EVs, even hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, are a blast: you get sportiness along with a lifestyle statement about conserving resources.

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Audi says this entrant into the "premium compact class" will be a four-door with the sportiness of its TT coupe.

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Notably, Audi takes it one step further by offering a trio of switchable drive modes for normal use, efficiency and sportiness.

ENGADGET: Audi A3 e-tron hands-on (video) Hands-on

The A3 e-tron has similar level of sportiness to a Mini Cooper -- minus the feeling of being in a go-kart.

ENGADGET: Audi A3 e-tron hands-on (video) Hands-on

And then there are the true sport buildings, vacation homes which grew in number, proportion and sportiness, right along with primary residences.

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And the driving experience is, as we said, beautifully balanced on the tipping point between extreme sportiness that knocks your molars about and placid comfort that costs a tenth of a second through the slalom.

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With that elderly ailing yachtsman, Sir Francis Chichester, safely where he belongs (in hospital) we can devote our undivided attention to that other mid-summer non-event: moody Bobby Fischer, the capitalist world's money-grubbing little horror, playing, or not playing, chess against sporty Boris Spassky, whose sportiness vanishes at a flick from the Soviet machine behind him.

ECONOMIST: From the archive