Audi is bringing it’s A3 e-tron to California  for TED2012 to announce it’s first e-tron pilot program for the US. Audi will be using a fleet of A3 e-trons in the San Francisco, LA, Washington DC and Denver areas later this year to test the e-tron’s hardware.

Audi hasn’t announced how many A3 e-trons it will be using in the pilot program, but they are planning to enlist beta testers, similar to what BMW has done with the Active-E to get real world results from people driving an electric vehicle in their everyday lives.

Revealed last April, the Audi A3 e-tron uses a 26.5kWh lithium ion battery pack that should get a range of around 90 miles. The 130 horsepower (100-kW) motor drives the front wheels with 199 lb-ft of torque.

Audi claims the A3 e-tron can be fully charge in about 4 hours with a 400-volt rapid charger.