The all-electric Audi e-tron GT will benefit from the upgrades its Porsche Taycan relative has just received, including a 745kW RS model
The new Porsche Taycan Turbo GT has been making headlines with its record-breaking lap times, but its cutting-edge powertrain and chassis technology won’t be confined to Stuttgart. Given its shared underpinnings, the Audi e-tron GT is expected to receive a trickledown of these latest advancements in its biggest update yet.
Sharing the same Volkswagen Group J1 platform as the Porsche Taycan, the Audi e-tron GT is near-identical under the skin. The current lineup consists of an entry-level 350kW variant and the range-topping 440kW RS, marginally undercutting its Taycan equivalents in terms of outright performance. As a result, new e-tron GT variants are unlikely to match the Taycan lineup spec-for-spec, but will receive a bump in output and efficiency regardless.
GT-specific chassis and aerodynamic tweaks aside, the range-topping Taycan Turbo GT has given us a first look at the J1 platform’s most advanced powertrain hardware yet. A 900 ampere ‘pulse inverter’ replaces the previous 600 ampere unit for the rear axle, supplying more power, more efficiently to an overhauled motor unit with a new semiconductor material. The result is a staggering peak output of 815kW, and it doesn’t come at the expense of efficiency.
One of the e-tron GT’s downfalls was its range, with a claimed 475 kilometres falling to closer to 320 kilometres in our experience. The new Taycan makes use of a new 97kWh battery pack with more useable capacity, increasing range by up to 35 per cent when combined with aerodynamics tweaks – the Turbo and Turbo S both achieve a (claimed) 630-kilometre range, with the aforementioned Turbo GT said to cover 555 kilometres on a charge. While gains in efficiency will be highly sensitive to spec and design, we can also expect to see a healthy bump in range for the updated e-tron GT.
While the Audi e-tron GT is unlikely to see quite the same focus as the GT-honed Taycan Turbo, this new technology will undoubtedly trickle down through the range to help make it more competitive than ever. Pricing is hard to determine, but with the current RS e-tron GT range-topper priced from $251,100, a more potent take won’t come cheap.
Sam Jenkins