The state of performance electric cars looks brighter than ever. With such examples as the SLS AMG E-Drive, Porsche Taycan, and Rimac C2, it’s no longer a question if horsepower will have to suffer as a result of becoming eco-friendlier.
With Europe’s best automotive makers building the next generation of supercars, Audi has since thrown its hat into the ring with the 2022 Audi RS e-tron GT. However, the newest addition to the RS family isn’t just another 600-hp coupe with an interior resembling that of a spaceship cockpit. True to Audi’s minimalist ethos, the 2022 RS e-tron GT largely resembles your quintessential RS performance vehicle.
Other than its lack of a combustion engine, everything from the styling, technology, and range of analog features, is true to form of what to expect in an Audi. These are some of the best features about the 2022 Audi RS e-tron GT.
Its Styling And Design
At first glance you may find the RS e-tron GT looks familiar, but you just can’t quite figure it out. But upon realizing under the large umbrella of the Volkswagen Auto Group is Stuttgart’s own, Porsche, it begins to click.
Sharing many of the same components, and a large amount of the platform in general, the RS e-tron GT and Porsche Taycan are more closely related than one would imagine. Especially when considering Audi’s RS division is one of Porsche’s biggest competitors. But to VAG, all it means is twice the amount of cash to count.
Unlike the Taycan, the RS e-tron GT has opted for a more refined look. One that more closely aligns with the rest of its RS line. Usual design cues like flared arches, massive wheels, and a sleek, knife-like side profile are prevalent, and only help the RS’ case that it is one of the bet looking performance EVs available.
The Simplicty Of The Audi RS e-tron GT's Interior
For some strange reason, automakers have decided that electric vehicles are so futuristic, the interior has to be something out of a NASA space shuttle. Just ask the Mercedes-Benz EQS. Largely white, boring, and lacking buttons, the general EV interior is devoid of all character.
Audi certainly has taken note and in an effort to keep their customers comfortable with such a bold decision like ditching the combustion engine, they have made sure to keep its interior reminiscent of their other RS vehicles. It even has buttons! Sweet, tangible, analog buttons that control traction control, drive mode, and hazard lights, among a couple other parking assistance buttons.
From its red accented, Dinamica leatherette, to its Alcantara wrapped steering wheel, the RS e-tron GT makes its driver acutely aware that it is a part of the Audi RS legacy, with no asterisks necessary.
The Virtual Cockpit Gauge Cluster
Debuting eight years ago in the 2014 TT, Audi’s virtual cockpit experience has come a long way from its glitch-infested infancy. Displayed through a 12.3” TFT screen, it can range up to the HD resolution of 1,920 x 720 pixels. The updates and refresh to the interface allows the cluster gauge feel like the e-tron’s most advanced technology, although it's knocking on the door of being a decade old.
Allowing the operator to control every aspect of what they see, and how large it can dominate the cluster gauge based on personal preferences, the virtual cockpit is considered to be one of the best examples of cluster gauge technology on the market today.
Reserved for Audi’s top-of-the-line vehicles, the customization allows the user to toggle through performance pages, audio information, GPS navigation, and plenty more with extreme clarity, thanks to its high-definition resolution. As mentioned previously, the size of these dials and information can be adjusted through Audi’s multifunction steering wheel. With two preset views, driving mode and infotaiment mode, the user can quickly navigate the exact information they need based on driving conditions. Whether it's focusing on MPH and RPMs, or making way for a centered screen to display directions, call information, and radio information.
Regardless of its exorbitant, $142,000 price tag, the Audi RS e-tron GT allows those resistant to trading in their ICE vehicles for EV platforms to feel a little more at ease as the general public tries to shift away from fossil fuels.
Its perfect blend of performance and modern day technology (without giving the holier-than-thou experience electric vehicles seem to operate with), is the ideal example that gear heads can still achieve absurd amounts of power, loads of practicality, and all the amenities they desire with the coming generation of electric vehicles. Now if we could do something about the Jetson-sounding exhaust.