LIFESTYLE
James Stinson
The All-Electric Grand Tourer
Audi e-tron GT has pace and grace, writes James Stinson
T
esla might have been the first to truly see and embrace the potential of electric cars but legacy car makers are catching up fast. In every segment of the market traditional car makers are rolling out a raft of new models. And now, at last, they are turning their attention to the upper end of the market where performance and a degree of pedigree count for everything. Hence there’s a lot of excitement about this new Audi e-Tron GT – and with good cause: it’s an £80k electric supercar to rival the likes of Tesla’s Model S and its VW Group stablemate, the Porsche Taycan.
GT stands for Gran Tourer, which conjures up images of a comfortable four-seater, able to eat up the miles and at some pace, which until recently has been a bit of a challenge for electric cars. But technology is moving on apace. The GT is fitted with a sizable 93kWh battery and two electric motors, one driving the front wheels and one for the rear. In standard form, those motors produce some 469bhp, but for a 2.5 second burst they can draw on 523bhp – big numbers for any car – and good for a 0-62mph time of just 4.1 seconds. And, thanks to four-wheel drive, it’s delivered without any fuss. If you really must, there’s a sportier and much pricier RS model that produces 590bhp, with a 2.5 second burst of 637bhp, reducing the 0-62mph time to a fairly unnecessary 2.9 seconds. Incredibly, even that is a little slower than the Porsche Taycan Turbo S (2.8 seconds) or the Tesla Model S Plaid which takes only 1.9 seconds. Range is adequate rather than stellar and, again, a little behind the Tesla. The GT will do a claimed 295 miles on a full charge – probably around 230 in real-world driving – which is still enough to avoid much or any range anxiety. When it comes to charging, the e-tron GT will charge at rates up to 270kW, which would allow you to charge from 10% to 80% in around 20 minutes, but chargers like this are rarer than hen’s teeth. More common 50Kw chargers will do the same job in 90 mins while an overnight charge using a wallbox – the
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likely default option – will take around 13 hours. So, it’s fast and it will travel some distance between charges but how does it drive? Weighing 2.3 tonnes, it’s a heavy car but a powerful one. It sits low and wide on the road while the batteries are placed under the seats, giving a low centre of gravity and near perfect 50:50 weight distribution front and rear. The result is an incredibly planted motor, with raillike handing through the corners. The Taycan S, with which the GT shares much of its underpinnings, is sportier (and more expensive) but Audi says this is deliberate and befits its Gran Tourer badging. Given the sleek silhouette, it’s relatively spacious too. There’s room for four adults and a reasonable boot as well as a mini-sized one under the bonnet. The range starts at £82,635 for the entrylevel e-tron GT quattro but Audi expects the e-tron GT quattro Vorsprung (from £108,965) to be the big seller. It isn’t any faster but adds a bucketful of extras like electrically adjustable heated steering wheel, heated/ ventilated sports seats with pneumatic bolster and massage function, premium B&O sound system, all-wheel steering, as well as a host of driver aids. Eye-watering stuff, but more relevant are the ultra-low tax rates for electric cars… which mean that company bigwigs who are in the market for some high-end, high performance bling would be hard pushed to look past this new Audi.
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