The Electric Revolution in Performance Cars
The Bugatti Veyron was at the top of my mental list of the fastest cars I’ve ever driven. However, with the rise of electric vehicles, that list keeps getting reset, and in some ways, it almost doesn’t matter. Despite a pervasive myth to the contrary, nearly all EVs are quick, and just about every EV is going to be quicker than its gas-powered equivalent.
Electric Power and Performance
The BMW i5 M60 is better than the current M5, and a Ford Mustang Mach-E GT will outclass pretty much all of its V8 cousins. My dual-motor Kia EV6 is quicker than any gas-powered car I ever owned, and it’s not even an EV6 GT. Hell, even a humble electric Volvo can pack 400 horsepower these days and isn’t to be messed with at the stoplight.
Audi’s E-Tron GT: A Game-Changer
Audi’s heavily updated RS E-Tron GT is a game-changer in the world of performance cars. The RS E-Tron GT Performance model, with 105 kilowatt-hour battery sending 818 hp to all four wheels, but when launch control and its Boost Mode are engaged, that jumps to 912 hp—making it the most powerful Audi ever, and with more juice than all but three of the top Taycan trims.
Design and Features
The E-Tron GT has a long, low, and wide design that evokes the old R8 supercar, or even the TT sports car. There’s one big downside: how did Audi let Porsche get all the wagon versions? What an oversight. This thing deserves an Avant variant. Like the Taycan, the E-Tron GT received significant upgrades for 2025, including charging speeds of up to 320 kilowatts, so it’ll go from 10% to 80% in just 18 minutes.
Handling and Performance
The RS E-Tron GT Performance mixes comfort and outrageous performance perhaps better than any car I’ve tested before. Yes, really. It starts with that air suspension: in the standard Comfort mode, where I was content to leave it nearly all of the time, the ride is impeccably smooth over any type of pavement without sacrificing even an ounce of handling excellence. You can dial up the firmness with the RS driving modes, of course, but I seldom wanted to. Not when the car can handle like it does. And the handling prowess of the RS E-Tron GT Performance reset my understanding of physics. The car just takes any corner at any speed you want—no drama, no slippage, no understeering. It just goes. On an empty, curving highway, you can bank at far over the posted speed limit with utmost confidence, as if it were designed for every road to be the Ehra-Lessien test track.
Electric Power Presents a Distinct Advantage
Torque vectoring—the act of independently distributing power to individual wheels—can happen much, much more quickly on an electric car. There, some system of processors and sensors would have to tell an engine to adjust its output to deliver the optimum amount of power to each wheel. On an EV, that process happens much more quickly, bordering on instantly. As InsideEVs contributor Peter Nelson, who is a better and more track-proven driver than I’ll ever be, put it recently: “it completely threw my concept of cornering grip and G-force through a loop.” I would add that this thing feels built for some other planet than ours, something with different levels of gravity or physics; it is too good for the laws of nature we must abide by here on Earth.
Acceleration and Braking
In a straight line, I don’t see why anyone would care about V8 or V10 or V12 power after experiencing this car, save for some fondness for engine sounds. The RS E-Tron’s acceleration is utterly crushing. It uncorks that full power gradually, as if to make sure it’s what you want, but then it makes your stomach lurch as it silently shoots up to near triple-digit speeds. When you hit that steering wheel button that says “BOOST” and any sense of decorum gives way to utter violence: 10 seconds with a graphic countdown where you get the full 912 hp. It doesn’t accelerate in this mode, so much as it ticks up to highway-and-beyond speeds seemingly faster than your brain can handle, all while you desperately keep your eyes on the road. 74. 85. 96. Tick, tick, tick. You will run out of road, or courage, or common sense before that 10 seconds is up.
Pricing and Conclusion
You pay an immense price for all the speed on this Audi, too. It’s not $2 million, but it is $190,690 with options. Then again, that undercuts a lot of supercars in the $300,000 range and well beyond, all with zero tailpipe emissions and probably better handling. (Oh, and depreciation? I’m counting down the days.)
I suppose there are plenty of people who would welcome a return to fossil-fuel power. But those people just haven’t had seat time in a car like this yet. For me, the future of performance has never been more obvious—and I know that my list will have to be updated again soon enough.