First Drive: Audi RS e-tron GT 2022 Review

When Porsche and Audi collaborate, good things happen. Past examples include the very first of the road-going RS cars, the RS 2, which Porsche had a hand in developing and manufacturing. Almost 30 years on, it is with the RS e-tron GT, the latest Stuttgart-Insgolstadt team-up job, with which the RS 2 shares nothing but a badge and co-parentage. It doesn’t even consume the same fuel because, spoiler alert, the RS e-tron GT is an all-electric vehicle.

In the RS e-tron GT we have a svelte, sexy fast four-door Audi flagship whose crisp cool lines clothe underpinnings shared with the Porsche Taycan. That’s battery, chassis, 800-volt architecture and more. You need only lift the frunk and have a short rummage to find yourself some Porsche script. One could be forgiven then for having high hopes of the e-tron GT being a Porsche in drag, rather than the usual flavour of hit-or-miss Audi performance car. As we’ll get to, this £134,000 600PS (441kW) Tesla-baiting super-saloon represents an even more unlikely third option: a Porsche platform upon which Audi may have improved.

Did we mention how damned good-looking this thing is? It might just be the most beautiful car Audi currently makes. Bulbous in all the right places, menacing and muscular without being over-the-top, very identifiably an Audi while still looking six-figures expensive. Trundling around town it got as many looks of admiration, envy and indeed contempt, as one might expect in an R8 or any other vulgar exotic. For those that came near, got in and went out in it, it pushed all the buttons you might expect of a supercar. If part of why you buy a car is to make a statement, this is a genuine alternative to the V10-powered co-head of the Audi family.

The Porsche comparisons continue and indeed, won’t stop for a while. In this case, that’s a good thing, as it does far better design-wise with the Taycan’s hardpoints than the Taycan itself did. The Porsche isn’t exactly ugly, but it suffers with a frumpiness symptomatic of it being in the shadow of the lusty Mission E Concept car that previewed it. Everything that’s wrong with the Taycan, was right about the Mission E and indeed, is right about the e-tron GT. In RS form you get the usual RS badging, special wheels, an all-black grille (the standard GT gets body colour or grey), an RS-exclusive carbon roof, and that’s about it. No warbling oval exhausts to be found here, obviously.

Once again the Porsche platform gives you high hopes that this could very well be a genuine driver’s car, in spite of being all-electric and with an Audi badge. What hits you first though, almost literally, is the devastating performance, which is accompanied by quite an enjoyable synthetic ‘engine’ noise. It’s about as fast, if not faster, as you’d want a car to be on the road; as accelerative as the most formidable supercars on the market and with serious mid-pace muscle to boot.

That performance is not diminished even when the batteries are below 30 per cent or when you’ve done a few repeat flat-out runs. The 800-volt architecture helps it deliver repeatable and dependable performance on those fronts, as well as high charge speeds. The figures, which probably tell more of a story than hyperbole, are as follows: 598PS (440kW) without boost, 645PS (475kW) with boost, and 830nm (612lb-ft) of torque. That’s from two electric motors, giving four-wheel-drive, aiding the 0-62mph time in boost mode of 3.3 seconds, in spite of weighing over 2,300kg. There’s a two-speed transmission on the rear axle for the rear motor, as well as a trick electronic limited-slip diff.

Once you’re dulled to the raw performance (which does happen eventually believe it or not), what’s left? It’s good news. The first clue is the driving position – low, perfectly positioned relative to the bulk of the car. Once you get going, you notice an expensive and developed feel to the steering – not bristling with feedback, but well-thought-out and precise, adding to a level of confidence you can build in this car. The suspension and damping go about their business with similar precision, with superb body control, while the diff adds to the overall balance of the car, for a very rear-positive feel. The 305-section rear tyres complimenting 265 fronts wrapping 21-inch wheels deliver a reassuringly sizable contact patch. When you’re actually hustling it, the sum of all these parts is that at least 500kg of perceived weight seems to slip away. The e-tron GT for all its heft is a willing canyon carver.

No, it’s not an Elise, but this car carries itself down the road with elegance and control that it simply shouldn’t be able to muster by rights. Quite unlike some of the nose-divers in Audi Sport’s back catalogue. Yes, there are limits – by our count, around eight-tenths is where this car is reaching the end of its ability to abate the laws of physics – but it really is very good. Far better than you’d ever have expected. In short, if you put an EV sceptic car enthusiast that knows a good chassis when they feel one in one of these, they’ll be mighty impressed. 

In normal driving circumstances? For its weight and for the size of the wheels, it rides fantastically. That silky steering has a ‘specialness’ to it and per that volcanic performance, there’s no situation this thing won't power out of. It’s quite a broad beast, so getting used to the proportions will take a moment but once you’re settled in, that GT name is thoroughly well-earned, save for the range that is.

Happily, the cabin is very nearly as exotic in its closed-in cockpit layout as the exterior, though perhaps not cutting-edge or clad in space-age materials like you’d expect. That’s in ways a good and bad thing. The Teslarati looking for a slab of haptic glass and a flatulent UI won’t be too impressed with the de rigueur virtual cockpit and touchscreen display. We on the other hand welcome the tactile-feeling and always-where-you-left-them range of buttons below the infotainment screen, controlling climate controls, heated and cooled seats and much more. Personally, even besides the looks, the more analogue cabin of the e-tron could sell it to me over the screen fest Taycan.

There are enough reminders you’re in the RS, too, with plenty of badging and fancy quilted leather on the massage-equipped seats. The liberal lashings of carbon-fibre and alcantara are also a clue this is top-spec. All that said, the materials, design and carryover parts from lesser Audis are near the limit of their broadly premium feel at this price. The RS touches do just about enough to elevate it from the £80,000 cooker, to the £110,000 flagship, in this respect. 

It’s far from the most practical of four-seaters, being as low-slung and swept-back as it is. Still, with the so-called ‘foot garage’ in the back – a cutout in the battery to improve legroom – two adults can fit just fine, albeit with less glass to look out of than they’d like. What would have been nice with that sloped shape, is a hatchback rather than a boot, to improve access to the luggage area. There’s decent-enough space in there, but you’ll be pushing suitcases and the like back quite far into its dark depths.

This is where the slightly oldschool design of the e-tron GT’s cabin could come unstuck a bit. To us, it’s enjoyably familiar. To the tech-guru, it’s another mark down. For a flagship electric car this cabin doesn’t do a lot to move the game on from the A5 or even A3. The A6, A7 and A8 all have those double screens – which are for us worse than this, but fancier – at a lower price point.

In terms of high-tech features, the RS e-tron GT is actually tidily equipped, especially in top-level Carbon Vorsprung trim. Standard across the RS board is the laser light system – identifiable from the outside by the blue fractals in the headlight units. There’s also a clever ‘night-vision’ screen visible via the virtual cockpit, allowing you to see animals, pedestrians and indeed, other driver’s hot engines more clearly and from further away at night. That comes as standard in this £135,000 spec, as does the handy head-up display.

The 10.1-inch MMI display is as above not the largest, but the UI is responsive and intuitive, with hit-and-miss voice controls activated by saying ‘Hey Audi’. There’s also Apple CarPlay and Android Auto available as standard, though the glitches associated with those integrations in all cars remain here.

The RS e-tron GT is an enormously appealing car, not just for an EV. That ‘want’ feeling is very much there, even as a die-hard petrolhead. For techy EV enthusiasts that weren’t otherwise into cars, perhaps not so much. There are practical considerations too. In our time with the RS, it delivered a best real-world range of 220 miles. With some enthusiastic driving, it wasn’t touching 190. Yes, it’s the fast one, so range is reduced and no, the cold chills of January aren’t going to be favourable to any BEV, but a stated range of 282 miles (WLTP) is still a little short given what rivals offer. That it’ll charge at up to 265kW will be this car’s saving grace in the real world, as the infrastructure improves.

You do get more range with the lesser non-RS e-tron GT, which incidentally starts from around £30,000 less than a base RS. Obviously, you don’t get the performance and option boxes will need to be ticked, but out of hypothetical fantasy land and on a real life forecourt, the mid-range versions could definitely prove to be more appealing. But as a performance car, the RS is a really pleasant surprise and gives high hopes for the future of enthusiast driving. I only wish it had come along, looking and driving as it does, five years later and with double the range. As of right now, I’d have an e-tron GT (perhaps not an RS) over an equivalent Taycan based on looks and the interior alone.

Images by Jordan Smith