Audi is opening its first premium charging hub in Germany this week, having previewed the concept earlier this year in a rendering. Located in Nuremberg, the hub is meant to serve owners who may not have ample charging opportunities at home or at work, providing high-speed charging along with a luxurious lounge with food and drink.

The hub itself is more than just a charging station with a dealership-style waiting area, as it features used lithium-ion batteries for energy storage—eliminating the need for transformers and high-voltage power lines—as well as extensive construction and permitting procedures. The station features approximately 2.45 MWh of interim storage, requiring solely a 200-kW power connection to a low-voltage network which recharges the storage modules, and solar panels on the roof provide an additional 30 kW of power.




In all, car owners at one station are able charge their EVs at up to 320 kW at six separate charging points, with the station said to be able to handle about 80 cars per day. (Of course, this calculation is not based on 80 cars juicing up from 0% state of charge to 100%). As an example of the station's efficiency, Audi points out that an e-tron GT can get enough power from the station to travel 100 kilometers (62 miles) in about five minutes, at 270 kW speeds, while going from 5% to 80% will take about 23 minutes.

"We want to use it to test flexible and premium-oriented quick-charging infrastructure in urban space," said Ralph Hollmig, Audi charging hub project manager. "We're going where our customers don't necessarily wake up in the morning with a fully charged electric car and at the same time thinking about increasing charging demand in the future."


How owners will spend their time in those minutes is a large part of the point of such a hub, which will be open to all EVs but will require a reservation via the myAudi app. In addition to service staff, Audi will offer a just-in-time delivery service for food within the station, as well as mobile car care and upscale vending machines. The whole experience will resemble something close to an airline-operated airport lounge, albeit without a small bar with high-octane drinks.

"Our customers will share multiple benefits," said Hollmig. "With an exclusive reservation option, a lounge area, short idle time thanks to high charging capacity, and a novel swivel arm to simplify handling the charging cable."

Of course, if a rest area with service staff sounds like charging might cost more than at a garden-variety fast-charger, that's because it will. Audi cites a price of 31 cents per kilowatt hour, which is a bit north of typical US fast-charging pricing, which usually ranges between 20 and 30 cents per kWh. For example, charging at Tesla Superchargers costs about 28 cents per kWh, so Audi's premium charging hub is not a significant hike over that amount. Of course, the sole hub in Nuremberg is a working concept for now, so it doesn't have to make financial sense to operate, making it difficult to judge just how this service station concept will scale—and for whom it will make sense to use if they did have to make money.

Ultimately, with this hub Audi is exploring the concept of modular, premium-priced charging stations for luxury EV owners, and the automaker is betting that there is a market out there for a branded, reservation-required charging hub with some amenities.

Audi and Porsche are recalling more than 32,000 sedans, coupes and SUVs from the 2020 and 2021 model years to address a rear axle alignment issue that may have been introduced by a previous defect-related repair.

This campaign covers at least a few of virtually every Audi vehicle manufactured in 2021, 2020 and in the case of the RS5, some 2019s, but it does not apply to every example of each model line built. Only those that were the subject of a previous rear-suspension recall (for a nut that could fail and cause the rear end to suddenly go out of alignment) an not properly aligned afterward are impacted by the new campaign. While the parts used to address the previous defect appear to be perfectly good, the recall procedure did not include instructions for dealers to re-align the rear axle after the remedy was completed. Here's the summary from Audi's defect report:

"As a check of the suspension alignment of the rear axle was not included originally when executing recall 42L1, this may result in displacement in the wheel alignment. The result could be premature and uneven wear of the tires leading to a decrease of traction," it said.

"On the affected vehicles, the suspension alignment for the rear axle will be checked and adjusted if necessary. Furthermore, the tires will be checked for premature and uneven wear due to a possible misalignment of the suspension and will be replaced if necessary. Audi will offer a reimbursement plan under this recall," it said.

While less severe than the issue the previous recall addressed, the misaligned rear end can still cause headaches, up to and including premature tire wear and failure. Audi says customers may notice strange steering and braking behavior along with abnormal wear patterns on the rear tire tread. And of course, since that nut was used on just about everything Audi builds, Audi's got a lot of checking-up to do. Of the 40,000-some-odd vehicles that were recalled to address the corroded lock nut, roughly 3/4 were repaired without an alignment of the rear axle being performed.

On the Audi side, the campaign covers the (deep breath) A5 Sportback, RS5 Coupe, RS5 Sportback, S5 Sportback, A4 Allroad, A4 Sedan, A5 Cabriolet, A5 Coupe, A6 Allroad, A6 Sedan, A7, A8, Q5, S4 Sedan, S5 Coupe, S5 Cabriolet, S6 Sedan, S7, S8, SQ5, 2021 Q5 Sportback, Q7, Q8, RS6 Avant, RS7, RSQ8, SQ5 Sportback, SQ7, and SQ8. Congrats on your R8 purchase; you get to sit this one out. Porsche is only recalling 2020-2021 Cayennes on its end.

Owners will be notified if their cars are subject to the campaign and shouldn't assume their vehicles aren't covered just because they never had to take their cars in for work; if the vehicle was purchased off the lot after the recall was performed, the customer may not be aware it was ever done. Be on the lookout for a notice from Audi or Porsche.

Audi is recalling more than 26,000 vehicles after it was discovered that they were made with turbocharger oil filters whose meshing is too small. As a result, the filter can become clogged.

The problem affects the 2013-2017 Audi S6, the 2013-2017 A7, the 2014-2017 RS7, as well as the 2013-2017 A8 and S8. If their turbocharger oil filters become blocked, it can lead to a lack of lubrication in the part, which causes wear on the bearings.

If the bearings fail the turbine wheel within the turbocharger may hit the housing or the turbocharger shaft could break. In either case, there is a risk that the damage could lead to a loss of power or even to engine stalling, which could increase the risk of a crash.

From the driver’s seat, the problem may look like a number of different warning messages from the car, including an EPC light, an MIL light, or an oil warning light. The driver may also notice indications like extended cranking, rough idling, or a lack of power.

Audi will begin notifying its customers about the issue on May 20 and they will be invited to bring their vehicle into the dealership in order to have the recalled component removed and replaced. The oil strainer mesh will grow from 30µm to 90 µm with the new part.

Any customers who were forced to replace the mesh and repaired any consequent damage before the recall was announced will be reimbursed.