Audi E-tron GT 2023 long-term test

Being picky, I could take aim at the parking sensors. They make like I’m about to mow down a pedestrian when in fact it’s just that a rear wheel has come within six inches of the kerb during parallel parking.

Otherwise, it was devastatingly slick – perhaps the slickest car currently on sale. Rarely have a cabin atmosphere and a dynamic manner existed in such harmony.

As for what this car is and isn’t, that’s trickier to define. It isn’t a super-saloon. Pretty early on, it became apparent that it lacks the requisite raw dynamism (including a proclivity for tail-out antics) for this classification.

And while it’s quick enough to rinse a BMW M3 from the lights, straight-line performance isn’t exuberant enough for it to swim with, say, a Mercedes-AMG E63 or BMW M5. It’s more restrained than that.

Neither is it a sports coupé, despite the rear seats being only a tad more commodious than those of a Porsche 911 and the chassis exhibiting an almost mid-engined-style poise. It’s too long and heavy.

Instead, the GT seems to occupy the middle ground between those worlds. Put into a familial context, it’s a deft and somewhat magical blend of qualities from Audi’s S8 über-saloon and R8 supercar. 

That sounds pretty desirable, doesn’t it? The reality is no different. On a drive back from Verona, the E-tron GT took apart two Alpine passes, was a born natural when cruising at 150mph on the quiet autobahns of southern Germany and then turned into a haven of tranquillity during the inevitable stop-start traffic encountered in Belgium.

Nothing seemed to fluster it – except the obvious thing, that is. Does battery power work for a car of this ilk? It’s not a black-and-white issue. I quickly recognised that the E-tron GT was a wonderful thing to have in my life, both because and in spite of the fact that it was an EV.

The precision of the powertrain and the way the car unobtrusively moves through busy environments each play into its shtick of being just about the coolest cucumber around.

Being electric and still so covetable makes it feel state-of-the-art, and this in turn makes me feel, well, good. Yet given its excellent ride-and-handling balance, and the pleasure of sitting inside its panoramic-roofed, carbon-over-leather cabin, and its quietly extrovert looks, this is in many ways an archetypal GT.

As such, 240 miles of real-world range strikes me as something of an Achilles heel. It's not a terminal problem, because public rapid charging isn't the teeth-grinding stressor that it used to be - especially in Europe. 

You turn up, maybe you wait five minutes to get onto a charger, then you draw at something in the range of 100kW to 200kW. Fifteen minutes later, you're done, the E-tron GT once again in its element.

And obviously, this kind of activity is only necessary on longer trips afield. If you have a wall box charger at home, running one of these Audis day-to-day will be no trouble at all. It's utterly easy to live with. 

Still, 250 miles isn't exactly vorsprung durch technik, is it? Alternatives from Tesla, Mercedes and even Hyundai and Kia do better, often for less outlay. As far as I'm concerned, the E-tron GT nails a lot of them in terms of desirability, but it isn't the most innovative thing, which is a shame. 

I've said before that a 500bhp in-line five would really set this car off, but as that's never going to happen, a fast-cruising range of 350 miles would do nicely. Bring on the Mk2. 

Second Opinion

Penetrate the E-tron GT’s sinister outer shell and I’m not actually sure it’s all that revolutionary in technical terms. You can buy a Kia EV that goes farther and faster for some £30k less. Still, for outright presence and sense of occasion, this is a welcome return to form for the four rings.

Felix Page

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Love it:

Performance Unlikely to leave you breathless but enough for on-demand overtakes, it feels just right for this car. 

Cockpit Heavy use of physical switchgear and high material quality result in a superb blend of function and form. 

Luggage space It lacks long legs, but its frunk, back seats and 400-litre boot make it an automotive mule. 

Versatility It’s big but not unwieldy. With familiarity, I’m just as relaxed in town as on motorways and A-roads. 

Loathe it:

Trekking and handling Short range is an obvious weakness and Dynamic mode should have a more entertaining torque-split map. 

Final mileage: 8677

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Life with an E-tron GT: Month 5

Our uber-EV isn’t easy to overshadow, even in the most exalted company - 16 August

Not long from now, the GT will depart Autocar and make its way to Audi’s UK HQ in Milton Keynes. There it will be processed, then listed on its maker’s approved used network.

I imagine it will make its next owner mostly very happy – potentially ecstatic, given the existing potential for finding an electric bargain. Used EV prices are looking pretty depressed across the board and a quick search of the Audi website turned up an E-tron GT with just 6086 miles for less than £65,000.

In Kemora Grey and riding on traditional silver wheels, it’s a lovely thing, reasonably furnished with options, yet it costs little more than a new Mercedes EQB. Assuming you have a driveway and wallbox charger, truly I can think of few better ways to spend such money on a versatile, intriguing, pedigree performance car.

Am I sad our time with the E-tron GT is drawing to a close? Not sure. It has been an interesting experience – trying to slot an EV into my unpredictable diary; living among the rat runs of north London with something that has a footprint not dissimilar to that of a current Range Rover; getting under the skin of this super-saloon-electric-coupé. I’ll expand on all this in the farewell report, but before then, the car’s last meaningful assignment involved a trip to the stormy Netherlands.

Visiting Zandvoort to drive probably the final proper 5 Series-based Alpina was a poignant experience. The electrification age is why the Bovensiepens are handing over control of Alpina to BMW. For a number of reasons, electric powertrains don’t suit the firm’s time-honoured remit, and whatever BMW chooses to do with the brand, current levels of bespoke engineering are unlikely to continue.

Understandably, the family is tapping out. Yet you would love to see what Alpina could do with something like our Audi. An iB8 could be magnificent, but software engineers are just too expensive at the moment and range anxiety while you’re holding a steady 135mph simply isn’t what the company is about.

Then it was on to Donkervoort, to drive the F22. I couldn’t resist getting a snap of the cars in each other’s company, not only because the mad Donk has an Audi heart (its five-pot turbo makes 500bhp), but because they highlight the breadth of product our industry somehow still manages to offer. As for the journey itself, the E-tron nailed the job, as it generally does.

Love it

The north of the Netherlands was battered by storms, yet the Audi’s stability in crosswinds was superb.

Loathe it 

Key fob high jinks

The key fob wouldn’t work for a day or two on our travels, so I had to open/lock the car via the Audi app.

Mileage: 8677

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Life with an E-tron GT: Month 4

It catches the eye - even in the UK's most prestigious neighbourhood... - 19 July 

You have to work pretty hard to turn heads in Chelsea, which is why it was especially surprising to see a young boy – enraptured by the E-tron GT’s hulking stance – frantically snatch his mother’s phone to grab a picture of the car as I trundled slowly towards Olympia. It wasn’t even particularly clean – and there was a 911 Turbo two cars ahead.

Mileage: 8311

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Does our big electric coupé live up to the last part of its name? - 12 July

For an indication of just how excellent the E-tron GT is, consider that I recently returned from an 1800-mile trip – and with it, endless charging stops – not hating the thing. I’m as surprised as you are. This kind of journey should have undone the Audi, with its paltry 240-mile cruising range, but it didn’t. If anything, I like it more.

The trip was our first proper look at whether an EV in 2023 can be a true performance GT (the longer-legged Hyundai Ioniq 6 or Mercedes EQE don’t make the cut on dynamic grounds). There will be a feature on our adventure to Verona and back in due course, so I won’t spoil that, but I want to mention a few things.

First, if ever you’re heading to Italy via Tyrol – so to Innsbruck then south – instead of along the Brenner pass (a motorway of god-level engineering but a motorway nonetheless), leave it at Vipiteno and head south along the SS508. This takes you over the Penser Joch before rejoining the Brenner at Bolzano, and it’s a gorgeous detour: rugged at the top but with luscious meadows and sweeping bends on the far side.

The E-tron GT took it apart, being agile and accurate enough for switchbacks, then mirroring hallmark mid-engined-like poise through what we would normally call third-gear sweepers. What was amazing was how little this 2300kg saloon was bothered by 13% gradients. It zapped straight up, and while the range indicator plummeted along the way, coasting for 15 miles on the way down returned us to a net-neutral state.

Another unexpectedly stirring moment was on Autobahn 7 in Bavaria, on the way home. In off-peak hours, this two-lane motorway is exactly the kind of setting us Brits tend to imagine when we daydream about autobahns. Which is to say, it doesn’t really exist – but sometimes it does. At its southern end, the A7 gently undulates through fields and forests and past lakes and is extremely smooth and well sighted, yet it has corners where the outside suspension loads up if you’re going quickly enough. If you’re in a BMW M5 or Porsche 911 Turbo when the traffic is light, it’s heaven on earth.

While it lacks a 90-second refuelling time and a monumental top speed, this 523bhp Audi didn’t shirk its duty as a German sports saloon, covering ground at an aircraft-like rate. It tops out at only around 150mph, but the speed at which it gets there is quite something. I didn’t expect acceleration to be so relentless.

What really stole the show is the way the Audi sits at around 120mph. You can sense how aerodynamic the body is, and in terms of its stability it feels closer to the 911 than the M5. That will be the Panamera in its DNA. Once you’re really dialled into the car, cruising at these speeds isn’t as energy-intensive as you might think. It’s so heavy and slippery that it keeps its momentum remarkably well; you just top things up with the accelerator as you need. That said, it’s sensible to at least have an idea of where your next rapid charger is up ahead. There’s no cheating physics at this speed.

Elsewhere, I tended to keep the E-tron GT in Efficiency mode, which lowers the ride height and diminishes ride quality a touch but nets you an extra 10% or so in range. On some longer, steadier stints, this resulted in a return of 3.2mpkWh, which is our best yet in terms of touring economy and equates to a technical real-world range of 297 miles. Not too bad.

Like it

Unpretentious persona

The Audi is pretty understated. It skulks about bothering no one. And parked in low-slung Efficiency mode, it looks unexpectedly epic.

Loathe it

Charging gymnastics

There are ports on both sides, but one at the front – or rear – would make life easier. Other cars parked badly can make access tricky.

Mileage: 7993

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Life with an E-tron GT: Month 3

It's over to our deputy news editor for more E-tron action - 28 June

We’ve once again tested our GT’s touring potential with a 300-mile, two-day, wedding-venue-viewing excursion. It does get around! I needed to charge it only twice (the second for peace of mind, not true necessity), and it felt at home on long motorways, winding B-roads and even, surprisingly, tight village streets. Its comfort never wavered, and neither did its appeal.

Mileage: 7882

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Our staff writer joins the E-tron party, grandparents in tow - 21 June

After spending two weeks with the E-tron, I’m a big fan, especially of its excellent comfort. Finely damped, it soaks up even the deepest bumps with ease, but not so much that you can’t feel the road. I used it to pick up my EV-sceptic grandparents for their 65th wedding anniversary and they were mightily impressed – once they had managed to climb in...

Mileage: 7192

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Life with an Audi E-tron GT: Month 2

Even during an inconvenience like this, our Audi delivers a surprising reward - 31 May

Three months into my stint with this electric Audi and preconceptions about how chaotic the relationship would be have mostly left the building. I am surprised by this; people who know me and my driveway-less, routine-less existence are surprised by this; even people who know me and my situation and own an electric car themselves are surprised by this. I’m simply not suffering as much as I feared – and they cheekily hoped – I would be. Or, indeed, at all.

The lack of torment is partly because, in the Audi, what you see on the range display is generally what you get. This gives you blessed certainty, and is especially true in the Efficiency drive mode, which essentially lengthens the throttle, slots the rear transaxle into the longer of its two ratios and drops the air-sprung body into its lowest, least draggy ride-height setting. That last bit also gives the car an extra dose of crowd-pleasing stance, although it does render the underside of its Dolph Lundgren chin vulnerable to speed bumps.

Indicated range has improved noticeably in this warmer weather, and if I charge the 93.4kWh battery up to 100%, the car now shows about 265 miles. This is still some way short of what you would get in the bigger-battery BMW iX, but I can live with it. And I can live with it because public charging has mostly been okay, if also now quite busy.

Sure, almost no stations pump out electrons quite at the advertised rate, and at around 65p per kWh for ‘ultra-rapid’ apparatus, it isn’t cheap. But inconveniences have been minimal. Most of the time I arrive, wait five minutes, plug in, and 20 minutes later I’m off again.

Could you have an E-tron GT as your only car? Probably. Though it still wouldn’t be risk-free. I think the best approach would be to use the Audi as much as you like, but also have a petrol supermini lying about, for when life throws a curve ball and your otherwise slick slice of electric Vorsprung durch Technik has only nine miles on the readout after a big trip. A decent 2008-model-year Ford Fiesta is the same price as an option or two on the Audi.

In other news, I’ve had some of the Audi’s clothes off. Or, at least, the rear offside wheel. A slow puncture meant a trip to Kwik Fit, where the mechanics discovered a nasty-looking screw in one of the tyres – fortunately dead centre of the tread, so repairable.

With the E-tron up on the jacks, certain things I expected to see. Like the perfectly flat underbody that’s permitted by the presence of an enormous battery pack and the absence of exhaust plumbing. And a legitimately big rear diffuser; aero cladding for the underside of the control arms. All helpful stuff when you’re straining for every last WLTP-accredited mile.

What I didn’t expect to see was a work of art, yet the E-tron’s rear suspension is precisely that. Honestly, you don’t know where to look, such is the warren of metalwork that lurks behind those 20in rear wheels. One upper control arm bends like a sickle (I’m not exaggerating) around the bellows of the car’s air springs, while the other has a pronounced U-bend in it for clearance beneath the body.

There’s also an arm that links the hub to an electric actuator for the rear-wheel steering, and the casting for the lower wishbone is colossal. Of course, they have also had to find space to feed the damper up through the middle of it all, and the driveshaft, and connect the anti-roll bar (not active, as you can have in the Taycan). It’s tough to get your head around this level of engineering when it’s all stationary, let alone imagine how the kinematics operate at forcible chat on the B-whatever. There’s no spare space going, yet the car never crashes onto its bump stops or surrenders composure.

On seeing these photos, an old friend exclaimed that “Porsche’s recent rear suspensions are a packaging wonder”. High praise, coming from a senior suspension engineer at McLaren.

Love it

Railgun performance

I don’t talk much about this car’s 523bhp and 472lb ft as I rarely use it all. But when you do need to overtake, it’s done in an instant.

Loathe it

Piano black trim

The GT comes with a little cloth in the glovebox. No wonder. The centre console and touchscreen are fingerprint magnets.

Mileage: 4710

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Our Audi catches the eye - 17 May

A dirty car, especially a fast one, feels like it’s being used properly. Guano is another matter, though, so off our Audi went to one of north London’s choicer hand-washes. What shocked me was the deluge of attention the GT drew once gleaming. En route, it blended in like an A7 (this quality I like). Going home, it may as well have been a straight-piped R8

Mileage: 4331

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Hot electric Audi continues to impress in isolation – and against some top ICE talent - 3 May

Absence is supposed to make the heart grow fonder, but in the case of long-term test cars, such nauseating tweeness should never be presumed. As such, a couple of weeks apart from the E-tron GT was always going to be revealing.

I’ve had various distractions during that time, ranging from an old-shape Toyota Yaris to a £250,000 Bentley, to not one but two Lancia Integrales and to the new RWD Tesla Model Y, with a BMW M8 Competition and Ora’s dubiously named Funky Cat also making appearances. In short, plenty to help me forget (or perhaps, in some ways, resent) the big Audi.

But no, I’ve missed it. Truly. For one thing, by the standards of your typical family hatchback, the thing is a boat, but after driving the aircraft carrier that is the Bentley Continental GT, I longed for the Audi’s relative manoeuvrability and precision. At the same time, the E-tron GT is just as serene as the W12 car at lower speeds and seems only a smidge less stately on the motorway.

This isn’t at all a poor state of affairs for something with palpable sporting genes. I like the way the Audi pairs its cosseting, techno-fortress-on-wheels persona with relatively easy manoeuvrability. It’s imperious but undemanding.

As for the M8, which is by far the closest thing to an E-tron GT alternative out of the cars that I’ve driven in the past fortnight, were it my money, I would have the Audi, no question. I’m quite surprised by my own certainty on this matter. I mean, the M car has the sensational 617bhp driveline from the M5 and pairs it with the kind of predatory silhouette that we seem to see less and less of these days.

As a basic recipe, it’s not hard to love. M’s four-wheel-drive super-GT is also – to state the obvious – not beholden to charging stations as the Audi is, and on a light throttle you would get 400 miles out of it at a fast cruise. So why is it so comprehensively outclassed by the E-tron GT?

It’s because the E-tron GT rides so much more sweetly, steers with more clarity, has all the body control you realistically need, and what it lacks in on-throttle adjustability (of which the BMW has plenty), it makes up for in balance and neutrality. It is by miles the more coherent device, while the M8 seems a confused mash-up of hardcore performance coupé and loping grand tourer.

It was on the recent trip to the Scottish Borders that I took a detour up around the A701 (the wending Edinburgh-to-Moffat route – seek it out) and the Audi was fine company. On those tight hillside roads, I really could feel its weight, and the M8 would ultimately be more agile and by some margin quicker. But you would be fighting the BMW’s choppiness, while the Audi’s low centre of gravity and an ability to stay calm make this 2.3-tonne EV the more enjoyable back-country device. Strange times indeed.

In truth, this chassis deserves better tyres than the econo-compound Pirelli Cinturato P7s our car is fitted with. Porsche shods the Taycan with Pirelli P Zeros, and I know Audi offers an asymmetric Goodyear Eagle F1. I’ve made a mental note to try them, even though they will shave some miles off the car’s ultimate range.

Ah, yes: range. I’m still waiting for the maximum indicated range to creep up as the weather improves and am currently seeing only 230 miles maximum – and that’s with a 100% charge, which owners probably would avoid to protect battery longevity.

The Audi and I also have a trip to Verona in the diary, which really will put it to the test. This will take planning, although there’s a useful website and app I’ve discovered: A Better Route Planner. It plots your journey and the necessary charging stops. It says the 845 miles from London to Verona will take six stops and just under two hours overall for charging time. Sounds reasonable.

Love it

Simple honesty

This isn’t the longest-legged EV, but drive sensibly and the remaining miles shown is mostly what you will get. The problem is you also have 469bhp to play with.

Loathe it

Getting deflated

The rear passenger-side Pirelli has a slow puncture. Annoying, but at least getting it repaired will give me a chance to see the suspension and underbody aero.

Mileage: 3768

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Life with an Audi E-tron GT: Month 1

Rapid chargers aren't cheap... - 26 April

Nearly 3000 miles gone and so far the experience has been... pretty silky. Expensive, though. I’ve totted up the bills and an 800-mile round trip to Edinburgh cost £202.03 in electrons. Granted, that’s using Ionity charging stations – among the fastest but, at 74p per kWh, also the most pricey (although not by much). Bottom line: an M5 Comp drinking super would have cost the same. 

Mileage: 2849

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Welcoming the E-tron to the fleet - 12 April 2023

Apologies for the state of this filthy Audi. As regular readers will know, when a car is inducted into these pages it is customary for it to be gleaming, having been washed then nursed to the photoshoot location with not a morsel of grit acquired en route.

Things went differently for our new E-tron GT – a Tango Red example of the Porsche-engineered jewel in the crown of Audi’s rapidly expanding range of electric cars.

The very first day of our time together was christened not with an easy crawl across London to Autocar HQ in TW1, or handover at some fashionably lit dealership. Instead, we had a little foray to Antwerp and back. Bang: 459 miles. The chaser was two rapid-fire visits to Heathrow Long Stay before an even heftier excursion to Edinburgh, totalling 809 miles. (I know the exact mileage because the myAudi app not only tells me charge status but also breaks down daily trips, which is absurdly useful for report writing.)

The car has been so busy that when staff writer Jack Warrick, string-puller for the Autocar fleet, issued me with a surprise copy deadline, we had to head out and photograph our grime-smeared GT on the A3 during a Friday lunch hour. Looks epic, though, doesn’t it?

Now obviously I could have taken an ICE car on those trips to Belgium and Scotland. The TDI Skoda Superb I drove to France last summer – the one that broke my mind a bit when it did, I kid you not, 1112 miles on a tank – would have made mincemeat of the entire itinerary. But this would have been a cop-out. It also would have undermined what I’m hoping to learn during my stint with this very novel, medium-hot Audi.

That’s because this is going to be an inadvertent stress test for the very concept of an all-electric GT. My situation isn’t exactly ideal for running any kind of EV. My flat occupies the upper floors of a building on a busy-ish road without even a solitary, anaemic lamp-post charger.

Something like a 7kW wallbox, which my colleagues Matt Prior and Mark Tisshaw have installed at their homes, requires a driveway and so for me is but a distant dream. I could petition the council to install a cable gulley in the pavement outside but what if the right space isn’t waiting for me?

So charging up – that barest of essentials – will be less convenient for me than it is for, let’s say, 99% of all EV owners. I’ll have to treat this E-tron GT as though it is a conventional ICE car. It will be refuelled via public facility. Added chaos will be derived from the fact that my job requires lots of driving, often to far-flung locations, and without any semblance of routine; 300-mile days are not unusual.

I’m describing a nightmare scenario for any EV, except for one of Elon Musk’s cars, whose range and Supercharger access remain game-changing. So far, the Audi an I have managed only 229 indicated miles on a single charge, versus 301 miles claimed. Reality bites. I hope the onset of summer and warmer temperatures ameliorate this. As for public charging, I already have apps for five providers. Undoubtedly, there will be many more.

In our favour is the fact that I’m genuinely interested in this loping electric GT car, and how exactly the time in its company will pan out. Any cynicism or even ambivalence now would be terminal for our relationship, but that isn’t how we’re going to be starting out. I’m keen.

There’s also the fact that this Audi, as I’ve already discovered, is good company. It’s not perfect – it’s damned wide, yet the parking sensors are so sensitive that we’re already deep into wolf-crying territory – but it moves through the world like a mechanical panther. Quiet, sleek, smooth and, with 472lb ft of hair-trigger torque, superbly rapid if ever you need it.

Disparate elements – cockpit, steering, general aesthetic – are also more convincing than Audi’s current efforts elsewhere. The GT seems less desperate to impress you than, say, an RS7, and this insouciance makes it easy to warm to. Even in searing Tango Red. It really isn’t my colour and I think the car looks more elegant in Ascari Blue, Floret Silver or Kermora Grey (more of a pastel blue). However, the rakish silhouette does at least ensure red isn’t outright jarring.

So what is this thing? We’ll dive more deeply into the Taycan-shared platform later, but the car presents as a 152mph four-door fastback, and a deliciously low-slung one. It has air springs (standard on Vorsprung trim) and a motor on each axle, the rear of which drives through a two-speed ’box. A 93.4kWh battery is under the floor. The whole show weighs 2347kg, which is a hell of a lot, but clearly deftly managed.

At £113k, the asking price is also a hell of a lot. But it seems a bit more palatable when you consider BMW now wants £85k for an M3 Comp and a 911 Carrera S is £110k. It gets easier still to digest when you learn that £113k is for our all-singing Vorsprung model, with its B&O hi-fi, head-up display, rear-steer, matrix headlights, Pro sports seats and acoustic glazing, plus other bits we will get to in due course. A bare-bones E-tron GT costs £85k, which looks fair value for something so obviously bleeding-edge and, for want of a better word, slick.

So I like the cut of the E-tron GT. Would I like it more with 450bhp of inline-five stuffed longitudinally into its sloping nose? Head says yes. As does heart, though not with quite the same conviction as the head. It may be heavy and need copious recharging but you cannot say this car isn’t authentic. In what it represents and its execution, this is the most exciting Audi since the rear-drive R8. Petrol-ising it would, for better or worse (mostly better, it must be said) diminish that.