Muzzle Time: Audi head speaks using both sides of his mouth

At a recent Audi media dinner, Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen slammed Chevy’s plug-in hyrbid Volt and electric-vehicles in general, to Lawrence Ulrich, a journalist from MSN in the U.S.:

He dismissed GM’s upcoming plug-in hybrid as “a car for idiots,” saying that few consumers will be willing to pay $40,000 -- the Volt’s estimated base price -- for a car that competes against $25,000 sedans and conventional hybrids. Nor, he noted, is the Volt a luxury car whose green-technology costs will be excused because it also delivers prestige or performance.

“No one is going to pay a $15,000 premium for a car that competes with a (Toyota) Corolla,” he said. “So there are not enough idiots who will buy it.”

Okay. Fair enough. De Nysschen is paid to pimp his company's TDI clean diesel technology.

And I tend to agree with him in arguing against the U.S. government “pouring billions of dollars into EV technology, yet diesel technology could deliver a more immediate and dramatic decrease in global-warming emissions.”

But wait…

See that picture in the top left corner? That’s a teaser of a new Audi concept set to debut in Frankfurt in a couple of weeks.

And guess what? The concept’s an EV. Using what looks like an R8 platform.

In fact, Audi’s gone to expense of putting up a special web site, www.Electricityuntamed.com

So, the question, now, is: How big of an idiot do you have to be to buy an Audi R8 EV?

[Sources: MSN, Audi]