Audi’s New Hack For Electric Vehicles Will Make The Front Grille Great Again

• Audi is developing the new tech with Mann and Hummel. 

• The system can be used to actively clean air while the EV is plugged in.

• While driving, the system passively filters the air without using electricity. 

• It has a replaceable filter that can be changed during the vehicle’s service.

• Using this feature doesn’t negatively impact the car’s range or performance. 

Audi has come up with a new use for EVs other than taking you from point A to B. Using the Audi Urban Air Purifier system, EVs will be able to filter out particulate matter from the outside air, making the city’s air a little bit cleaner each time you drive or charge the car.

How does the Urban Air Purifier help?

Currently under the Pilot Project phase, the Urban Air Purifier is essentially a large filter pack placed at the nose of the EV. It can filter out particulates, fine dust and other pollutants from the air without using any energy while the car drives along. In addition, when you plug in the vehicle for charging, a fan actively cleans the air around the car. 

The tech is being developed in conjunction with Mann+Hummel, and it has already been tested for 50,000km on Audi e-tron test vehicles. It has no negative effect on the car’s performance, range or interior air quality. The filter is easy to maintain (although it would need cleaning once in a while) and only needs to be replaced after it has cleaned 14.9kg of CO2-equivalent pollutants. 

Can this tech be useful in India?

Audi’s extensive testing has shown that the system works effectively as an on-the-go air purifier for the city. The carmaker says, “the system is so effective that, depending on the usage scenario, the Audi e-tron particles are completely filtered out in a highly polluted city such as Stuttgart.” 

Although Audi referencing the German city as “highly polluted” is humorous, the overall effect on ambient air is likely to be minimal if only a handful of luxury EVs have this tech. However, the carmaker hopes that it’ll become a mandatory requirement in some countries and cities, so there is a chance that in a future full of air-purifying, zero-emissions cars, you’ll be able to breathe in clean air at a traffic stop instead of the nauseating miasma of vehicle fumes. 

Also read: 

• BYD Atto 3 Early Adopters To Get Free Home Charger And 6 Years Of Maintenance

• Production-spec Jeep Avenger EV Breaks Cover In Paris

• Tesla Begins Semi Truck Production With Pepsi Co. Getting The First Delivery

 

 

 

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Of course, in highly polluted cities, Audi’s concept is unlikely to put a dent in the amount of pollutants in the ambient air. But once we’ve sorted out major sources of pollution in the far future, Audi’s tech will come handy to suck up the last bits of road dust and ground-level particulates from parking lots and city roads.