Styling
The e-tron GT has been a striking car since its 2021 launch and incredibly light aesthetic airbrushing for the facelift hardly changes that fact. The e-tron GT sits on the same J1 platform as the
Porsche Taycan, so it's a gigantic beast - almost five metres long and nearly 2.2 across the beam, including mirrors. For what it's worth, the imposing form of the facelifted Audi was treated to a new Singleframe 'grille' design at the front, revised bumpers and rear diffuser, and tweaked light clusters, but in top-ranking Carbon Vorsprung trim and clothed in glorious Bedford Green (£1,650) paint, the RS e-tron GT performance still packs masses of kerb appeal.
Interior
As outside, so within, as not much has changed with the updated RS e-tron GT, but then not much needed to. This is one of the last of the pre-
Digital Stage Audis, and frankly we prefer this interface to the newer stuff. You get a high-tech and graphically elegant touchscreen display, but you also enjoy proper switches for the climate control, plus one of the best applications of the Audi Virtual Cockpit digital instrument cluster the manufacturer has made yet. It all works so intuitively and with a deeply satisfying tactility, and material quality is also exceptional throughout the RS e-tron GT performance's passenger compartment.
Practicality
Despite its sheer size, the Audi RS e-tron GT performance is a four-seater, as the two outer rear chairs are heavily sculpted buckets, leaving the centre pew significantly undernourished; also, there's a pronounced central hump in the floorwell. Further, taller folk won't want to sit in the back of the e-tron for too long, as the roofline does limit headroom in the second row, but generally it should be a mighty comfortable conveyance for a quartet of average-sized folk. The main cargo bay also only measures 350 litres as the Audi, like the related Taycan, is a proper saloon with a small bootlid, rather than one of those surreptitious fastbacks. At least there's 81 litres' worth of under-bonnet storage for other odds and sods, if you need it.
Performance
This car offers an obscene amount of power, more than anyone could possibly want or need on the public highway. Indeed, sampling Launch Control in the 2026 Audi RS e-tron GT performance is akin to being on one of those ridiculous powered coasters, such as the artist formerly known as
Rita: Queen of Speed at Alton Towers. Step on the brake and hold it, plant the throttle, feel all 925hp and 1,027Nm straining at the leash, release brake, sharply intake breath as the Audi momentarily scrabbles all four tyres before finding immense traction, then hold on for dear life as all your internal organs go two-dimensional as you hurtle into the middle distance at a frankly terrifying rate of knots.
Even in nominal trim, the performance makes 102hp more electrical oomph (748hp) than the old RS ever could, so it is simply devastating for on-road performance, in any possible situation you could conceive. Thankfully, both throttle and the carbon-ceramic brakes are spectacularly well-judged, so meting out the prodigious power or getting the 2.4-tonne Audi to stop again are enjoyable processes, while an enlarged 97kWh battery bestows a theoretical near-360-mile range on this leviathan. Mind, we couldn't better 2.6 miles/kWh during 208 miles of testing in the RS GT, which realistically amounts to about 250 miles between charges.
Ride & Handling
The RS e-tron GT performance Carbon Vorsprung has Audi's Active Ride system, which is a development of the advanced set-up we first tried on a
G3 Porsche Panamera.
This system works even more seamlessly and beautifully in this four-door GT than it did back in 2024. The car pops up on its suspension as you open the door, then settles back down before you drive off - making ingress and egress easier - while the way it can lean into corners and keep its body remarkably flat even during extreme cornering duress is truly phenomenal.
Sure, even as an RS performance, the Audi is softer in outlook than the Taycan, but for something so physically large and undeniably hefty, the e-tron GT has startling agility, an inherent sense of balance, and a level of engagement that few Audis this side of the mega
R8 supercar have ever got close to attaining. That the car is also supremely, unerringly comfortable, quiet and refined in all driving situations, irrespective of the fitment of some whopping 21-inch wheels at the corners, is merely the delicious icing on a very tasty dynamic cake.
Value
As all-round sensational as the Audi RS e-tron GT performance Carbon Vorsprung undeniably is, when you aim this high up the German manufacturer's hierarchy, you don't get a bargain. Our car as tested was as near as makes no difference £170,000. Now, you can get into the still-excellent base car for less than 90 grand, while the 856hp non-performance RS e-tron GT kicks off at a slightly more reasonable £127,545. So you don't strictly have to spend a good chunk more on your four-door Audi EV than you would for a base-spec
Porsche 911 GT3, unless you truly crave the full hit of 925hp day in, day out.
Verdict
We can question the morality of putting this amount of unrelenting performance and considerable mass in the hands of people who might not have dealt with such outputs before, but Audi is not alone in making mega-power EVs. We also cannot ignore the magnitudinous cost of a fully loaded-up RS e-tron GT performance, either, but the resulting car is one of the greatest, most talented and fundamentally superb zero-emissions machines on the market right now. It's unquestionably the finest Audi we've driven since the mesmerising
RS 6 GT Avant.
