Considering the fact how much buzz Audi is creating around their first fully electrical car, the E-tron SUV, it may be either a really good car or just an attempt to attract as many customers as possible or the car is really something special. We will not know for sure until the real car is revealed. One thing is certain though. It will pack some piece of art technology and we are not talking about the fancy rear-view mirrors/LCD screen built inside the doors.

When designing a fully electric car, among the biggest problems is battery capacity: the bigger the battery, the bigger the weight, smaller the battery, smaller the range. So until more powerful batteries are going to be developed, companies will focus on the sufficiency of their motors and technologies to recuperate braking energy. And this is the field where Audi may be ahead of competition.

To prove that, Audi took 4 pre-production E-trons and drove then on top of famous Pikes Peak mountain in Colorado state – the same mountain, that hosts Pikes Peak race, that was this year dominated by electric Volkswagen I.D. R Pikes Peak – 4.300 meters high, then drove them down the road some 1.900 meters lower. System was recuperating braking energy with 220 kilowatts of power, what is around 70 percent of total power output from car’s both electric engines.

System – which has three different programs of recuperation – can in reality extend the maximum reach of the vehicle by up to 30 percent. This is also thanks to the system which is made so that the car can braking with electric motors until the forces reach 0,3 g’s. That is 90 percent of all the time car is braking.