Why is the E-tron's Cd higher than other A3 family vehicles?

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hayasa

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2017
Messages
12
Was just looking across other related Audi vehicles (geeking out about the tech details) and I noticed something odd. The A3 E-tron has a higher coefficient of drag (Cd) than others, save for the RS3 which makes sense since it needs all that cooling ducting. I'd have thought that with all the efficiency tweaks that Audi baked into the A3 E-tron, it should be much aerodynamic - with sections of the lower grill blocked off and other aero bits would have made it a lot more slippery.

Here are some other Cd values (2018 vehicles for consistency). And for reference, the ugly Toyota Prius has a Cd of 0.24. (Lower = more aerodynamic and changes 0.01 or more are significant)

Audi A3 FWD/AWD = 0.30

Audi A3 E-tron = 0.32

Audi S3 = 0.31

Audi RS3 = 0.33

Maybe because the E-tron is a hatchback and has a big gaping air void behind it when it goes down the road? But the ugly Prius doesn't seem to have that problem...
 
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