Audi want you know the electric Audi e-tron can TOW, which the Jaguar I-Pace can’t – yet

The new electric Audi e-tron – rival for the Jaguar I-Pace and Mercedes EQ C – will be able to tow when it arrives on sale. Which, at the moment, the Jaguar I-Pace can’t.

Audi may have failed to get its electric e-tron SUV to market ahead of the Jaguar I-Pace, but they’re doing all they can to throw a few curved balls at the Jaguar by putting th e-tron in places it can take a bit of gloss off the Brit car.

Back in March, at the Geneva Motor Show – where the Jaguar I-Pace debuted – Audi were busy running e-trons round the streets of Geneva to make sure Show visitors knew there was an alternative to the Jag, and they also plonked a (camouflaged) e-tron font and centre on their Geneva stand. Job done.

Now, Audi want you to know that the e-tron is a proper SUV, with an emphasis on the ‘U’ for utility bit, because it can actually tow stuff. Just like a proper SUV.

That may not seem a big deal for many, but after Jaguar’s Ian Callum announced in 2017 that the I-Pace won’t be rated to tow, Jaguar came in for much flack from prospective buyers, especially in Norway where a tow bar seems to be almost a standard fitting. And the fact that Norway is the biggest buyer of electric cars (certainly per capita) has made Jaguar re-think.

Now, it seems, the I-Pace will be rated to tow – but not until the start of 2019 – and even then it will be a maximum of 750kg. 

That’s why Audi has released a photo (above) of the e-tron happily towing a trailer on which is the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo concept, a combination which will be heading for the Worthersee Show this year.

That Worthersee announcement is the headline pitch, but the sub-text is a poke in the eye for the I-Pace.

Again.