The Audi e-tron lineup consists of everything from compact utility vehicles to e-tron GT, a dual-motor electric sedan twinned with the Porsche Taycan. Its high-performance specification is the most powerful series-production Audi ever. The car in the featured clip isn’t the RS, but an entry-level model with less power and torque.
Pictured in South Africa, the all-electric sedan produces 350 kW and 630 Nm at full chatter. In other words, 469 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque as long as you give it full throttle. Not impressive by RS 6 Avant standards, the Audi e-tron GT has two aces up its sleeve.
Not only does it make peak torque almost instantly, but as opposed to many other electric vehicles, this one features a two-speed transmission. Why did Audi complicate itself with such a thing? First gear is designed for acceleration, while second gear maximizes efficiency at high speeds.
That second gear also enables a top speed of 245 kilometers per hour (152 miles per hour). The sprint from zero to 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles) takes 4.5 seconds according to Audi, which is impressive for an EV that weighs more than 2,300 kilograms (5,070 pounds).
Priced at 3,359,400 rand or approximately $190,000 at current exchange rates, this e-tron GT is much obliged to race a BMW M240i xDrive in the quarter mile. Lighter, more affordable, less powerful, and not as torquey as the luxury-oriented electric sedan, the compact-sized coupe slots just under the M2 in the 2 Series Coupe’s lineup.
Its name implies that we’re dealing with an M Performance car instead of a full-on M car. Equipped with an eight-speed automatic transmission and xDrive all-wheel drive, the purple-finished Bimmer gets its mojo from a turbocharged inline-six mill referred to as B58.
285 kW and 500 Nm are the peak output figures of the 3.0-liter engine, units that convert to 382 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. If those numbers are familiar to you, that’s because BMW uses this particular tune in 40i models. Toyota also boasts up to 382 horsepower and 369 pound-feet in the Supra, which is twinned with the Z4.
Introduced in 2015, the B58 has many applications as of February 2023. The successor of the N55 engine is often regarded as the modern-day equivalent of the 2JZ because of how easy it is to extract more performance from it without replacing the stock internals with beefier units.
Priced at 1,146,862 rand or $65,000 at current exchange rates, the M240i xDrive sadly doesn’t launch off the starting line as hard as the Audi. By the end of the quarter-mile showdown, the difference grows to half a second.
The zero-emission Audi needed 11.7 seconds to cover 1,320 feet or 402 meters. The BMW settled for second place with a time of 12.2 seconds.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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