Title	AUDI E-XPERIENCE
Brand	AUDI (D'IETEREN)
Product/Service	AUDI E-TRON
Category	A02. Applied Innovation
Entrant	PROPHETS Antwerp, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	PROPHETS Antwerp, BELGIUM
Production	PROPHETS Antwerp, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Sam De Win	Prophets	Creative Director
Björn Joos	Prophets	Partner
Amaury Thomas	Prophets	Account Director
Jeremy Demoor	Prophets	Account Manager
Stijn Bonjean	Prophets	Technical Project manager
Paul Joly	Prophets	Designer
Tom Bruyneel	Prophets	App developer
Samuel Joos	Prophets	App developer
Tine Sinnaeve	Prophets	Copywriter

Why is this work relevant for Innovation?

The best way to educate people in driving electric without owning an electric car is to led them drive one virtually. This application simulates electric mobility on a mobile. During the trip we collect data from GPS, accelerometer and the gyroscope of the device and throw it into a complicated mathematical algorithm to calculate the energy consumption of the virtual electric car. The application keeps track of all the trips and (virtual) battery level educating people on how it would be driving an Audi e-tron. During the process personal data is gathered and then used as a start for CRM.

Background

At the moment of the briefing, Audi was about a year away from the launch of its most important release in a decade: their first 100% electric car. The Audi e-tron. Being one of the first premium brands to launch an electric car, we realized that we had to educate the people on electric driving. We launched a market research and discovered that the average knowledge on electric mobility was very low. But what was more surprising was that the hurdles to adopt electric driving were massive. Most of them being completely irrational. We realized that as long as people are uncertain that electric mobility is an answer to their personal needs, they will not take any risk to spend (a lot of) money on an electric car. People have personal mobility needs and practical questions on electric mobility.

Describe the idea

Suppose that you would be able to experience everything about electric driving…while you were driving your current car? That finally you would be reassured that the current range really is sufficient for your needs, that there are already a lot of charging points everywhere, and so much more. That’s how we came up with the idea of the Audi E-xperience smartphone application. The Audi E-xperience application allows people to experience what electric driving would mean for them personally.

What were the key dates in the development process?

In March 2018 the development process kicked-off. During a period of 4 months, the team worked in sprints of 2 weeks. All different resources worked together during these sprints. UX, design, data and development where on top of the project that way. After each sprint, the different features and designs were presented to the client. During the last months, a testing team was added to the projectteam. That way we could tackle testing & debugging within the pre-defined timeline. In July 2018, the app was pushed to the App store for Android and iOS. In August 2018 the activation campaign was launched.

Describe the innovation/technology

The main component is of course the algorithm which we use to calculate the energy consumption of the virtual electric car. During the tracking of a trip we collect data from the GPS, the accelerometer and the gyroscope of the device and throw it into the complicated mathematical algorithm. Besides that we use several (external) data sources (both open and closed) to show the charging stations on a map, to have the current cost of gas and electricity in a certain region, … . All this data is combined into useful information for the user.

Describe the expectations/outcome

We are the first ever and worldwide to launch an application that simulate electric driving while using your current car. And that allows to compare the energy consumption, C02 exhast and cost of your current car with an electric car. In 3 months’ time, more than 10.000 people downloaded the app which is a high number for the smaller Belgian market. We are now taking the app to other countries for the VW group.