The Audi RS3 sedan isn’t exactly short on punch, thanks to its turbocharged 2,5-litre five-cylinder heart. But that hasn’t stopped the folks over at Schaeffler from using it as a base to build the 880 kW “Schaeffler 4ePerformance”.
This concept vehicle was developed to showcase how quickly Formula E technology could theoretically be implemented in road cars. The result is a total power output of 880 kW, thanks to four Formula E motors sourced from the ABT Schaeffler FE01 racecar.
With each motor producing 220 kW, the 4ePerformance RS3 is able to propel itself from 0-200 km/h in a claimed 7,0 seconds. Each motor is connected to its own wheel by a spur gear unit. Two motors share one gearbox housing, essentially resulting in an electric twin axle. This layout means that the torque vectoring is available for both the front and rear. Power is sourced from a 64 kWh battery pack.
“For Schaeffler, this vehicle is a test laboratory on wheels thanks to its free scaling options for the drive power. We are currently testing and developing our own driving dynamics control system, which is based on physical vehicle and wheel modelling. We have been learning a lot especially in the area of software-based driving dynamics control systems”, said Simon Opel, director special projects motorsports at Schaeffler.