Audi RS5 Avant review

Way back in the dinosaur days of vehicle development (that’s eight years ago to you and me), Audi told us the future was electric and when you look at the 2018 debut of the e-tron GT concept at that year’s LA Motor Show, you could perhaps understand why. With a spec that blew most everything else out of the water, this four-door EV saloon/coupé also dovetailed exactly with the new-energy direction-of-travel mandated by the European Union. Seemed like this handsome car, which shared much with Porsche’s Taycan, was the juice.

The following year, the UK legislated its net-zero target and by the time the big Audi went on sale in 2021, Joe Biden’s administration ruled that by the end of the decade, over 50 per cent of new registrations in North America would be of battery-electric vehicles (EVs). Battery cars were absolutely going to happen. What could possibly go wrong? Audi’s board of management was congratulating itself on anticipating the market and anticipating big end of year bonuses.

Blimey, what happened? Even if you discount Donald Trump’s second administration, which rescinded most of Biden’s environmental protection targets (the US Environmental Protection Agency just announced that, partly as a result, there’s been ‘an overwhelming rejection’ of EVs), there was serious hubris around the launch of the e-tron GT. Sales have been much lower than envisaged, battery charging infrastructure has been desperately slow to become either a useable or economical long-distance reality, EV residual values have been parlous and the speed of the development in battery cells means even six-figure-priced, 637bhp RS versions of the e-tron GT look pretty old hat right now.