Styling
The e-tron GT has been around in one form or another since 2021 as a production car, and 2020 if you count its prototype appearances. Nothing visually has changed with the updates, yet this is still a machine that oozes presence. The quattro has a small 'e-tron GT' logo on the left-hand side of its bootlid, whereas this would be on the right of the S and RS cars, with those letters (as appropriate to each model) instead occupying the left, but otherwise the 585hp car looks just as imposing as its more potent stablemates. Our tester was in Floret Silver (£950) and sitting on its standard 20s, but despite being four years old its large, wide, long and low form still commands a healthy amount of respect among other road users. Rightly so.
Interior
Some people (e.g.: youths) might get into the 2025 e-tron GT quattro and say its passenger compartment is terribly dated and old-hat (they wouldn't use those terms, though, not the kids of today). Others, including us, would say this is the apogee of Audi's varied cabin layouts. The material quality and ergonomic layout are both spot-on, with physical controls for the climate system, plus useful and sensible switchgear for pretty much anything else. The only minor smudge on its copybook are the haptic steering-wheel buttons, but this vehicle's eye-catching and configurable Virtual Cockpit plus classy MMI infotainment screen show precisely how interior engineers ought to be doing this sort of human-machine-interface stuff. And it completely shows up the far newer Digital Stage found in some of Audi's
latest products as the needlessly clunky and graphically lacklustre set-up that it is.
Practicality
There are five seats, complete with a central three-point belt in the middle of back bench, in the e-tron GT quattro, and there's plenty of room in both rows of the car as well, so it feels as luxurious and spacious as you'd demand of a vehicle at this rarified level of the market. Admittedly, the centre-rear seat is a little less commodious than the two either side of it, so perhaps figure on four peeps max, but otherwise it's a glowing report for the Audi here. This, despite the fact the boot is only a modest 405 litres (and the e-tron GT is a 'proper' saloon, not a fastback pretending to be a four-door, either). Oh, and also, there's pointy bit that sticks out from the side of the dashboard when you've got the front doors open, on which you can clonk an unwary knee in painful fashion if you try and jump into the quattro without the due amount of care and attention.
Performance
The
old RS e-tron GT flagship model had 598hp nominally, and delivered 646hp on a time-limited basis for launch control purposes if you asked it to. So when we call this new e-tron GT quattro the 'baby' model, you must remember all things are relative. Because this monster kicks out 503hp in regular trim, rising to a near-old-RS-rivalling 585hp when it's in boost mode.
The results are that a car weighing more than 2.3 tonnes can still run 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds and go on to more than 150mph, where legal and appropriate. And, frankly, we don't want to be killjoys, but that really, truthfully, genuinely is all the on-road performance you could possibly or reasonably want, and then some. This quattro is quick. It can still force heads back into seat restraints if you step smartly off the line, the midrange is utterly thumping, and its acceleration doesn't tail off noticeably once you're already at motorway-cruising speeds. Both throttle and brake pedals are judged to perfection, and while there's a low, booming noise emanating from the Audi at low speeds, once it's rolling it delivers that uncanny big-power EV experience of seemingly whisking you from one place to another in very short order and with remarkably little drama.
If there's a criticism of the performance, it's that you'll struggle to breach 3 miles/kWh from this dual-motor e-tron GT, no matter how you drive it. We only managed to see that a few times on the short-term trip computer in the Audi's cluster, while its overall figure from 238 miles of mixed-roads testing was 2.7 miles/kWh. At that sort of electrical consumption, your real-world range would taper off to something more like 262 miles, rather than pushing 400 as the manufacturer claims (383 miles, to be exact). In its defence, at least charging in the e-tron GT quattro is almost as rapid as its straight-line speed: it'll run to 320kW DC maximum, while on an InstaVolt charger with us it added 142 miles of driving range in just 20 minutes (at a cost of £34.06). Not bad at all (the speed, that is, not the exorbitant price of DC charging...).
Ride & Handling
With air suspension and a great balance of its (admittedly sizeable) weight, the e-tron GT is a lovely thing to drive. It trades off ride comfort and rolling refinement with impressive body control to a high standard, while the steering is also worth a shout - it's some of Audi's best work, in a department where this company has often fallen down before. Yep, in all honesty, we've not got a lot to add here. It doesn't matter whether you're creeping about town in heavy traffic, rolling along a country back-road at middling speeds, cruising along A-roads or dual-carriageways keeping up with faster traffic flow, or pounding the e-tron GT down motorways, it's always a pleasure to be at the wheel of this grand Audi EV. It's a beautiful, beautiful machine to command.
Value
This is the only e-tron GT you can get into for five figures from new, as long as you avoid the Vorsprung spec (£109,005). The quattro kicks off at £89,505, when the 679hp, 378-mile S e-tron GT begins at £108,775, the 879hp, 368-mile RS e-tron GT is at least £127,375, and the 925hp, 362-mile RS e-tron GT performance will command a minimum of £143,875. As you can see, the quoted range dips marginally from model to model, as the power ramps up immensely, but we'd reiterate that no one is going to get into the 585hp quattro and ever call it 'slow'; if they do, they might be bonkers. Our tester came in at less than £94,000 and while we're not about to term that as a bargain, it nevertheless felt good value for something as all-round talented as this thing.
Verdict
Having worried a little about some of Audi's latest products, which don't quite feel as polished and effortlessly effective as we know this manufacturer is capable of, the e-tron GT quattro is a refreshing return to form for Ingolstadt. Sure, it's still the thick end of £100,000, even in 'basic' specification, and we have some reservations over the real-world electrical efficiency. But in all other regards, this is one of the most compelling luxury EVs on the market right now. By all means, buy the RS e-tron GT performance if you absolutely must - but know that the really savvy money is probably going to this superb quattro at the other end of the range.
