Audi has introduced the E-Tron GT concept at the 2018 Los Angeles auto show. It’s not a simple design study, though. Pre-production has already started and the concept will spawn the first electric Audi Sport model in 2020. It promises 590 horsepower from two electric motors for high-speed cruising.
We’ve often heard rumors of a battery-electric Audi Sport model; this is it.
The Audi E-Tron GT concept made its public debut at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show, but Digital Trends traveled to the firm’s home town of Ingolstadt, Germany, several weeks before the event to get a behind-the-scenes look at the design study, and to gain insight on what it means for Audi Sport’s future.
“We have never done a show car as close to series production as this,” Enzo Rothfuss, Audi’s head of interior design, told us with an unconcealable smile. Marc Lichte, the brand’s charismatic design boss, echoed his comments. That means what you see displayed under the bright lights at the annual Los Angeles show is what you’ll get in showrooms in almost exactly two years’ time.
When it comes to electric cars, luxury automakers are putting an unprecedented focus on the SUV segment. It’s not a coincidence that Audi’s first series-produced EV, the E-Tron, will arrive as a people-mover rather than as a sexy coupe or a low-slung sedan. It’s the body style that solves many of the packaging problems engineers encounter while trying to install a bulky battery pack in a car, and it’s in hot demand in key markets around the world like the United States and China. That doesn’t mean the sedan as we know it will go the way of the VCR.
“There are some people who want to have low cars,” Lichte pointed out. “Doing a low, sporty car with a big battery pack is a big challenge. There are not so many people who can do it,” he added. Audi chose to join forces with sister company Porsche instead of developing the car from scratch. The E-Tron GT is closely related to the upcoming Porsche Taycan under the sheet metal. The two sedans share a basic platform, a 96-kWh lithium-ion battery pack, two electric motors, and numerous chassis components. Everything else is Audi-specific. Members of the development team regularly chat with their colleagues at Porsche to ensure the two cars don’t overlap.
From a design standpoint, the E-Tron GT blazes the path that Audi’s other high-performance electric cars will follow with honeycomb-shaped inserts in the grille and a full air diffuser integrated into the rear bumper.
