Would you spend over €100k on an electric car? Up to now most of the electric cars on offer in Ireland have looked fairly spartan, but Audi has brought us something different with their e-tron GT, a ‘halo car’ for the brand as it’s fully electric.
Up to now buying electric cars has been, different. If you were happy with an old reliable like a Ford Focus or Toyota Avensis, you couldn’t go out and buy an electric equivalent.
The electric Tesla is expensive and looks like a car for the race track and while most of the mainstream car manufacturers now have electric models, the cars available are not similar to their brand’s popular petrol or diesel equivalents.
Normally electric cars are very quiet, but if you hit the ‘Dynamic’ button on the dash you will get a touch of a ‘hum’ which might alert pedestrians that a car is nearby. Only one battery, a 93kWh is available and that will is used in the GT and the more expensive RS model.
The first question from any motoring fans that I meet in petrol stations or supermarket car parks is related to the price of the car I am driving and now that I have more electric cars, people want to know what the range is.
We are told the e-tron GT will get you approximately 480km on a full charge. Audi say you can get an 80% charge from one of the Ionity chargers in 22 minutes. Thankfully more of the fast-charging Ionity charge points are being installed around the country.
Externally it’s a very sleek looking car and the only clue that the e-tron GT is electric is that there is no front grille. There are two discreet charge points over the front bumpers.
Inside it’s just like a regular Audi and I suppose that’s the beauty of this electric version from the company with the four rings log. They have managed to gain extra leg room for back seat passengers due to shape of the battery underneath the floor.
Naturally the battery takes up a fair bit of space in the boot, but not too much. Under the bonnet there is an unusual space to hold the bag for the charge leads, which looks like a very large lap-top bag.
If you want to put the bag with the leads into the boot or in the back seat, then the space under the bonnet, which some people call the ‘frunk’ could be used to carry various items in what is a very secure location.
The car weighs 2.2 tonne, but it’s fast and you can get from zero to 100km/h in just over four seconds. I know from driving previous electric cars that driving like that is not good for your ‘range anxiety.’ It’s really a relaxing car to drive.
Richard Molloy, Head of Marketing with Audi Ireland says they are very excited with the new car and he expects that it will be a ‘game-changer’ for the brand.
The Audi e-tron GT shares certain elements with the electric Porsche Taycan when it comes to the platform for the cars.
Now the bad news and yes it’s true, prices for the Audi e-tron GT start at €102,379 and if you want the most powerful RS version it will cost you €140k. But as 70% of new cars are bought on PCP, many buyers may not worry about the actual cost price.
