Audi A7 Sportback h-tron quattro – a look at Audi’s hydrogen future

The Audi A7 Sportback h-tron quattro has been revealed as a plug-in hybrid hydrogen concept at the Los Angeles Auto Show with 4WD and 228bhp.

Just as it was with the start of production hybrid cars, we’re seeing the first hydrogen-powered production cars arriving at the more prosaic end of the car scale, with stuff like the Toyota Mirai and the Hyundai ix35 FCEV.

But hybrid power in production cars has now moved in to the performance stratosphere with cars like the McLaren P1, Porcshe 918 – and even LaFerrari – and hydrogen cars will go the same way as the technology matures.

Perhaps the first look at that from a major car maker is the Audi A7 Sportback h-tron quattro concept, debuting at the Los Angeles Auto Show and previewing a ‘performance’ plug-in hybrid hydrogen-powered Audi.

The A7 h-tron gets a hydrogen fuel stack comprising of 300 cells operating between 230 and 360 volts to power the electric motors, supported by an 8.8kW/h lithium-ion battery stack under the boot floor which can be plugged in to the mains to create a full charge – and a range of up to 31 miles from the batteries – in four hours.

Power goes to a pair of electric motors – one on each axle – with 114bhp and 199lb/ft of torque each, enough to get the A7 h-tron to 62mph in 7.8 seconds, with the hydrogen fuel offering a range of 310 miles.

It’s a neat and clever solution, and promises a future for decent levels of performance from future hydrogen-powered Audis