► RS e-tron GT Performance preview
► An early go in a late prototype EV
► Punchy at a likely £133k, but 800bhp!
It’s not unusual for CAR to drive a pre-production model way ahead of its launch, but this was particularly premature – we first tested the revised Audi RS e-tron GT December 2023 in Oman, despite the production car not being UK-bound until autumn 2024. And though you can now read our facelifted Audi e-Tron GT review proper, the below is Ben Barry’s experience of the prototype.
Audi might actually act on the questionnaire it handed journalists during our test drive. Any tweaks should be mere tickles, but no wonder much remains TBC. The nub of it? A big dollop of extra power and more handling finesse for Audi’s take on the Porsche Taycan, plus the addition of ‘Performance’ to one of the most generic names in the biz.
Naturally this comes at a price, Audi’s form with the Performance appendage suggesting a chunky £133,000, up from today’s RS e-tron GT’s £120,515.
Performance, specs
As for that power bump, how does circa 800bhp sound? Yes it does. The first time I squeeze throttle deep into carpet on a dusty road, it feels downright brutal – no progression, very little noise, just blam. This is unsurprising given it’s a 200bhp or so increase over the already pretty nippy base model.
But then a weird thing happens – I start to get used to it. The novelty and sheer guttural punch never becomes normal exactly, but it’s more manageable than the initial wallop suggests. It’s also refined and flexible around town in a way that’s hard to square with the accelerative violence lurking barely below the surface.
A well calibrated accelerator helps. It’s nice and progressive for the initial travel you use most in daily driving, followed by a weightier sort of threshold that asks ‘are you absolutely sure about this?’ before going full rocket-sled. Also useful is an artificial straight-six sort of purr that helps my brain compute what’s occurring (less so the full Star Wars sound effects in racier modes).
Battery capacity, range
Given recent Taycan developments, range should increase despite the extra performance, thanks to the battery growing from 93kWh to 105kWh, plus improved thermal efficiency and re-gen. Bank on 340 miles of range. Charging times should also improve, with the max charging rate of 320kW some 50kW more powerful than before.
What’s nailed on is the RS e-tron GT Performance up its game dynamically. The steering – still with a nice thin rim wrapped in deliciously tactile Alcantara – has a lovely precision, and while its ratio is faster now, there’s a calm sort of accuracy to its movements as you load it into a turn. I ticked boxes on the questionnaire that basically said ‘make weightier’, ‘increase on-centre feel’ but I liked it.
We don’t know how successful the more effective re-gen system is because it didn’t work on our prototype, but the brakes are very strong, even if – just like the steering – I’d dial in a little extra initial bite.
Audi’s new Curve Tilting Function: an out-of-body experience?
What Audi really wants us to feed back on is the active suspension’s Curve Tilting Function, a version of the clever suspension system Porsche got a jump start on. Audi demonstrates its dexterity at a standstill by making it dance like a Mexican low-rider, with each corner controlled independently, though sadly production cars won’t do that while you queue for a charge.
It’s not the point. The point is having an ‘access’ mode that lifts the car so you can extract yourself from this enjoyably low-slung driving position, and it’s also about comfort. When you turn into a corner, the system actively counters roll – like a Pendolino train or motorbike rider – to keep the body flat. It also resists squat under acceleration and pitch under braking.
Through fast sweepers that run through Oman’s Salalah region lesser-populated areas, it’s subtle but highly effective, especially for passengers, and when you factor in this car’s hushed rolling refinement, it’s pretty dreamy.
I found its (surely fiendishly tricky) integration mostly subtle, if less successful through a string of tighter bends, especially those that tightened on themselves. I suspect that’s because Active Curve Tilting teams up with rear-wheel steering, which turns in the opposite direction to the front wheels in slower bends to increase agility (it’s the /same/ direction in those sweepers, for stability).
The takeaway is a car that pivots into a turn a little like a rollercoaster, with the usual loadings and latency that help your brain decode the dynamics going AWOL. It makes me feel a little queasy.
Audi switches the system off in Dynamic mode, bringing those loadings back into the equation, and that’s very welcome, but really I think the Comfort setting needs a tweak for these situations.
Verdict: Audi RS e-tron GT Performance
Updates don’t convince us the RS e-tron GT deserves the RS badge much more than the original, but this remains an impressive – and improved – car. Massive 800bhp power is the headline, but there’s also ample comfort, well sorted handling, not to mention the enhanced charging and range we expect. Let’s just hope the largely Active Curve Tilting won’t feel so odd on tighter curves when we drive the production car. We filled in a questionnaire, after all.