Audi E-tron S review (2021) Car News

The electric car takes a long time to win over a large car-buying public that remains as skeptical of it in some circles as it is evangelical in others – but as the technology develops, it advances.

We now see them as efficient and reasonably priced full-size family cars; as desirable city cars and compact crossovers; and as luxury sedans. And while many have been performance cars for a few years now, we’re also now starting to see some compelling examples of the EV as a driver’s car.

This week’s test subject is definitely defined as such. With the E-tron S quattro, Audi uses its fast car model identifier “S” on an electric vehicle for the first time. Almost 30 years ago, Ingolstadt first used ‘S’ as a special model prefix, on the 100-based S4. It has since been adopted, in prolific quantities, by performance four-wheel-drive versions of cars as different as the A1 supermini, the TT coupe and the Q7 SUV.

This Audi ‘S express’, however, has enough torque to put even the mighty RS Q8 in the shade – and it also uses electric motors in a different way than any electric car of this type. Completely independent and asymmetric, the torque vectoring by cornering has long been promising to be the asset that electric cars could use to convince avid drivers that electric powertrain could be for them.

Technical specifications

Tested model: E-tron S Quattro

Price: £ 87,675

Tested price: £ 96,145

Electric motor (s): Three electric motors (one at the front, two at the rear), transverse Asynchronous

Drive battery: 95 kWh (nominal)

Model tested

E-tron S Quattro

See all specs and rivals

electric motors

Three electric motors (one front, two rear), transverse Asynchronous

Drive battery

95kWh (nominal)

Battery size

86kWh (usable)

Energetic efficiency

2.18-2.38mpkWh

Battery size

86kWh (usable)

Energetic efficiency

2.18-2.38mpkWh

Until now, this was a card that the relatively affordable mass-produced electric car had yet to play, only appearing on super-exotic battery options like the Rimac Concept One, Mercedes-AMG SLS Electric Drive and the next Lotus Evija.