Audi e-tron GT review: A futuristic grand tourer with electrifying performance

After being caught napping on electrification by a certain American brand, Europe’s major car manufacturers are finally getting up to speed on EVs.

Everywhere you turn there are announcements about battery development, new EV-specific production lines and the phasing out of combustion engines, including from Audi.

The Ingolstadt brand was actually one of the faster-responding premium brands, launching the e-tron SUV in 2018. Since then it’s added the smaller Q4 e-tron and plans to have 20 all-electric models in its range by 2025, with the e-tron GT the latest to join the line-up.

Unlike Audi’s mainstream EVs, the e-tron GT doesn’t share its underpinnings with other regular VW Group cars, instead it uses the platform and drivetrain developed for the Porsche Taycan.

So while most of Audi’s electric offerings are variations on the SUV theme, the e-tron GT is a sleek, muscular four-door grand tourer with an emphasis on performance and luxury.

The e-tron GT looks like the kind of concept car you might see in a film set in the near future. Almost impossibly large alloys fill the swollen arches, a long low bonnet stretches out over a unique take on the Audi Singleframe grille, and a slippery coupe-like roofline dips towards the full-width rear light bar.

The futuristic feel is more than skin deep, too. One of the most striking things about the e-tron GT is the noise it makes. All EVs have a faint buzz from the motors but Audi employed sound engineers who spent thousands of hours designing a unique synthetic sound for the e-tron.

Using information including throttle position, motor speeds and the car’s ground speed, the e-tron sport sound system creates an “engine” noise that is piped into the cabin and rises and falls with a spine-tingling electronic hum unlike anything else I’ve driven.