Skip to footer

Audi electric car prototype to star in Iron Man 3

Audi is returning to the big screen in a big way with the Audi R8 e-tron electric car making a splash in Iron Man 3. We'll probably get our best look yet at the Audi R8 e-tron when Iron Man 3 opens on May 3, Read writes.

|
Gene J. Puskar/AP/File
An Audi logo is shown at the 2013 Pittsburgh Auto Show in Pittsburgh. Audi tried a new, more social, advertising scheme for this year's Super Bowl.
  • By Richard Read Guest blogger

Movies, books, and television shows can boost a brand to new heights. Think Risky Business and Ray Bans, or E.T. and Reese's Pieces.

More recent examples of great product placement include The Italian Job, which helped relaunch the MINI brand in the U.S. Or Transformers 2, which wasn't well-received by the critics, but still managed to spark sales of the Chevrolet Camaro. And as some of you may know, the hugely popular Fifty Shades of Grey has a very soft spot for Audi, which hasn't gone unnoticed by the erotic trilogy's mostly female readership.

Now, Audi is returning to the big screen in a big way. The brand made a splash in the first andsecond installments of Iron Man, and in about two months, it'll come back for round three.

In Iron Man 3, inventor/superhero Tony Stark drives another fashion-forward Audi. This one may look similar to the Audi R8 hardtop he drove in the original Iron Man, but in fact, it's the R8's all-electric e-tron variant -- which is, sadly, still just a prototype. 

(And just in case you didn't get the Audi tie-in, Stark's sweetheart, Pepper Potts, will drive an Audi S7 Sportback throughout the film.)

Does this mean that Audi is finally putting the R8 e-tron into production, after years spent bashing electric cars, then promising e-tron versions of every Audi model by 2020, then unplugging the e-tron program (or at least the R8 version) altogether? No one can say.

All we know for sure is that we'll probably get our best look yet at the R8 e-tron when Iron Man 3 opens on May 3 (or April 25 for those who live near an IMAX theatre).

For more info about the R8 e-tron and Iron Man, pay a visit to our colleagues at Motor Authority. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Audi electric car prototype to star in Iron Man 3
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/0307/Audi-electric-car-prototype-to-star-in-Iron-Man-3
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe