Sliding across a salt pan, I wonder what the lions that patrol this patch of the Namibian desert would think if they came across this herd. The seven all-electric Audi E-tron SUVs—test prototypes still clad in a zebra-like camouflage, despite the car’s recent full reveal—silently kicking up a looming wall of dust that rolls across the flats.
Working the throttle delivers smooth, precise waves of torque from the E-tron’s two motors, one on each axle. I slide easily into a drift, stabbing the throttle and flicking the wheel to start the move, then hang in it for a few seconds, correcting with only an occasional throttle modulation. I feel more like I’m playing a musical instrument than driving an SUV, so harmonious is the link between brain, foot, motors, tires, and salt.
Electric motors have proven themselves the Swiss Army Knives of the automotive world, able to pinch in for efficiency, lay down gobs of torque at stoplights, and boost handling via their immediate distribution of power in multi-motor, all-wheel-drive configurations. Now that Audi has finally joined the electric party with the all-new E-tron, it used this performance on the salt in Namibia—an analog for the low-friction challenges of sand and snow—to demonstrate the granular control such systems can provide.
Commanding the SUV through sweeping turns, I start to wonder if any safari hats come with the flat brims that drift bros love so much.
Audi’s joining in a wave of electric vehicles showcasing the opportunities that come with ditching the internal combustion engine. Tesla proved you could manage massive power safely and with startling acceleration capabilities. Jaguar’s I-Pace crossover deftly handles the high-speed dynamics of the race track lap after lap. Now the $74,800 E-tron demonstrates that digitally controlled all-wheel drive systems, much more than their mechanical counterparts, can shoot power back and forth between the wheels with such precision that it’s become the only electric SUV we’re aware of that allows drivers to completely disable electronic stability control.
Achieving that sort of performance and reliability, according to chassis development engineer Stefan Lehner, required a degree of internal collaboration that’s rare even with today’s deeply integrated systems. “It used to be that the all-wheel-drive system would be developed without a lot of input from, say the engine development team,” he says. “But this new electric system is dependent on the battery’s ability to supply power quickly, so we work with that team. The motors’ vibration damping affects the AWD performance, and their responsiveness has to replace the mechanical clutches we typically use to control power delivery to the wheels, so that side comes into play.”
So to make a new kind of Quattro—an all-electric version of the systems that for decades have won Audi accolades on the street and trophies on the track—that generates excitement when you want it and safe control when you need it, Audi developed an entirely new system architecture called the “electronic chassis platform.” For the first time in the company, engineers bundled the driving dynamics controller with the all-wheel-drive controller and the wheel-selective torque control, creating faster and more unified responses under hard driving. They also shifted the computing of the ESC system to the faster processors in the motor-control units, enabling that system to keep pace with the motors.
“With electric vehicles, if the controller is slower than what the motor can manage, you’re going to have wheel slip and still some instability,” says Michael Wein, project manager for the electric Quattro system developed for E-Tron. “But by integrating traction and motor speed controllers, it will calculate the optimal speed and torque you need, and deliver it immediately.”
In Namibia, I got to see how all that engineering speak translates into action, in the form of seemingly simultaneous input and response across a wide range of dynamic challenges—a slalom simulation, a high-speed straight, and some sweeping, fast arcs.
During multiple passes around this track carved into the salt bed, with the stability control engaged, the all-wheel-drive system briskly distributed torque to the wheels, keeping the car firmly planted and, thanks to shifting the balance of power to the front axle as necessary, safely nose-forward with minimal wheel adjustment. It was certainly an eerie experience to do this in near-total silence, with only the sound of tires ripping across the surface to give us away. (Note: We also found out later that an electric SUV is possibly the most perfect safari vehicle, seemingly incapable of startling even the twitchiest giraffes.)
That power, by the way, comes from a pair of asynchronous motors, a 125 kW unit at the front axle and a slightly larger 140 kW rear motor, generating a natural 45/55 rear-bias. Total system power is up to 402 horsepower and 490 lb-ft of torque, good for a 0-60 time of 5.5 seconds for the 4,500-pound machine.
Given that 1,500 pounds of that weight is the low-mounted battery, the center of gravity is also excellent, contributing to the car’s inherent stability. That certainly helped retain some sanity once I switched off the ESC on the track, but the clever design of the Quattro system also made it easy to break the back end loose without getting into trouble. This is where the high-speed of the electrical system handily beats its mechanical counterparts. The system can detect and respond to a torque demand in just 30 milliseconds, far faster than a mechanical system, thanks to both the absence of a clutch and the light-speed redistribution of electrical power to the wheels that need it. That generated the more fluid and responsive pedal feel as I steered through the turns using my feet more than my hands.
A key part of the system’s performance resides in its ability to keep cool. The system regulates the temperature of the motors along with their rotors, the electronics, and the charger in a continuous, 131-foot-long loop, with the coolant flowing inside the shafts through the motor—a strategy unique to Audi—and to a heat pump that can recapture the warmth to keep the cabin toasty. This keeps the 13,300 RPM motor below 356 degrees, ultimately giving the system a key quality essential to consumer vehicles: repeatability.
“We had an early system that didn’t have this cooling technology,” Wein says. “During tests at the Nürburgring, we couldn’t finish two laps.” The challenging, 13-mile-long track in Germany would tax the system and see steadily reduced power. With the system, it proved easily manageable. That also means that the car’s 8-second boost mode, which generates a 13 percent horsepower bump and an 18 percent torque increase, can be used over and over again.
Audi also provided modest demonstrations of the car’s off-road skills on the Namibian sand dunes. The car’s air suspension can vary the ride height up to 3 inches, and in extreme cases of wheels lifting completely off the ground across steep and pitted surfaces, the electric AWD system readily maintained forward momentum. The regenerative braking system is also novel and notably efficient, combining conventional disc braking and motor-based regenerative braking to optimize the amount of electricity it can feed back into the system. It’s electrohydraulically controlled, a brake-by-wire system with no physical link between the pedal and the brake system except in the case of a redundant backup. That can be engaged should something fail with the primary brake system, but Audi claims that has yet to happen in any of its global testing periods, covering hundreds of thousands of miles.
We have a great deal left to learn about the E-tron, including how it drives on the road and how its electric range holds up during the kind of driving most customers will use it for. That will arrive with full testing in early December. Meanwhile, drifting effortlessly across a wide-open salt pan at full throttle is a pretty convincing way to start—even if it does confuse a lion or two.
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