All Electric, All SUV
D unes ripple off into the distance under a brassy sky. The Audi dances over stutter bumps as it slaloms between piles of soft sand. A quick flick of the wrists and flex of the right ankle: instant grip and grunt, dust and gravel spitting from all four wheels. The irony of the moment is delicious. We’re in the Middle Eastern emirate of Abu Dhabi, driving through a desert soaked in oil, having fun in an electric-powered luxury SUV. Meet the 2019 Audi E-Tron.
The E-Tron is built on a brand-new battery electric vehicle (BEV) platform designed and engineered in-house at Audi. It follows the now-typical skateboard format, with a 95-kW-hr battery pack between the wheels and under the floor, and motors mounted front and rear to provide all-wheel drive.
The rear motor is mounted coaxially with the rear driveshafts, but the front motor has been rolled rearward and upward, away from
