Audi will unveil a prototype of an electric-powered bike that can be also used as a regular pedal bike in Carinthia, Austria next week.

The Audi e-bike Wörthersee has been created to investigate what is possible for a bike in terms of design, lightweight construction, networking and electric mobility.

Made from carbon fibre-reinforced polymer, the Audi e-bike weighs a mere 24lbs and takes only 2.5 hours to fully charge the lithium-ion battery.

Mercedes-Benz‘s plans to regain its historical position as the world’s most popular premium automaker could be paying off, research from Germany has suggested.

The famous tri-star brand was the world’s best-loved luxury automaker until 2005, when it lost the title to rival BMW, which has held it since.

In 2011, it suffered another blow when it slipped behind Audi into third place, selling 1.26 million vehicles compared to 1.3 million for Audi and 1.38 million for BMW.

Germany upmarket auto firm Audi, owned by Volkswagen, is to buy Ducati, the Italian maker of some of the most sought after high-speed motorcycles in the industry.

“The deal will be completed as soon as possible after it is cleared by the authorities,” Audi said in a statement.

It did not give financial details but press reports put the price at around 860 million euros ($1.12 billion).

It wasn’t long ago that automakers put in the bare minimum when it came to making smaller cars comfortable, knowing that the real money came to large vehicles with plush interiors and plenty of legroom.

Today, as fuel efficiency becomes the name of the game, small cars are in high demand, and making their interior appealing to a new generation of luxury-loving, always-connected drivers is now as important as making them look good.

The world’s largest Audi showroom is scheduled to open in Dubai this November.

Located between the second and third interchange on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road, it is the first multi-floor all inclusive car showroom in Dubai which has an extensive array of lifts to move display vehicles to the second and third floor.

German carmaker Audi makes special horns for its vehicles sold in India where local drivers hoot so much as they fight their way through chaotic traffic, the firm’s country director has revealed.

“Obviously for India, the horn is a category in itself,” Michael Perschke, director at Audi India, told Monday’s Mint newspaper.

“You take a European horn and it will be gone in a week or two. With the amount of honking in Mumbai, we do on a daily basis what an average German does on an annual basis.”