One of the best Audi EVs you can buy is also one of its oldest: revisiting the e-tron GT

In such straitened times even the largest car makers can't afford to keep a model in production if customer interest has dried up. That must mean the big Audi e-tron GT is doing something right. In many respects, this all-electric four-door represents the missing link between Audi design of old and the brand's much-anticipated future direction.

With the next generation of Audis expected to mark a return to the modern 'Bauhaus' minimalism that characterised the brand from the noughties onwards, the yawning grilles, slashed headlights and flared surfaces of the current generation might suddenly start to look rather old hat. Perhaps, that is, with the exception of the e-tron GT.

The past few years have seen a deluge of new electric cars, many of them Chinese branded or at least supported by Chinese manufacturers. As a result, the technology of powertrains and interfaces are moving faster than ever before, with customers barely able to keep pace with new iterations of touch screens, as they hoover up the functionality once reserved for physical switches.

Because the e-tron GT predates this era, it adds a layer of analogue warmth to the alleged digital sterility of the EV. This is apparent outside as well as inside, where the bodywork featuring flared and wheelarches front and rear, a low stance, wide track and elegant fastback body.

Under the skin, it’s closely related to Porsche’s Taycan, which feels a little sterile and overwrought in comparison (although probably the better car, day to day). Instead, the e-tron GT gives off the same vibes as Audi’s more historic performance range, from the original quattro all the way through to recent RS models.

Appropriately enough, the e-tron GT is also available in an all-encompassing, power-crazed RS Performance variant, shown and tested here. It’s undeniably thrilling (it’s easy to succumb to the temptation of the big red ‘boost’ button mounted on the steering wheel) but in many ways it’s emblematic of the issues facing sporting electric performance; there’s simply too much of it.

At least the boost button keeps around 95PS back, thus preventing excessive battery drain. In day-to-day use, the regular 748PS is more than sufficient. Still, a zero to 62mph sprint of 2.5 seconds is up there with the hypercar club, while mid-range acceleration is colossal. All this is piped through a twin motor all-wheel-drive system that provides some of the best feedback and handling of any electric car.

There’s also 320kW fast charging, which gets the car from 10 to 80% in under twenty minutes (should you be able to find one), plus a claimed max range of 364 miles. We predict that this will be exceptional hard to achieve when not under laboratory conditions.

You will also pay to attain these lofty heights. In top spec, loaded up with options, the e-tron GT we tested is knocking on the door of £170,000, equivalent to a lightly used Bentley GT. Or a brand new 718 Boxster and a lightly used Taycan Turbo S. Unsurprisingly, the e-tron suffers the same catastrophic depreciation as its close relative, news of which should send you scurrying to the classifieds, where an early model e-tron GT sells for about the price of a new Nissan Leaf.

So it’s very much far from perfect. Budgetary quibbles aside, there are annoying interface issues despite the button-laden interior. The rigmarole of switching off the ADAS means unnecessary menu diving every time you start the e-tron GT – hardly unusual in a modern car, but other performance-focused manufacturers have introduced a handy shortcut button on the dash to circumvent this process.

It's also possible to find yourself in a perfectly reasonably sized parking space and yet the GT’s fore and aft proximity sensors will still be chirping away, back and forth like a police siren. This sets up an atonal orchestra of impenetrable dissonance, oversensitive, jarring and just generally confusing. This is a big car and sensors are essential, but surely the tech is now sufficiently advanced to make this unnecessary frustration a thing of the past?

We quibble because we like this car very much. And yet, the Bluetooth connection to Android Auto was also infuriatingly weak, dropping out at crucial points in navigation, podcasts, etc. And that centre console could do with an update for the wireless charging era. These are all issues that feel like they could be easily changed, were the e-tron GT to survive as a going concern in the future. But will that be the case?

The e-tron GT is almost legacy car-making at this point, with more switches and buttons than a whole fleet of Geely products and a market position that feels very distant from Audi’s current model strategy.

Should some kind of electrified TT appear in the near future, based perhaps on the Concept C shown last year and maybe helping to hoover up some of the investment costs Porsche sunk into the troubled Boxster EV programme, the e-tron GT will feel even older and out of touch. As time goes by, we’d put money on this being one of the first EVs to attain true classic status.

Audi e-tron GT RS Performance, from £143,925, Audi.co.uk, @AudiUK