A tasty car for vegans
YOU don’t have to be a superhero to drive Audi’s new sporty all-electric e-tron GT grand tourer. But with prices from £79,900 to nearly double that for the top version, a super bank balance may help. Such a sum will imbue certain automotive superpowers, including acceleration from rest to 62 mph in a supercar time of 3.3 seconds, 155 mph top speed, and a range of up to 296 miles. And with zero emissions, you’re arguably already doing your bit to help save the planet.
Even vegetarians and vegans can enjoy its leather-free interior options created from 119 recycled plastic bottles and textiles.
Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr. drove an early prototype in the Marvel film Avengers Endgame in which he plays billionaire industrialist Tony Stark, secretly the flying Iron Man, and also drove himself to the premiere in one.
Actor Tom Hardy, tipped as a possible next James Bond, fashion designer Stella McCartney
and U.S. singer-songwriter Janelle Monae helped launch it globally online this week.
McCartney said that she used in her own clothing designs, the same animal-free fabrics used in the car: ‘Sustainability and high fashion make perfect sense when they work together.’
The car will be in showrooms in spring in two key versions: the standard e-tron GT quattro from £79,900 to £106,000 and the more powerful racing-inspired Audi
RS from £110,950, but rising to £133,105.
There are night vision and laser lights, and style nods to the grand tourers and muscle cars of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. It is built in a small, environmentally friendly factory at Böllinger Höfe, south-west Germany.
In the UK, the GT quattro will ride as standard on 20 in wheels, the RS on 21in wheels to give it added presence.
Propulsion for the all-wheel drive or ‘quattro’ GT is from two electric motors — one on the front axle and a second, more powerful, one on the rear axle.
In normal mode that will give the RS a total combined 598hp (440 kW) and the GT quattro 476 hp (350 kW).
It charges overnight on an 11 kW AC charger as standard. A five-minute charge will get you 62 miles. A fully charged GT has a range of 296 miles, with the RS managing 283 miles.