Press Release:
Design Miami: Filling up on creativity:
Audi at Design Miami/: Filling up on creativity
- Audi exhibits futuristic “e-den” charging station at Design Miami/2010
- A matter of time: charging takes longer than conventional fueling
- Audi takes an active part in discussions on electromobility

HERNDON, Va., Nov 30, 2010 – Fill it up, pay, and get on your way. It probably won’t be that easy with electric cars, since charging takes longer than filling up with gasoline or diesel. At Design Miami/ 2010, Audi takes a playful look at this aspect: What can drivers do in the meantime? What amenities will charging stations of the future have to offer?

Wood furniture and fresh potted herbs, organic food, magazines and coffee-table books – this futuristic service station is a wellness oasis featuring fair-trade products and sustainable materials. A real paradise, hence the title of the installation: “e-den.” The “e” stands for electromobility. Munich-based graphic design studio Mirko Borsche created this vision imagining a greener tomorrow where traditional gas stations no longer exist, but have transformed into more intimate places of encounter and relaxation.

The installation is dominated by reflective glass that mirrors the resplendent Audi e-tron Spyder, a study in electric vehicle design. The architecture is also reminiscent of a 1950s American gas station, with an old gasoline pump encased in glass like a museum piece serving as a reminder of the oil-dependent past.

“Design is the art form aimed at imagining a better, richer, more comfortable everyday life. Today we find the most compelling design work stretches farthest in imagining a better future,” adds Wava Carpenter, Acting Director Design Miami/. „Audi’s proposal for a gasoline-less filling station for electric cars which shown at Design Miami/ is a perfect example of this”.

At Audi, conventional ways of seeing and thinking are continually challenged in order to advance the company and to play an active role in shaping the mobility of the future. As part of the Audi Urban Future Award 2010 architectural competition, Audi took a close look at individual mobility in the city of the future. Furthermore Audi presented four electric vehicle concepts with its e-tron family within just one year – and the small-series, 100% electric R8 e-tron supercar will be on the market in 2012.

Together with a new generation of hybrid vehicles, the e-models form a strong cornerstone of Audi’s strategy for helping shape trends in society and developments in the market. The development of these different technological concepts demonstrates the holistic approach pursued by Audi as regards to sustainable mobility, rounded up by Audi’s core competences of aluminum lightweight construction and other key technologies such as TDI clean diesel, TFSI and research for new fuels and intelligent vehicles.

As Exclusive Automotive Sponsor, Audi has experimented at Design Miami/ with themes such as mobility, technology, material and design since the partnership’s inception: installations ranging from the spectacular “Ignition R8” exhibit in 2006, where are an approximately 10-meter-high sculpture symbolized ignition in the mid engined Audi R8 as the “big bang of dynamism“ to last year’s „Art of Progress“ immediately following the A8’s world premiere where the full-size car turned into a miniature collectible on a coffee-table surrounded by supersized furniture.