Audi has won the Silvretta E-Auto electric car rally for the second year in succession. An A1 e-tron - an extended-range EV with a rotary engine to recharge the batteries - won the 2011 event, repeating the success of the R8 e-tron last year. Audi's second entry was a fuel-cell powered Q5, which finished sixth and was the leading fuel-cell vehicle.
The Silvretta rally is a 307km (190-mile) event in the Montafon region of Austria which challenges electric vehicles with steep inclines and a total altitude change of 11,541m. There were 32 electric vehicles in the rally, including entries from Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo.
"Sending an electric car into the Alps is one of the toughest challenges you can present it with," said Franciscus van Meel, Audi's head of electromobility strategy, who drove the A1 e-tron on the event. "The fact that the A1 e-tron proved so impressive here is especially gratifying to me and it proves we're on the right track with our electric mobility approach of combining an electric motor with a combustion engine."
Van Meel and co-driver Gerhard Gruber were cautious on the first of the three days ofcompetition. "Despite a distance of just over 100 kilometers we finished with a lot of electricity left in the battery," said Van Meel. "On the second day we were better prepared and we were able to win the day; on day three we came in second, and in the end that was enough to win the overall victory. The car ran flawlessly. We're now looking forward to the 2012 rally. We already have a few ideas about the kind of concepts we'll enter with, of course."
