Porsche Taycan and Audi e-Tron GT: An Electric Family Tree

Audi RS e-Tron GT

Maybe greater than any luxurious maker, Audi has pushed to make its E.V.s reassuring and accessible: The e-Trons are Audis first, electrical vehicles second. The unique e-Tron S.U.V.s, particularly, will go for a similar Audis that hang-out each fair-trade espresso roaster and college pickup queue in America.

The e-Tron GT maintains that philosophy, subsuming its electrical tech below a voluptuous grand-tourer physique and a comforting blanket of Audi luxurious. Solely this time, it’s unimaginable to disregard the monsters beneath, which awaken with each prod of your proper foot: twin electrical motors that peak at 637 horsepower within the RS model. The following factor you realize, the monster devours 60 m.p.h., a 3.1-second rebellion that leaves you hanging on for expensive life. Thank goodness for enormous, elective carbon-ceramic brakes, their forceful poise welcome on quick, mini-Alpine descents within the Hudson Valley.

Add the Audi and Porsche to a rising listing of two.5-ton electrical sedans with wild acceleration. The RS e-Tron instantly turns into historical past’s most-powerful Audi, topping two gasoline stablemates additionally sired by Papa VW: the R8 V-10 and Lamborghini Huracán supercars. The Audi GT prices much less, although that’s relative, ranging from $103,445. That rises to $140,945 for the RS model, and $161,890 for my closely optioned RS.

Audi engineers tuned their very own adjustable air suspension for a barely mellower, luxury-cruiser vibe. Steering is creamy and exact, however transmits much less pure, fingertip really feel than the benchmark Porsche. The RS’s commonplace rear-wheel steering angles tires in the wrong way of entrance wheels at as much as 31 m.p.h. to goose agility or trim a turning circle, then turns tires in parallel past 50 m.p.h. for stability.

In distinction with Porsche’s engine-based digital soundtrack, Audi sound designers developed an acceleration tune that drivers conduct with their proper foot, piped via the glowing Bang & Olufsen audio system. Audi experimented with a number of devices, together with a didgeridoo, earlier than crafting a digital mixture of 32 sounds, each pure and synthesized, together with a cordless screwdriver and a fan pushing air via an organ-like pipe. The riff, which responds algorithmically to car efficiency, will be turned down or off. In contrast to some grating E.V. soundtracks, it’s cool in modest doses, recalling an unearthly refrain from a Benjamin Britten area opera.