ELECTRIC Audi e-tron GT tease begins - and there'll be an Audi e-tron GT RS too

Audi e-tron GT tease

The electric Audi e-Tron GT – Audi’s take on the Porsche Taycan – will be revealed early 2021, and there’ll be an Audi e-Tron GT RS too.

It’s almost two years since we saw the Audi e-Tron GT Concept as Audi’s take on the Porsche Taycan, and Audi promised it would arrive in 2020 as a production model.

But with the world in topsy-turvy Covid mode that’s been delayed a bit, but now the reveal is getting close – expected early in the New Year – so Audi want to tell us just how magnificent its new EV will be, and how impressive its production is.

Audi say the e-Tron GT is the first electric Audi to be built in Germany – at Audi Böllinger Höfe at the Neckarsulm site where the R8 is made – and Audi has invested heavily to ensure the e-Tron is the best it can be.

Using new customised technologies, including VR, to design production, the e-Tron is constructed from ultra-high-strength steel and aluminium in a new body shop by robots, but with hands-on human expertise checking the finished product.

All very clever, but it’s what’s under the e-Tron GT that matters, and much of that is Porsche Taycan.

Just like the concept, the e-Tron GT is expected with 4WD and 582bhp, 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds, a 90kWh battery good for a range of 250 miles and, if you can finds an 800v charger, able to take 200 miles of charge in 20 minutes. Not quite splash and dash time, but bearable.

But, just like the Taycan, there will be a more powerful option (it seems just one, not a couple like the Taycan), in the e-Tron GT RS, which could arrive with the Taycan Turbo S’s 751bhp overboost powertrain. Both the e-Tron GT and e-Tron GT RS will arrive in 2021.

It all looks very impressive, and Audi are no doubt hoping buyers will opt for the e-Tron rather than a Tesla Model S. But could the e-Tron simply steal a chunk of Taycan sales instead? They seem too close together for that not to happen.

With a reveal for the e-Tron GT getting closer, expect more details to arrive on a regular basis in the meantime.