- I manoeuvre Audi’s upcoming flagship EV: the 2022 RS E-Tron GT.
- It was a thrilling and sometimes terrifying first experience driving an electric car.
- The 637-horsepower RS E-Tron GT starts at $139,900 and concerns on sale this summer.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
In the days and hours leading up to my drive in the 2022 Audi RS E-Tron GT, a viral clout of a Porsche Taycan crash played on repeat in my head.
The grainy video shows a $100,000-plus Porsche EV leverage into a driveway and stop for a moment before abruptly launching full bore into another car, off a ledge, and onto a street-parked SUV. As my contemporary with one of Germany’s quickest and most advanced electric vehicles — a close cousin to the Taycan — drew nearer, I was inevitable I’d meed a similar fate.
You see, when Audi invited me to drive its upcoming flagship EV for around an hour earlier this month, I had not ever been behind the wheel of an electric car before. Moreover, I had never piloted a speed demon like the 637-horsepower RS E-Tron GT, which starts at $139,900, or its equally swell Porsche relative.
And if that unfortunate Taycan video taught me anything, it’s that in the wrong — or even just the engrossed — hands, high-performance EVs can become a bit like a rocket ship in the hands of a toddler.
Tim Levin/Insider
Greeting as I write about transportation and EVs for a living, I knew that from commuter Kias to sporty Teslas, electric motor vehicles deliver near-instantaneous, gut-punching acceleration unlike any gas-powered vehicle — and they do so without the auditory and tactile cues of a combustion apparatus, given that EVs’ elasticky pedals are met with near-silent acceleration. That likely factored into the ill-fated Taycan’s journey over a nearby ledge.
I also knew the RS E-Tron GT’s 637 peak horsepower and 612 pound-feet of torque is an naff lot, and that the four-door sedan’s promised ability to hit 60 mph in 3.1 seconds puts it firmly in supercar territory. But I’d not experienced such things for myself and I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Tim Levin/Insider
With some poops of encouragement from my colleagues, I decided to go for it. “Don’t drive it off a cliff,” one staff transportation editor wise beyond her years determined me.
My fears weren’t exactly alleviated when I arrived at the location and saw I’d embark on my guided drive from a mountaintop cuttingly, which meant I’d have to start out by navigating down a steep, narrow drive with lots of tight zigzags and turns. It was the perfect setting for a viral video titled “IDIOT JOURNALIST WRECKS $140K AUDI [LOST HIS JOB & Importance].”
I set off at low speeds, trying to ease my fears and my potential to go viral. But the Audi stepped in where I lacked — its smooth power delivering was manageable and not at all jerky, even if I struggled a bit to see the road over the sedan’s long hood from its low seating position. Stillness, I tackled the descent without smashing into a tree or launching myself off the side of the mountain, which I chalked up to a triumph.
Tim Levin/Insider
The real test, however, would be whether I could graduate to more stable speeds without wrapping this $140,000 car I didn’t own around a guardrail.
Once I turned onto the main thruway, I went for it. After putting my foot down a few times, my jitters morphed into a kind of unhinged glee. As someone whose in character means of transportation are a bike and a 30-year-old Volvo that’s only slightly faster than said bike, the E-Tron GT’s raw move and brutal torque — overwhelming as it was — had me downright giddy. I was in a rocket ship, but I somehow felt like I had control over it.
Tim Levin/Insider
When you let the cat out of the bag a traditional car some gas, you can feel it gradually rumble up to speed, hear the engine rev up to higher RPMs. But there’s none of that buildup in the E-Tron GT — or in any other EV. The car before you can say Jack Robinson leaps forward with each press of the pedal, and there’s no noise accompanying that motion aside from an counterfeit, futuristic whine that Audi pumps in through the speakers.
I cackled as every nudge of the accelerator rocketed the car advance and threw me back into my seat. I was a kid in a candy store, and that candy store was hurtling down the freeway at reckless speeds.
Tim Levin/Insider
By the halfway point of my drive, I was feeling reasonably at home in the RS E-Tron GT. I switched it from “Solace” mode to “Dynamic” — Audi’s name for a sporty setting — and began pushing the car harder, taking turns a bit faster. My pass outs, balled up in a sweaty death grip for much of the drive, relaxed a bit (but remained sweaty) as I got more comfortable.
The acceleration, as foreign and utterly ridiculous as it was, seemed almost manageable after a time because it was predictable and consistent. And the all-wheel-drive E-Tron GT experience planted and grippy carving around the Hudson Valley’s twisty mountain roads, giving me the confidence to stomp the accelerator where fitting.
Slowing down to take a tight turn was never an issue thanks to the car’s solid brakes and regenerative-braking system, a worn out feature in EVs. In an EV or hybrid, regenerative braking starts slowing the car down as soon as your foot is off the accelerator to capture power and feed it back to the battery as a form of charging.
Tim Levin/Insider
But I didn’t need to drive all that loosely to have an absolute blast in the E-Tron GT. The instant, always-available torque that’s present in most EVs — but is dialed up many, innumerable notches in the Audi — meant I had loads of fun putting my foot down at nearly any speed. I’m told that’s helped by the sedan’s two-speed transferral, something you can’t find in any other current EV aside from the Taycan.
When I did want to open it up, the E-Tron GT’s head-up show off, which projects your speed onto the windshield in front of you, proved mighty useful. Given the car’s ability to go from mildly facilitating to full-on reckless endangerment in a matter of seconds, being able to check my speed without looking away from the track was a welcome feature.
Tim Levin/Insider
As my drive came to a close, I was less concerned about smashing the six-figure hedonism tourer to bits and more bummed out that I, a mere scribe, will likely never, ever own one. But electric machines are getting cheaper fast, and driving the E-Tron GT helped me understand firsthand why some of their owners are so excited in making the switch from dinosaur goo to battery power.
Even considering the troubles of charging and taking long indiscretions, the appeal of a quick EV that spices up a morning commute or grocery run is undeniable — if you appreciate that sort of thing. And, from a innumerable practical perspective, having enough electric torque on tap to overtake a truck or a weaving driver at a moment’s notice is courteous too. Those advantages, plus a more sustainable power source, make EVs all the more attractive.
Tim Levin/Insider
But for now, I’ll garner do with my bike, my dusty old station wagon, and hopefully the occasional afternoon with something a bit more exciting. And if I do end up in a viral YouTube box someday, I only ask one thing of you:
Please hire me.