddle shifter is by far most used non-steering or acceleration control. Sometimes, I don't even need to use the foot brake at all. It reminds me of downshifting in my old Miata, without all the fun of the clutch.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com