The Audi RS Q e-tron is an off-road competition car, built by

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...

under the e-tron battery electric sub-brand. It was specially designed to take part in the

rally raid Rally raid, also known as cross-country rallying, is a form of long distance off-road racing that takes place over several days. The length of the event can be as short as 2–3 days for a cross-country baja to as long as 15 days with marathon ra ...

Development

It was mentioned as an unnamed prototype during the 2020-12-11 announcement of

Q Motorsport Q, or q, is the seventeenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is pronounced , most commonly spelled ''cue'', but ...

becoming Audi factory team.

Specifications

The Dakar 2022 RS Q e-tron includes: *Two electric motors from Audi's Formula E program, one on each axle, for a combined power of under . *Energy converter maximum charging power of . *A TFSI engine rated approximately .

Competition history

On 30 November 2020, Audi announced their intent to compete in the

Dakar Rally The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal ...

, and during the announcement on 11 December, in which Q Motorsport became Audi's factory team. Three crews of Carlos Sainz and

Lucas Cruz Lucas Cruz Senra (born 26 December 1974 in Barcelona) is a Spanish computer engineer, mostly known as a rally racing co-driver and experienced navigator. Career He started to race on 1994, when he race on the Catalonia Rally Championship. On 200 ...

Stéphane Peterhansel Stéphane Peterhansel (born 6 August 1965 in Échenoz-la-Méline, Haute-Saône) is a rally driver from France. He holds the record for wins at the Dakar Rally, with 14 victories. In the 2018 season he was one of the official drivers of the Team P ...

and Edouard Boulanger and

Mattias Ekström Mattias Ekström (born 14 July 1978 in Falun, Sweden) is a racing driver from Sweden. He competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Audi from 2001 until his retirement in 2018, and has been competing in the FIA World Rallycross Championshi ...

and

Emil Bergkvist Emil Bergkvist (born 17 June 1994) is a Swedish rally driver. He has competed in the World Rally Championship since 2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; ...

would drive the car. On 23 July 2021, Audi unveiled the RS Q e-tron, an offroad racer intended to compete in the

2022 Dakar Rally The 2022 Dakar Rally was a rally raid event held in Saudi Arabia and the 44th edition of the Dakar Rally organized by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). The event took place between 1–14 January 2022. This was the third time Saudi Arabia had hos ...

. The car was quick but navigation errors from all 3 crews meant they lost hours of time on the first day. They even had many mechanical issues. Still all 3 drivers won a stage, with Sainz winning SS11 as well making it 4 stage wins on debut. At the 2022

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is an international rally raid race held in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates since 1991. The race is points scoring for the World Rally-Raid Championship and is organized by the Emirates Motorspo ...

, Peterhansel and Boulanger made history by winning the event and giving the RS Q e-tron its first win, and the first win for an electric vehicle in a rally raid.

References

External links

*Press kit
RS Q e-tron
(*This vehicle shown here is the Rally Dakar vehicle that is not available as a production model.) {{Audi Rally cars Rally raid cars RS Q e-tron Hybrid electric cars Electric cars Cars introduced in 2021