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MARK TAKAHASHI: EVs are here.
And if you ask me, they're here to stay.
The good news is they're getting a lot better
and there are a lot more that are available, from affordable
to extravagant.
The latest EV in the luxury class
is this, the all new 2019 Audi e-tron.
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When the e-tron goes on sale this spring,
prices will start right around $76,000.
Stepping up to the top Prestige trim will set you back $83,000.
It's pretty much right in there with the Jaguar I-PACE,
but it's quite a bit less expensive
than a comparable Tesla.
Model X.
For that money, you get a 95-kilowatt hour battery.
That should give you somewhere in the neighborhood
of 240 miles of range.
You also get two electric motors, one for each axle.
That gives it all-wheel drive.
Combined, they have an output of 400 horsepower.
You also get 1,000 kilowatt hours of free charging
on the Electrify America charging network.
On that network, you could take advantage
of the 150-kilowatt fast chargers.
That will get the e-tron to 80% charge in only 30 minutes.
The Electrify American Network is growing,
and it's soon going to challenge Tesla's Supercharger Network.
For charging at home, the e-tron takes a standard Level 2
charger.
Audi has partnered with Amazon to streamline
the purchase and installation of your charger.
All of this adds up to a lot of potential for the e-tron
to challenge the Jaguar I-PACE and Tesla Model X,
as well as the upcoming Mercedes Benz EQC.
The big question is, how does it stack up?
Best way to find out. is to take it for a spin.
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This e-tron lives up to Audi's reputation
for quality interiors.
It's very similar to the A6, A7, and A8,
so if you have any real in-depth questions on that,
go check out those videos.
All the materials are great.
All the buttons, all the controls,
they fall to hand perfectly for the most part.
As I said in the A6 and A7 videos,
I'm not that big a fan of the new MMI system.
I feel like the main screen is to just a little too low.
I liked having it on top of the dash.
And I realize that aesthetically it's not as pretty,
but for usability, it was right in my sight lines.
I also miss the MMI knob, mostly because this touch screen
is too low.
It's too distracting to use.
But I do love this virtual gauge cluster
that's semi-customizable.
And visibility is great.
This has a head-up display as well,
and you get really clear directions.
As far as seat comfort goes, these are the base seats.
They're cloth, and in this hot desert weather,
they breathe surprisingly well.
The support is, I think, appropriate
for a vehicle like this.
It's not too sporty, so it doesn't have
super aggressive side bolsters.
A good lumbar support, and that's something
I really look for in cars too.
Overall, visibility is good.
I actually think rear visibility might be a little bit better
than the Q5.
If not, it's the same.
I'm not a fan of these virtual mirrors.
And fortunately, in the US, we're
not going to have to worry about that because they're not
legal for use in the States.
I'm sure we're going to get just regular old mirrors that
will give you all the situational awareness
that you need.
Another thing I really like as this new shifter.
Before, they used to have that yacht handle that kind of moved
as one piece.
This is a new evolution on that where only one section of it
moves, and it's really cool.
I like this evolution of it.
As expected from anything that's SUV sized like this,
there's plenty of space for me back here.
I'm 5 foot 10.
This seat in front of me is set for me.
And I have a wealth of foot room underneath the seat, tons
of knee room, way more than I need.
And one thing I really like is the seat cushion
isn't mounted so low, so I'm getting good thigh support.
These seats don't recline, and they don't slide.
But just sitting in here, it feels good
because it's at the right angle for me.
I could be comfortable back here for a road trip, no problem.
And just the physical space is enhanced
by the feeling of spaciousness.
These windows are big.
This window over my shoulder helps
to open it up a little more.
It's not at all claustrophobic.
In the US, we'll have the panoramic sunroof as well.
That should open it up even more,
although it might cut into a little bit of headroom
up here in the corners.
Down here, we have the quad zone automatic climate control.
And these are nice, capacitive, smooth buttons, really
easy to use as well.
Also, two USB ports below and a 12-volt power outlet.
In my opinion, it's a great place to spend some time,
whether you're an adult or a child.
Like any EV, the power delivery is ridiculously linear.
You have a ton of power all the time.
That's one of the great benefits of electric motors,
is you get all the torque instantly.
It's not an internal combustion engine
where it has to spool up.
Now, this looks a lot like a small SUV,
but it is a little bit shorter, so you get a little more
sporty handling.
And then you have the battery pack
that's in the floor of the car, which
means that your center of gravity is really low.
So it handles much more like a regular car,
and a sporty car at that.
Now, we're on some crazy twisty road here in Abu Dhabi.
The scenery is fantastic too.
The car feels very capable.
We'll start getting into some of these S turns.
See if you can actually have fun with this car.
And you can.
The tires aren't even making any noise yet.
The steering feels good.
Like any car today, there's not a whole lot of feel or feedback
to the driver anymore, but it's precise.
And I'm not getting into that weird variable ratio
madness where you're in a tight turn and all of a sudden it
turns in even further.
I'm getting a little bit of fight back from the wheel,
though, just because I have lane-keep assist on, but also
not a big deal.
And even though it's an EV, the brakes
feel remarkably conventional.
There's not a lot of heavy liftoff and regen,
but you can actually select three different levels of regen
with the paddle shifters.
But since we're climbing and not coming down the hill,
I'm not going to bother with that just yet.
To answer the question, is the e-tron fun, yep, it's fun.
Coming through the next hairpin here and hit a straight,
let's see what happens when I whack that throttle.
And wow, it's a really good neck-stretcher.
Here we go.
OK, so it's not the "pin you to the seat" Tesla
type of power delivery, but it's still really impressive.
And honestly, as much as I like insane mode on the Teslas,
it's kind of useless.
Most people with EV sensibilities
don't want to go that fast.
And honestly, the higher profile of the Tesla Model X
doesn't lend itself to being tossed around
on corners either.
This does.
When it comes to ride comfort, it's kind of hard to tell.
These roads in Abu Dhabi are glassy smooth.
They're all relatively new.
And I don't know if I'd ever be able to find some choppy roads
in this country.
But it feels planted.
It feels solid.
It's taking care of the body roll
pretty well, considering it's a higher profile vehicle.
But I can't drive it a lot like a regular sedan.
Wee!
Now that I've made it up the hill in record time,
we're going to go down the hill.
And I'm going to mess around with
that variable recuperation, which is brake regeneration.
There's a few menus here where we
go through Efficiency Assist.
I went to Manual, and it activates these paddle
shifters.
And in a lot of ways, it operates a little
like paddle shifters for a transmission,
even though this technically doesn't have a transmission.
So we have three levels, and what that does
is it almost allows you to one-pedal it down a hill.
Right now, I'm actually just feet
off both pedals in the highest regen mode,
and I'm actually having to give it a little bit of throttle
to get back out of it.
But it's a nice, linear engagement of the regen.
It's not one of those where it just drops the anchor
and tosses the parachute out as soon as you lift off the pedal.
And there's not a noticeable transition between regen
and using the brake pads.
It's almost seamless.
That's a little rare among EVs and especially hybrids.
When it comes to breaking, you'll
feel the nose dip a little bit, but it's still
very well managed.
What I find intriguing, too, is there's
quite a bit of height difference between the different drive
modes.
Dynamic really slams it down to the ground to the point
where it just feels like a bigger wagon.
In off-road mode, it's going to lift it quite a bit.
Hopefully, we'll see a little bit of that later.
If there's one word to describe how this drives, it's linear.
Going from dead stop to accelerating
hard to hitting the brakes, it's really easy to predict.
It's really easy to drive.
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All right, I did in fact find a rough road in Abu Dhabi.
We are in off-road mode, and that is also
fairly unique among these new classes of EVs.
We did some light off-roading, but still, it
was more than most SUV owners will ever do
in the lifetime of their car.
And it handled it fine.
It's a fairly smart version of Audi's quattro all-wheel drive
system, and it exceeded expectations.
So if you have some light trail work to do, it'll handle it.
Definitely handles some deep snow and ice too.
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After driving this e-tron throughout Abu Dhabi,
I can say I really quite enjoyed it.
It's got the right amount of power.
It's got the right amount of range.
It's really nice to look at.
It's really nice to sit in.
It has a lot more versatility than the Tesla Model X.
And even though I haven't driven the Jaguar I-PACE just yet,
i think it's going to be a pretty close battle.
When it comes down to it, I would definitely
take the e-tron over the Model X.
For more information on the Audi e-tron one
as well as its competition, head on over to Edmunds.com.
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