Month: May 2021

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  The Audi RS e-tron GT (right) and the Audi e-tron GT (left). [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]

In February, Audi took the wraps off its next electric vehicle. It's called the e-tron GT, and unlike the rest of Audi's EV offerings, this one isn't an SUV or crossover. It's a four-door sports car that shares a platform with the very impressive Porsche Taycan. We're expecting a proper drive later this summer once the e-tron GT is on sale, but on Tuesday Audi let Ars spend an hour behind the wheel of a preproduction version on the roads of northern Virginia.

The car is available in two flavors; the $99,900 e-tron GT or the $139,900 RS e-tron GT, and it's the latter that we got to drive. It's a twin-motor design, combining a 235 hp (175 kW) motor at the front axle and a 450 hp (335 kW) motor at the rear, with a combined output of 590 hp (440 kW) and 612 lb-ft (830Nm). The motors are fed by a 93.4 kWh battery pack (~85 kWh usable capacity). The battery's 800 V electrical architecture allows it to fast charge at up to 270 kW—which means going from 5 to 80 percent in 22.5 minutes—and it can regenerate up to 265 kW of energy under braking.

The Audi might be a little cheaper and a little less powerful than the Taycan, but, if anything, it's a better-looking car, even in relatively anonymous metallic gray paint. Its cabin is more conventional than the Porsche, with just two screens—one for the main instrument display and one for the infotainment system—and plenty of physical buttons for things like the climate controls. (The audio controls on the center console are like the touch-sensitive dial on the front of an iPod, which is neat.)

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Hans-Guenther Oed | STOCK4B-RF)

The Federal Trade Commission and officials from six states yesterday sued Frontier Communications, alleging that the telecom provider misrepresented Internet speeds and charged many customers for higher speeds than it actually provided or was capable of providing.

The complaint was filed in US District Court for the Central District of California by the FTC and attorneys general from Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. California-based customers are represented in the suit by the district attorneys of Los Angeles County and Riverside County.

The lawsuit concerns the advertised speeds of DSL, which Frontier offers over copper lines in places where it has not upgraded to fiber-to-the-home. Frontier's failure to invest sufficiently in fiber was a major cause of its bankruptcy last year. Frontier provides residential DSL Internet service to about 1.3 million consumers across 25 states.

Enlarge / A pharmacist holding a vial of the undiluted Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19. (credit: Getty | JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER)

The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday announced a big change in the way doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine can be handled. From now on, undiluted vials of the mRNA vaccine can stay at normal refrigerator temperatures for up to a month rather than the previous limit of just five days.

The change has the potential to significantly ease storage issues and promote the use of the highly effective vaccine, which has been hindered in some settings by its ultra-cold storage requirements.

For long-term storage, the vaccine still requires ultra-cold freezer temperatures—between -80°C to -60°C (-112°F to -76°F). But the vials can be transported and temporarily stored at normal freezer temperatures—between -25°C to -15°C (-13°F to 5°F)—for up to two weeks. According to yesterday’s update, the undiluted vials can then be thawed and kept at normal refrigerator temperatures—between 2°C to 8°C (35°F to 46°F)—for up to a month. Once the vials are diluted and ready for use, they must be used within six hours, according to the FDA’s detailed handling guide.