The Audi e-tron GT should look familiar - and indeed it does, having been on sale since 2021 - but that familiarity hides something rather significant. While this gorgeously low-slung Audi might look much the same as before, beneath that sensuous skin there’s a lot that’s new, including a new battery and new electric motors, plus revised air suspension. It’s different enough that in spite of the familiar bodywork, this e-tron GT almost counts as a new model.
The battery gets a boost so that now there’s 97kWh of useable capacity, in spite of which Audi says that the battery pack is actually some 9kg lighter than it used to be. Not much, certainly in the context of a 2.3-tonne kerb weight, but it indicates that batteries are starting to move in the right direction, in weight terms.
At the rear, the e-tron GT gets a new electric motor, one lifted from the ‘PPE’ electric car platform which underpins the likes of the new Audi Q6 and A6 e-tron. This new motor is staggeringly small - with an axial length of 192mm and a diameter of 230mm - considering its prodigious output, and it contributes to a total power output of 679hp (in Boost mode) for the S e-tron GT model. This, in case you missed the news, is the newly named entry-level e-tron GT, and there are two progressively more powerful RS versions in the lineup above it.
The air suspension, which springs the all-round double-wishbone layout, is also new with a revised two-chamber, two-valve design which Audi reckons squares the circle between driving comfort and pin-point handling precision.
The styling has changed, but you’d probably have to work on the factory floor at Ingolstadt to be able to spot the differences around the front, the lights, the bumpers and the aerodynamic package. It remains a gorgeous car, and one that we think is more attractive than its close first cousin, the Porsche Taycan.
How much is the new Audi e-tron GT in Ireland?
The base price for the S e-tron GT is €139,635. That sounds almost reasonable. It is close to the same price as that of the new BMW M5, yet the Audi is faster and is entirely electric, rather than being a plug-in hybrid. Standard equipment includes 20-inch alloys, LED front and rear lights, a panoramic glass roof, heated front seats clad in synthetic suede and leather, a sports steering wheel, heat-insulated acoustic windscreen, Audi sound system, digital dials, the MMI touchscreen, a reversing camera, connected navigation and infotainment, adaptive air suspension, three-zone climate control, a heat pump and automated parking.
Our test car had quite the bevy of extras - including an adjustable transparency function for the glass roof, 21-inch alloys, carbon-fibre trim, extended suede-leather interior, a head-up display, uprated steel brakes with red callipers, remote parking, all-wheel steering, Matrix LED headlights and sports front seats. That, plus a few more bits, added up to a total price of €174,077.
Trade up to the RS e-tron GT, and you’ll pay €163,395 before options but you do get a maximum power output of 774hp in Boost mode. Standard kit in this version includes Matrix LED lights, RS body kit, memory settings for the driver’s seat, vanadium-look cabin trim, a ‘Push To Pass’ boost button on the steering wheel, electric steering column adjustment, uprated steel brakes, RS-specific screen layouts and a Bang + Olufsen sound system.
For €179,750 you can have the RS e-tron GT performance (Audi leaves it uncapitalised) which gets a staggering 901hp and which can hit 100km/h from rest in 2.5 seconds. Standard spec for the performance model is basically the same as that for the RS, just with the extra power.
It’s worth remembering that the Porsche Taycan is mechanically identical to the Audi e-tron GT but is technically more affordable because Porsche offers a rear-wheel-drive entry-level model with 408hp. It’s a lot slower but it’s also €20,000 cheaper than the S e-tron GT.
If you want a Taycan with comparable performance to the S e-tron GT, that’ll be the Taycan 4S which is slightly slower to get to 100km/h than the Audi, but which costs slightly less too at €131,6823. To go faster, you have to trade up to the much more expensive €191,503 Taycan Turbo, with its 844hp peak power.
A look inside the updated Audi e-tron GT
Inside the Audi e-tron GT, little enough has changed. There is the same almost oppressively dark cabin layout (c’mon, Audi - a little lightness of touch would be nice) offset by exceptionally comfortable front bucket seats, and an astonishingly low driving position for an EV. Normally, with electric cars, the height of the battery pack under the floor perches you up quite high, but in the e-tron GT, Audi has been able to work around that, and if you’ve gotten used to SUV driving positions, then it’s a long drop down into the GT’s seat.
Once there, you’re presented with a slightly odd squared-off steering wheel which feels of exceptionally high quality (as does everything in the cabin) but which equally feels somewhat strange to hold. It’s a bit like a bigger version of Peugeot’s tiny hexagonal wheel, but you do get used to it after a while.
The cockpit sweeps and wraps around you tightly, but it’s more practical than you might think, with useful door bins and a surprisingly roomy storage area under the armrest. There are also cup holders on the centre console, but anything in those will get somewhat in the way of your elbows.
There’s lots of recycled content in the cabin, including plenty of ‘Dinamica’ synthetic suede, with Audi proudly proclaiming - somewhat against type, in a car costing this much - that some of the fabric panels are made of off-cuts and scraps. There’s a neat little back-lit e-tron GT logo carved into the dash on the passenger’s side, too.
In the back, while the rear doors are a boon to practicality, there’s not a whole heap of space. Tall passengers will struggle to get comfortable in the rear of the e-tron GT, although anyone up to around five-foot-five will be fine. It helps, when trying to get in and out of the e-tron GT, to lower the door glass, as it’s frameless and that opens up a bit more space for you to wiggle in and out. This is especially useful in tight multi-storey carparks, as the e-tron GT is a wide car - 1,964mm without the mirrors.
The boot is quite practical, with a 405-litre capacity but the boot opening is quite small and shallow, so loading larger items will be a chore. There is an 81-litre ‘frunk’ in the nose, which is a handy place to stash a charging cable.
How many child seats can I fit in the Audi e-tron GT?
For a sporty car, the Audi S e-tron is surprising child-friendly, with handy ISOFIX anchor points in both outer rear seats. That said, the relatively small rear door apertures will make loading in a bulky child safety seat a bit of a pain, and any buggy is going to have to fold very flat if it’s going to fit in the boot.
The Audi S e-tron GT’s on-board technology
Playing slightly against type, the S e-tron GT isn’t all that screen-heavy inside. There is a nice set of digital instruments, reminiscent of those from the old second-generation Audi TT coupe, which can be set to show a full-width navigation map with satellite images which looks great, and which actually enhances your EV driving experience because you can overlay a projection of the car’s estimated range (more on which below). The steering wheel buttons are touch-sensitive, but not the worst of their kind, although it is a little too easy to nudge one accidentally when turning the wheel. There’s a highly effective and clear head-up display too.
The relatively low-set centre screen does an admirable job of keeping out of the way, which is good as it means you’re less distracted by it. The menu layout is fine and looks suitably black and moody (did Audi get Batman to design its digital systems?) but the screen itself is irritatingly inconsistent about accepting presses. Sometimes it can take two or three tries to get a button to press on the screen.
There’s the usual bevy of connected and live internet services, and of course you can connect your phone via the MyAudi app to control and monitor the car’s status and charging. There’s also wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and a neat wireless charging pad under the armrest that clips your phone in vertically so that it doesn’t rob storage space.
Thankfully, Audi has kept physical buttons for the climate control system, and that makes life much easier on the move.
Up top, there’s a new glass roof that you can switch it from clear to opaque to half-way between at the flick of a switch. It’s a neat party trick, but annoyingly the control for it is buried in an on-screen sub-menu rather than using a simple physical switch.
Driving the Audi S e-tron GT
It might seem an obvious thing to say, but 679hp is a lot. Even given the S e-tron GT’s immense kerb weight, this is a searingly fast car. It’s not quite so uncomfortably fast as the more-powerful-still RS or RS performance versions, but 3.4 seconds to get to 100km/h from rest is not hanging about. The first time you try it, it feels as if someone has broken physics. The next few times, it feels as if the fairground ride operator has taken the safety limiter off. Then you remember that to get maximum power and acceleration, you need to pull the left-hand paddle behind the steering wheel to activate Boost mode. Do that and you’re into proper Starship Enterprise territory.
Thankfully, the S e-tron GT is also perfectly good at mooching around gently. Select Comfort or Efficiency mode from the Audi Dynamic Select menu and the e-tron GT accelerates with beautifully controlled smoothness, making it a very relaxing car to drive. The optional rear-wheel steering fitted to our test car makes it feel exceptionally nimble around town but beware the sheer width of the e-tron GT when parking.
The air suspension helps on the move, giving the S e-tron GT a surprisingly complaint ride quality, even if those big, low-profile tyres slap and bang a bit into urban surfaces at low speeds. There’s quite a bit of tyre roar at higher speeds too.
A weight of 2.3 tonnes makes it sound as if the S e-tron GT is going to be too heavy to be any fun. But the opposite is true. The steering feels entirely artificial, but the weighting is spot-on and once you learn where the weight is and how the S e-tron GT transfers it under braking and acceleration, you soon start to effortlessly roll that low-set nose into fast corners, revelling in the traction of the two-motor quattro four-wheel drive. The S e-tron GT plays a brilliantly deft game of feeling exceptionally stable and secure, as well as being able to flick-steer into a tightening corner when you need to. The upgraded carbide brakes - also a new design - seem tireless and feel at their best when you turn down the regenerative braking effect.
Basically, if anyone out there is worried that electric cars will all feel dull and insipid to drive, you need to try one of these. It’s proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, that electric cars can do poise, precision and fun.
What’s the electric range of the Audi S e-tron GT?
And it gets even better. Previously, with a high-performance EV, you always had to trade off power and speed against range. Audi has been particularly vulnerable to this kind of thing of late, with models such as the SQ8 e-tron and SQ6 e-tron proving to have really quite truncated real-world ranges if you used much of their power.
The S e-tron GT break that mould. Shatters it, even. It doubtless helps that it’s a truly low-slung car, the roof barely reaching up as high as your hips if you’re standing on a kerb next to it. In the real world, this sleek, slick Audi puts in a massively impressive performance. The first thing I have to do with any electric test car is put it up on the M1 motorway and drive it home to Belfast, from Dublin. This is the worst environment for any EV at a constant speed with few opportunities for regenerative braking and many have fallen at this first hurdle.
Not the S e-tron GT. In fact, in spite of holding to a steady 120km/h cruise almost all the way home, I got home with 75 per cent charge remaining. Most cars, even those with big batteries, will struggle to get me home with much more than 50 per cent remaining. I reckon, if you drive reasonably gently, this S e-tron GT will beat its official 609km range; 550km should be easy for most drivers; and 450km is the very least you should expect.
Charging up is impressive too. As standard, on suitable AC power, the S e-tron GT accepts 11kW, but that can be optionally boosted to 22kW, which is handy if you use kerbside charging points a lot. Better yet, Audi has improved the 800-volt electrical architecture of the S e-tron GT, which means that its maximum DC fast-charging rate has gone up from 270kW for the old one, to 320kW now. This means that, in theory, you can go from 10-80 per cent charge in as little as 18 minutes if you can find a charger capable of delivering that speed. That’s ridiculously fast by EV standards - you might not even finish your coffee...
In our week with the e-tron GT, we averaged 21kWh per 100km, including some long motorway runs and a rapid drive over a favourite, often steep and twisty, mountain road.
The reasons you'd buy an Audi S e-tron GT
Well, for a start, I don’t think there’s a lot of point in trading up to the pricier RS versions - the S model of the e-tron GT has more power and performance than anyone could reasonably need. Yes, it’s an expensive thing, and not the most practical, but it’s fabulous to drive, gorgeous to look at, and has the kind of useable real-world range that makes electric car driving feel truly painless and simple. Hopefully, the S e-tron GT’s battery and charging tech, and its exceptional poise and handling precision, will rapidly trickle down to other models.
Ask us anything about the Audi S e-tron GT
If there’s anything about the Audi e-tron GT we’ve not covered, or you’d like advice in choosing between it and other cars, you can avail of our (completely free) expert advice service via the Ask Us Anything page.
