Audi RS E-Tron GT: An EV we want to drive long distances

Speaker 1: It is so nice to be back in Scotland. Absence really does make the heart grow under day [00:00:30] Glorious, utterly glorious We're in Scotland in the rather attractive 111,000 pound Audi RS e-tron GT. In case you're not aware, this is a pure battery electric vehicle with a 93.4 kilowat hour battery. And what's more, this is the [00:01:00] most powerful Audi RS ever produced. However, there is a slight caveat to that because this has 590 break horsepower. Most of the time you get the headline 637 break horsepower in two and a half second bursts. When you activate launch control and the, uh, boost mode, I think it might be one of the least used 47 brake horsepower ever, [00:01:30] because really you use it. I don't know how many times in your lifetime that you have this car, probably half a dozen once when you first get it's a tried Speaker 2: Oh Speaker 1: Twice, just to make sure it really was as uncomfortable as he thought. And then probably four times when you're showing friends that you probably don't particularly like and want to make [00:02:00] feel uncomfortable. Speaker 1: Now, as you probably know, this Audi is based on the same J one platform as the Porsche TACAN, but as soon as you start driving, you realize this, this does have very much its own character. The GT part of the name is crucial because the ride in this is just fantastic. Even on this RSS [00:02:30] 21 inch wheels, it just has a lovely fluidity to it being the RS that obviously has all the systems. So we've got real wheels steer on this. We've got the slippery diff at the back, and yes, it seems to just have tons of rip and really sharp turning. And it feels very, very agile for such a big car, but it does reach a point unlike proper sports cars, which seem to get better. The, you drive them [00:03:00] this. Yeah. Once it starts to feel its weight, it really, really feels its weight on the roads around here. Speaker 1: I've actually been keeping the dampers in their dynamic setting and the ride is still very, very good in the dynamic, but you just need that extra firmness, that extra control because over the lumps and bumps and crests here, otherwise it will scuff its nose. The drive train is formed of 238 break horsepower motor on the front axle and a 456 break horsepower motor [00:03:30] on the rear axle. The front motor is driven through a single gear transmission, but like the Titan, there is a two speed transmission on the rear axle. And this is a Quatro system. That's definitely not all about safety and traction. Let alone underst steer. You can make this over steer. I did actually earlier on today, have it in FC sport, just out of interest really, I suppose. And it's surprisingly agile and it will move around. And when it does move around again, it [00:04:00] feels like a big car. Speaker 1: Incidentally. They say that the Quatro system in this reacts five times faster than a normal mechanical cuatro system, it really does feel incredibly agile. That real wheel steering doesn't just help you turn tightly in car parks. It makes the whole thing feel pretty nimble and you really can drive it from the rear. However, in the same way that modern nine elevens [00:04:30] can sometimes feel completely on rear engine, right up to the point where they do feel very rear engine. This can feel surprisingly light and agile right up to the point where it feels very big and very heavy. And then it really does feel big and heavy. This being the RS model is standard. You get tungsten, carbo, coated, iron brakes, and they're very good when you hit the brake pedal, you can have up to not 0.3 G of breaking force before [00:05:00] it will actually put pad to those constant car, buy coated discs, the region. Speaker 1: We've got these paddles back here. I have to say a few times, it's a bit like, well, things you do in an EV when you're not used to driving EVs that often still you press the start button when the car's already on you guaranteed to do that quite a bit. And I cannot help, but just come to a corner and then just click the left hand paddle, trying [00:05:30] to change that, which does work in this because it just increases the region. But I have to say still kind of, not enough for my taste, I'd like it to do that even more have occasionally tried to Upshift as well, but why they don't just give us a, a manual option? I don't know. I just having said that actually discovered I did some Taika as well. Put a water bottle and a cupholder there suddenly on third, fourth, fifth [00:06:00] breaking fourth, third, second. Speaker 1: Uh, third again. It's quite fun. And also then if you replace it with a heavier water bottle, a full water bottle, you get a different gear shift. Feel you see second. Yes. Slightly more ponder shift there, but just a bit more waiting too, which is quite nice. So yeah, while we are talking about making EVs more engaging, I should probably mention sound. [00:06:30] I tried the e-tron GTS dynamic sound setting. And to be honest, it was a bit underwhelming Audi claims to have done all sort of research to create a unique sound for the car, but it is a bit generic EV to me, I think they could have done more. I think this is one of the things that I feel with EVs. Really the sound is, is one of the big criticisms that people have. So don't sound sort of emotional. And I think they really can go to town with this much more of me, much braver [00:07:00] with these, give people more options as well after all, you can always turn it off if you want to and just enjoy some of John Cage's finest work. Speaker 1: The interior of this is well, it's quite surprising for all the fact that it's quite quite normal. Actually the interior of this could be really any other sort of large Audi. It really doesn't scream. I'm an EV it's just, it's [00:07:30] just a car, which is quite nice. Like the exterior really it's quite approachable. I like the fact we've obviously got physical buttons down here. We've got the big touch screen up here, which looks very nice, nice, big chunky icons to touch on that. But yes, physical buttons down here. Yeah. It's a good interior without being particularly showy on the subject of the interior. It's worth mentioning that there is much more room for passengers in the back of an e-tron than there is in a tie. Can I realize this [00:08:00] is all getting a bit practical and this is meant to be an RS model, but to be honest, although it's undoubtedly quick enough and up to a point agile enough to warrant its little RS badge, the weight does tell it seems to make more sense to me when viewed simply as a really fast GT. And that made me think we should test its grand tour. Credentials can an EV with around 220 miles of realistic range, be a GT, will the charging network allow it? It requires investigation. [00:08:30] So we are currently up in the Highlands near in Vanessa. So we're gonna see if we can go from in Vanessa all the way back down to, to the Midlands, to Milton Keens, to be precise in a day, without any stress Speaker 1: The next morning, after a good night's sleep to make sure we were as Zen as possible. We got up early and left quietly heading predictably south. Speaker 1: [00:09:00] We are an hour 42 minutes into our journey and we've done 93 miles and average 55 miles an hour and more crucially 2.5 miles per kilo, what hour? So we've got a range of 132 miles left. It's been fine so far. It's obviously performing its GT duties very well. The a nine is it's a beautiful road in some ways, but a very frustrating road, [00:09:30] many ways as well, because, well, there are just lots and lots of average speed cameras, just the whole way down it. And I recommend going over that way through the Kangos if you possibly can, if you've got the time, which we haven't today, but there we are. So we are about 19 miles away from Perth. And our first stop, we obviously started with a full battery this morning, uh, 218 miles of range, uh, that charged up overnight on the 22 [00:10:00] kilowats charges, outside the hotel. Speaker 1: And we are heading for an icy charger. We're trying to plot our way down through the sort of the fast charging network such as it is. So let's see, will it be working? Will it be up to full speed? Find out I did look at zap map and I also tried the Audi sat nav, but that wanted us to use a little charger for an hour and 40 minutes. So we ignored that and went with my manually plotted Google maps [00:10:30] plan. I also left the car in comfort mode rather than efficiency, because that seemed a more reasonable real world test of it thirties. Anyway, after a couple of hours, we reached Perth first iron charging station charging at a hundred kilowats. So we've got seven and a half kilowat hours in there so far batteries up 61%, five minutes. It's expensive though. Very expensive. Now I know there are schemes, et cetera, that you can [00:11:00] sign up to, but just rocking up to the ion charges cost 58 Pence per kilowat hour, which at 2.7 miles per kilowat hour means every mile cost 21 and a half PE give you a sum price of 135 Pence per liter for UN unlimited and allow a motorway fuel economy figure of 29 MPG for a modern RS, six with cylinder deactivation. Speaker 1: Then you get an almost identical cost per mile at 21.1 PE, which is interesting path is now behind us. And we're on our way to [00:11:30] grit green. Um, we're trying to give ourselves sort of, I suppose, reasonable chunks. So that's another couple of hours. So it's generally a couple of hours. Good for me to have a stop anyway, and it's not, it's not pushing our luck. I think it's fair to say. Um, we don't really want to have the range anxiety, so although we could sort of stretch it further, this is, you know, designed to be relatively relaxing, sort of we're not in a race or anything like that. So we'll see how that works out. [00:12:00] Also just wanted to take a moment to point out that sort of over that way somewhere is Reich, which is where James, what was born and it's appropriate to match that. Speaker 1: Cause that's obviously who the, what was named after he didn't discover it. It was just named after him. Interesting. I think you'll agree. And to be honest, that was about as interesting as things got. I was rather hoping for some drama on the journey, maybe some charges [00:12:30] barely working, all of them in, you saw out of order entirely some nightmare to make the video exciting and leave you all on the edge of your seat. But we've got to say, as we find we stopped at GRE and green then leads thoroughly recommended good coffee, and then reached Milton Kings with an average of 2.7 miles per kilowat hour. It was all much less of a Keuffel than I was expecting. We noted that the, the Ioni charges often feel like the poor relations because the many substations that they require mean they're situated some way from [00:13:00] the facilities with NA bin for your rubbish. Speaker 1: But overall, there was simply no problems with a hundred to 150 kilowats from each charger, meaning that a top hop gave you a nice 20 minutes to relax before heading off again, if anything, the stop was actually nicer than simply rushing into a petrol station. The problem is that it's not always like this. You know, we've been lucky in terms of the plotting, the route, and these charges have been pretty much where we wanted it in terms of sort of breaking up journey into sort of two, two and a half hour chunks. [00:13:30] So there we are good today. Can't always be like that. This is kind of what it should be like. And there just needs to be more charges like this to make it feasible really on longer journeys. Then there's the car. It certainly has elements of an RS, but I maintain that this is better viewed simply as a fast quiet, attractive GT. And to that end, I'd have to recommend the R S sibling, the considerably cheaper Audi Tron GT Quran, which looks [00:14:00] identical still does not 62 and 4.1 seconds and rides even better, thanks to smaller wheels. And as these are EVs, it's not even like you have to give up a V 12 for a less charact full turbo V six, by going to the lesser model, just as with it feels like less is actually more with the Eltron GT.