Audi e-tron S Sportback quattro
Through reinvention, Audi’s second most powerful EV celebrates more than 40 years of quattro. It’s a party, but we’re not sure who is invited
If, according to BMW marketing speak, the letter M is the most powerful in the automotive lexicon, then Audi’s riposte would surely be that the word quattro is the most all-encompassing. Who can argue with this? Apart from its contemporary fossil-fuel burners, it’s an allwheel-drive designation that’s adorned everything from the company’s famed Group B rally monsters to Le Mans champions … and now, EVS.
And as if that’s not a dizzying enough array of disciplines under this one nameplate, consider the trickery Audi resorted to when it conjured up the S Sportback as the latest arrival to the e-tron family.
It’s been a process undertaken modularly and, by extension, very efficiently. Through a game of inter-model Tetris, Audi has taken the 124 kw electric motor that usually resides on the rear axle of lesser e-tron 55s and mounted it in the front of the e-tron S
Sportback. Then, each of the 55’s pair of front electric motors (totalling 196 kw) was placed at the Sportback S’ rear corners on opposite ends of a transmission-integrating transaxle, making it the first passenger EV to feature two motors on the rear axle.
Under everyday driving conditions, the front motor is inactive, remaining on standby until a spike of power is fed or traction demanded. At the rear, electronic torque vectoring and fully variable torque distribution take the place of a conventional differential (up to 220 N.m can be instantaneously sent to the outside wheel during cornering), enabling yaw-assisting and equally ludicrously un-audi-like (and most definitely un-gretha Thunberg-like) slides.
In non-ludicrous mode, the e-tron S produces 320 kw and 808 N.m from its 95 kwh battery (identical in capacity to that in
the 55, but consuming 91% of total capacity against 88% for the non-s e-tron), and rockets to 370 kw and 973 N.m using what Audi calls Boost mode, though only for eight seconds at a time. That said, Boost mode is not entirely beast mode. Despite the quasi-quaddigit torque figure, the tested zero to 100 km/h sprint time of 4,5 seconds can be considered respectable, though not entirely gob-smacking.
Blame the Sportback S’s heft. It crushes the scale at 2,6 tonnes, to which the 2,2 x 1,63 m battery contributes a whopping 700 kg.
Away from test tracks and laboratory conditions, what does the e-tron Sportback S drive like?
The sumptuousness of the quilted leather seats, illuminated safety-belt receptacles and a fatrimmed steering wheel provide the first signs of a premium welcoming (the R2,45 million price tag does, too). The steering-wheelmounted and Golf-style plastic switchgear and “shift paddles”? Less so. The enormous touchscreen provides haptic feedback and the gear selector – grandiose enough in visual drama to launch an Airbus A380 – is fixed, but sports a metal shoulder button the driver slides with a thumb in the desired direction of travel.
From there, the e-tron S sets off in eerie silence. Only a low rumble coming from the 22-inch Hankooks is discernable, along with the heightened ambience of surrounding traffic. In such moments, cabin comfort becomes more apparent and you begin to appreciate the efficacy of the air suspension, taking into account the thin wrappings of rubber on which the Sportback rides.
By its very nature, the car’s control systems induce a digital layer, a feeling of indirectness that characterises the driving experience; both braking and acceleration are actuated by wire, and the variable steering is light at crawl speeds, but becomes more weighted on the highway. It’s an EV, after all.
There’s a slight, but inoffensive racecar-transmission-like whine every time the electric motors
receive a reprieve from torque demand. According to Audi, below 0,3 G of deceleration, motors (the rear ones, mainly) are responsible for all retardation. Across three steps, each tug of the left-hand shift paddle will engage a more aggressive regenerative-braking mode, the final step of which allows for true one-pedal driving. Sadly, this whole paddle-pulling sequence has to be repeated after every time the Sportback has been brought to a standstill.
As mentioned, despite the availability of instantaneous torque, the Audi’s accelerative ability is somewhat blighted by its bulk. That said, on-demand power at the apex means the front motor reports for duty to neutralise a wayward tail. In 1980, it was impressive to see the quattro debuting, sending power to all four wheels. Forty-two years later, the sensation’s the same, but the application is different.
Charging at rapid DC charging stations will net you about 80% battery capacity in half an hour. AC charging can be done at home, at a snail’s pace of up to 11 kw. Our e-tron S Sportback was also fitted with an optional 22 kw onboard AC charger.
It took 64 minutes to replenish the battery with 47,03 kwh at a 400 V rapid-charge shopping-mall bay, after which the trip computer promised us 314 km of range. A scroll through the meter memory revealed a long-term average consumptive figure of 31,7 kwh at 34 km/h over 1 303 km.
Predictably, the estimated range was never met, without exception dropping more per trip than the distance covered subtracted from the distance remaining. This was further undone by the use of the air conditioner (about one-third of capacity) and unsurprisingly, a heavy right foot. Audi’s claimed WLTP range of 347–378 km may involve wishful thinking.
TEST SUMMARY
We’d be remiss not to mention our first test period of the e-tron S Sportback ended prematurely following a terminal electric fault. The Audi departed on a flatbed truck and was out of commission for several months as replacement parts shipped from Germany. Once returned, though, it ran faultlessly.
Snags, range anxiety and the sparseness of our country’s charging infrastructure aside (Europe has 140 000 charging stations in 24 countries; South Africa has just 250), is the e-tron S Sportback enough of a game changer to move the EV segment beyond the common purpose as a showcase for alternate propulsion?
Fancy footwork says yes, head says no. Ignoring the well-to-wheel argument that sinks the case for every EV, in a country like South Africa where almost all of our electricity is generated from polluting fossil fuels, R2,5 million is a fatuous (and very expensive) way of showing off your quoteunquote green credentials.
From that point of view, it’s essentially guaranteed the Audi will be bought as a second or third car and shown off as an oddity rather than an essential, in all likelihood by people who made their fortune in the first place through extractive activity that either directly or indirectly destroyed the environment.
However, if we can forget about the vagaries of eco-politics and virtue signalling for just a moment, the breadth of the Audi’s talents as a sometimes-sensible, sometimes-sideways coach-slashcruise missile is the singularly superior feature that makes it a more interesting proposition than a BMW ix or Jaguar I-pace.
1980’s pioneering Ur-quattro has been made proud once again. All hail the e-quattro.