Hello automotive fans! Welcome to another episode of Fast News Friday brought to you by Foxtrot Papa – the automotive content and experience experts. This week we bring you a story about a very aggressive looking off-road racing Audi, news of Tesla opening up its charging network to all EV drivers (perhaps?) and finally we’ve learned of a BMW radio advert that’s strangely been banned after just one complaint. Madness.
The Tesla Supercharger network could soon be made available for other electric cars, according to a tweet from CEO Elon Musk this week. Currently only available to Tesla drivers, the global network consists of 2500 station with 25,000 charging points including over 600 in the UK and Ireland. “We created our own connector, as there was no standard back then and Tesla was only maker of long-range electric cars,” Musk wrote on Twitter. “It’s one fairly slim connector for both low and high-power charging. That said, we’re making our Supercharger network open to other EVs later this year.” Whilst this will surely please all the non-Tesla electric car drivers, it’s unlikely to prove popular with owners of the American-made EVs, who see the exclusive network as a huge perk over other similarly powered vehicles. Very little is known about the logistics of such a move, but we say ‘hats off to Elon’ if this decision becomes a reality.
Check this thing out! This monstrous looking SUV off-road racer is Audi Sport’s new range-extender Dakar Rally entrant. Known as the RS Q e-tron it will compete in next year’s event. The aim, says Audi, is “To be the first car manufacturer to use an electrified drivetrain in combination with an efficient energy converter to compete for overall victory against conventionally-powered competitors in the world’s toughest rally.” Under the hugely aggressive bodywork and enormous roof scop there’s two electric motors taken from the company’s 2021 Formula E car producing a total of 671bhp. The RS Q e-tron also has a 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine from an older DTM racing car to keep the 50kWh battery topped up.
Car adverts are getting banned all the time, for many different reasons, but this story stood out to us as being perhaps a step too far by the regulators… A recently broadcast UK radio advert from BMW’s M performance arm that features less than a second of engine revving sounds has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ban appeared after one – yes, just one – listener complained that the sound of the BMW M car’s engine revving was ‘irresponsible’. The regulator, according to Express, stated that a motoring advertisement should not demonstrate power, acceleration or handling characteristics. The story goes on to say that BMW insisted the revving sound used in the advertisement was recorded when the car was static and that the car was not being driven at speed or with rapid acceleration. Incredible!