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Less than a year ago, Audi announced plans to compete in the 2022 Dakar Rally with a bespoke SUV powered by electric motors, and on Friday we got our first glimpse of the brand with the Four Rings contender.
Called the RS Q E-Tron, the wild off-roader was designed as a rally-raid style vehicle, much like Prodrive’s BRX Hunter which first competed in the 2021 Dakar Rally earlier this year.
The Audi is a much more sophisticated beast because it is powered by an extended-range electric powertrain that relies on a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-4 coupled to a generator to keep the battery boiling. The battery is a 50 kilowatt-hour unit that alone weighs 815 pounds.
The wheels are driven exclusively by a pair of electric motors, with a single motor on each axle to form an all-wheel-drive system and software controlling torque distribution. Electric motors, with a single-speed transmission, can also act as generators under braking and help recharge the battery. The maximum power is 670 hp, although this may be limited depending on the rules of the Dakar Rally 2022.
The electric motors are the same ones Audi uses in Formula E, a sport the automaker will be abandoning after the current season. Audi said the engines only needed minor modifications to be used in its Dakar competitor. As for the range extender, it was removed from Audi’s old RS 5 DTM racing car. It will run between 4,500 and 6,000 rpm, which is the engine’s optimum efficiency range, Audi said.
Taking part in the Dakar will allow Audi to stress test several components similar to those that will feature in the automaker’s future electric road cars. Unlike Formula E, whose races last only 45 minutes, the Dakar Rally has several stages spanning two weeks, some lasting nearly 500 miles and several hours. The 2022 rally will cross the deserts of Saudi Arabia next January.
Candidate for the Dakar Rally Audi RS Q E-Tron 2022
“What we are trying to do has never been done before,” Andreas Roos, Audi’s Dakar project manager, said in a statement. “This is the ultimate challenge for an electric transmission. “
Audi has made a commitment over several years to participate in the Dakar Rally. And although it has never been to the event before, the other brands in the Volkswagen Group, Porsche and Volkswagen, have experience to call on, especially VW which had a winning streak between 2009 and 2011.
Alongside the Dakar program, Audi plans to compete in the new LMDh class serving as the top class of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the World Endurance Championship. LMDh’s first season will take place in 2023.
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