Audi RS Q e-tron E2 Lighter, more slippery and ready to bid for Dakar glory

Audi’s new RS Q e-tron E2 is lighter and more aerodynamic than last year’s car – which itself won four stages in its Dakar debut

Words: Graham Scott Pictures: Audi

Audi’s new RS Q e-tron E2 is lighter and more aerodynamic than last year’s car – which itself won four stages in its Dakar debut

Heat, dust, shocking impacts, dehydration, fl ying stones, punctures, boulders, airtime followed by heavy landing time – an event like the Dakar Rally makes dramatic and extreme demands of vehicles and crews. Now plan on doing it in an electric vehicle with complex and advanced electronics.

Fans for the engine, air-conditioning for the crew – just these take huge amounts of energy. And – gazes round desert – can anyone see a recharging point?

But Audi is making this work. After all, the company has proven its original thinking more than once in the rally world. At the beginning of 2022, three RS Q e-trons represented a new class, T1 Ultimate for low-emission vehicles, in the Dakar. All three fi nished, notching up four stage wins in the process. Sure, they had some top talent, like Stephane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz, but to enter three totally new cars and for all three to fi nish, let alone win stages, is quite an achievement.

Just a couple of months later they went one better and actually won the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. You and I (well, okay, not you) at this point would have celebrated, put our feet up and basked in the warm glow of a job well done. Audi’s feet, in comparison, seem to have hardly touched the ground since. Which is how they’re already announcing the vehicle they hope will conquer the 2023 Dakar: the Audi RS Q e-tron E2.

The looks are different because all the composite body panels over the tubular steel frame are different. It’s lighter and more aerodynamic but it’s also wider, allowing more elbow room for the crew. When you’re on the ragged edge for days in a tumble dryer full of dust and stones, a less uncomfortable environment pays real dividends.

What is underneath those futuristic panels is fundamentally the same as before but obviously improved. And it has slightly less work to do. The fi rst version was overweight so that, even though the rules have lifted the regulation weight from 2000kg to 2100kg, the E2 still had to shed quite a few kilos to get under the new limit. And that bodywork package has led to a 15% decrease in aerodynamic drag.

That all adds up to less energy required for the same output (regulations limit top speed to 170km/h, or 106mph). Energy? Yes, there’s plenty of that. Those who actually know what a piston rod is, rather than assuming it is a cocktail, will at least recognise some of the source of that energy. It’s the 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged TSFI petrol unit used in the company’s DTM car.

We used to call that ‘the engine’. I know, quaint We used to call that ‘the engine’. I know, quaint isn’t it? Now it is an ‘energy converter’. It is linked to an MGU, which is a motor-generator unit. That combination recharges the main battery, which weighs in at a considerable 370kg/815lb. What with the weight of the ‘engine’ you can see how shedding kilos becomes important.

The MGU is taken almost directly from Audi’s Formula E car. There are another two on board, one on each axle, meaning all power delivery is from the 52 kWh battery and so is entirely electric. Total system power is rated at 288 kW, or 387bhp. It pours through a single-speed racing gearbox on each axle, each of which also has an electronic limited-slip diff, with a ‘virtual’ centre diff between them and selectable torque distribution on both.

It works – 0-62mph time is just 4.5sec. And It works – 0-62mph time is just 4.5sec. And that is on a loose surface.

You can only imagine how complex the electronic control system of that complicated electric drivetrain has to be. When you used to have to worry about sand in the carburettors, now you have to worry about the system generating too much power – what they call ‘excess energy’. There are strict limits imposed by the FIA and Audi found this was a problem in the fi rst vehicles when they were in the air – which happened often – or when jolting about on rocky terrain with wheels spinning for short periods. The software monitors each of the MGUs in the axles and adjust within milliseconds if traction is broken. For days, over thousands of miles of broken terrain, without a fault.

Aerodynamics have tended to take second place to suspension and sheer power in the world of off-road racing. But when top speeds are limited and what matters most is to eke out every last bit of energy from the vehicle’s battery pack, slipping through the air as effi ciently as possible is crucial to being competitive. The cabin, meanwhile, looks at fi rst glance like something from an arcade, but it’s built for driving, fast, over extended periods of time. The latest version of the RS Q e-tron has greater elbow room and is air-conditioned to within an inch of its life – a comfortable crew is a fast crew

Dakar legend Stephane Peterhansel, who’s won the rally more often than anyone else in its history, will lead the Audi assault on the 2023 title. With Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström also piloting RS Q e-trons, Audi has assembled one of the most stellar Dakar line-ups of all time

But, as mentioned, that electric power has to do more than keep the wheels turning. The focus on power consumption means things like ancillaries like servo pumps are all optimised so that, for example, they run differently on liaison stages than they do on full-bore special stages. This includes the air-con.

Of course, air-con is essential when racing in the desert all day and sometimes all night, but Audi encountered a problem. When it was running fl at out it could actually freeze the coolant! The solution is an intermittent mode, so that it works in bursts without having a notable or detrimental effect on the crew.

The crew sit in a cockpit which is called ‘the elephant’s foot’, which may make sense to elephants but not to us. Again as mentioned, this is a larger space than before, more ergonomically set up. Anyone who has driven or ridden an endurance vehicle is usually surprised at fi rst at how soft and easy everything seems compared to a more hard-edged track vehicle. After hours and hours it makes more sense and you realise how it helps to keep the crew sharp and effective for longer. This is not a sprint vehicle.

When you’re tired or under pressure, reading dials can become confusing – it’s one reason fast jets still use some analogue dials. In the RS Q e-tron there is a central switch panel with 24 fi elds, and previous experience showed this was simply too much for the crews in moments of high stress.

This has now been broken down into four system areas, accessed through a simple rotary switch. The two the crews will mostly use are Stage, which uses speed limiters, the air jack if needed and so on, and Road, which brings in stuff like turn signals and even the rear-view camera. The other two areas, Error and Settings, are more for the engineering team who can download the day’s data when the vehicle eventually arrives out of the desert each day.

The focus on the welfare of the crew extends to them keeping on the move. Punctures are of course an ever-present hazard – anyone who thinks a desert is just sand has clearly never spent time in one. Wheels and tyres are as light as possible, but the 37x12.50R17 BFGoodrich tyres are substantial bits of kit. New bodywork makes it easier to get to the tyre, while 10-spoke Rotiform rims make it easier for the crew to hold and change.

This really is a vehicle that has had as much thought put into the warm squishy things inside as to the vehicle itself. That’s not just being nice, that’s being prepared to put all the effort needed in to get the result they want. Which is victory.

Although the Dakar Rally, starting in January, is the big goal, before then, in October, the vehicle will get its fi rst competitive outing. The three vehicles will be competing in the Rally du Maroc (in Morocco) and hope to build on the successes of its predecessor.

While Audi is just slightly unlikely to launch a production version of the RS Q e-tron Q2 (oh yes please), new technology tested under extreme conditions may yet make its way onto a production line at some point. With its emphasis on energy effi ciency, that’s just the sort of technology we’re all going to welcome, whatever its shape, in the years ahead.

fi elds, and previous experience showed this was Rotiform rims make it easier for the crew to hold