Exquisite in appearance the Audi e-tron offers both a pretty face and muscle.
Getting around silently is a treat and performance is in the super car league with typically superb quattro roadholding overtaking acceleration. My range was about 360km, which is less than most competitors, but is practical enough. Powered by three electric motors is uncommon and the front motor only kicks in when you need more power or grip. Having almost 1000Nm of torque and 380w is divine and guarantees a grin factor when driving. Recharging at one of the Grid charging points at shopping centres takes about an hour if you arrived with about 70km of range, so doing some quick shopping or having some sushi works well. Most shopping centres offers this as a free service which I thought was amazing. I visited Grid’s head office and got a quick tutorial about the surprising speed at which more charging stations are added and virtually all of them are solar powered, so the 260 strategically located stations keeps improving the practicality of owning an EV. Home charging works well, and I never experienced the kind of range anxiety from a few years ago with a Nissan Leaf that had only a 100 km range. The premium interior is almost as beautiful as the Jaguar I-Pace. A massive touchscreen has haptic feedback and easy to operate. Pricing is steep at R2 450 000 due to the absurd 25% “greed tax”.
www.audi.co.za
