Going Everywhere Fast
There’s so much more to the 2025 Audi RS e-tron GT Performance than raw speed, but good gracious, it’s quick. The weird thing is that even as your senses struggle to process the overloading inputs of rapid movement and blurred peripheral vision, the car itself is completely composed — as if accelerating from a standstill to 60 mph in about two seconds (it feels almost instantaneous) is no big deal and it’s merely doing what it was built to do.
Back Story
For anyone who might be wondering how the RS e-tron GT Performance fits into the Audi universe, we can decipher the name by breaking it into sections. RS models represent the company’s sportiest efforts. There’s also an S e-tron GT with more muscle than last year’s RS version. Both cars have been refreshed for 2025. Audi applies the e-tron title to all its electric vehicles (EVs), GT means grand tourer, and Performance is self-explanatory. And what performance.
Plot Development
This is the most powerful and fastest-accelerating production machine Audi has ever built. Engage Boost (aka push-to-pass) mode by pressing a red button on the left side of the steering wheel, and a full 912 horsepower becomes available for 10-second bursts. The official sprint time to 60 mph is 2.4 seconds, but — after doing several standing starts on a track — that time seems a little conservative to me. Wait just 10 seconds for the system to gather its thoughts, and all that power will be ready to erupt yet again. Audi adds a turbine-like sound that grows in intensity as the digital instrument cluster sends its speedometer into the big numbers.
Drive the car in Dynamic mode, and it feels like even thinking about bringing the right foot a fraction closer to the floor results in going faster by about 20 mph. I’m not a big fan of using adaptive cruise control (I like to be fully involved with driving and will often not even put on the radio), but I decided that setting the cruise speed to a reasonable figure and keeping my foot off the accelerator completely was probably the best way to retain my pristine driving record while using public roads.
Plot Twist
Another facet of the RS e-tron GT Performance is one that might be quite surprising. It’s also enjoyable to drive in Comfort mode — beautifully fluid around corners and completely civilized around town. Unlike a lot of electric vehicles, it doesn’t do the one-pedal driving thing, where going and stopping are controlled by the accelerator. The brake energy regeneration system will slow the car, but not bring it to a complete halt.
The 2025 RS e-tron GT Performance comes with an updated adaptive air suspension as standard and reacts in an ideal way to whatever is asked of it — precise but without being overly firm. An even more sophisticated suspension is on the options list, sporting dampers with electro-hydraulic activation. This is available as part of a package that also includes ceramic brakes. It adds $11,000 to the bottom line, yet if I were in the market for a gorgeous luxury/sport electric car, I’d probably check that box.
In any driving mode or situation, the brakes and steering feel natural, not numb. The lead engineer for this e-tron GT project is the same one who worked on the Audi R8 supercar (a particular favorite of mine because of its beyond-superb handling and accessible thrills). I also found it easy to get into an ideal driving position. While the front seats provide a great combination of comfort and support (as they should for a car starting in the region of $180,000), it’s always good to experience things that are just right. I like the illuminated RS badges in the backrests as well.
Roll the Credits
Having raised the subject of money, the 2025 RS e-tron GT Performance costs a fair amount of it. Taken in context, though, it looks decidedly rosier. The Porsche Taycan Turbo S (which shares a platform with Audi’s e-tron GT cars) has 938 hp and begins above the $200,000 mark. The larger Lucid Air Sapphire sedan packs 1,234 hp and comes in at about $250,000. The Sapphire can hit 60 mph in a breathtaking 1.89 seconds, and the Taycan Turbo S is supposedly a tenth quicker than the RS e-tron GT Performance. But really, if you’re in that much of a hurry, you could have left your house 0.2 seconds earlier.
