Much like the Porsche Taycan, the first Audi e-tron GT was an easy car to like. It looked astonishingly good in the flesh, for one thing. When it was new, interested passersby didn’t just stop, they took a collective step back like they were at a car show, as if trying to take the whole thing in. It really did look like it’d been driven off a stage. And obviously it went like the clappers. Moreover, because more people chose the Taycan when it came time to buy, the GT got to seem like the slightly unorthodox, marginally cooler choice. Even if that hasn’t saved it from much the same cliff-edge depreciation.
Anyhoo, just as there is a new Taycan, there will very soon be a new e-tron GT. Audi isn’t quite ready to reveal it in full just yet, but it is ready to start showing us what it looks like in prototype form. Which, it must be said, is very much what it looked like before. So no complaints there. Underneath, of course, it’s based on the same updated J1 platform as the Porsche, which means it will almost certainly share the 82kWh and 97kWh batteries that have earned the Taycan an improved range and the capacity to charge up to 320kW.
The e-tron’s output is harder to call. Not because it’s hard to tell if there will be more of it (there absolutely will) but because the car has always lived in the Taycan’s shadow in terms of outright performance, so it’s a guessing game when it comes to how close the new version has been allowed to get. Suffice it to say the old car had 530hp in quattro trim, and 646hp as an RS, so while the 775hp (or 952hp on overboost) will almost certainly be reserved for the Turbo S, it seems like more than 700hp is likely for the latter, with the former likely pitched above a Taycan 4S but below a regular Turbo.
That said, we know an RS Performance version is also inbound, so perhaps Audi has been given a longer leash this time. Additionally, the manufacturer has already confirmed the presence of the innovative electro-hydraulic active suspension system that debuted in the Taycan, so expect an improved bandwidth in terms of handling character, even if the car’s kerbweight still starts with a 2. Obviously we don’t know what number its price tag will start with, although it’s safe to assume that the £88,365 and £120,515 the GT and RS respectively start at will have increased. We’ll find out for sure later this year.
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