Audi reveals the remarkable RS Q e-tron to tackle the Dakar rally

Monday, 26 July 2021

Just under a year after the initial concept idea, Audi Sport has started testing the new Audi RS Q e-tron, the hybrid that will take on one of the greatest challenges there is in international racing: the Dakar Rally

Audi is taking this whole electrification thing very seriously indeed – the latest example of that is the wild car it has unveiled to take on one of the toughest challenges in motorsport, the gruelling Dakar Rally.

The company has stated that it wants to be the first car manufacturer to use an electrified drivetrain to compete for overall victory against conventionally-powered competitors in the world’s toughest rally, and the remarkable-looking RS Q e-tron is the car it will do it with.

“The quattro was a gamechanger for the World Rally Championship. Audi was the first brand to win the Le Mans 24 Hours with an electrified drivetrain,” said Julius Seebach, Managing Director of Audi Sport GmbH and responsible for motorsport at Audi.

It might look like a Hot Wheels model, but Audi’s RS Q e-tron is being developed to take on the toughest rally in the world.

“Now, we want to usher in a new era at the Dakar Rally, while testing and further developing our e-tron technology under extreme conditions. Our RS Q e-tron was created on a blank sheet of paper in record time and stands for Vorsprung durch Technik.”

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Mattias Ekström is one of Audi’s drivers for the Dakar Rally and is involved in the testing of the RS Q e-tron.

Seebach says the characteristics of the Dakar Rally present Audi engineers with special challenges. The marathon event lasts two weeks and the daily stages are up to 800 kilometres in length.

Testing will continue for the rest of this year in preparation for next year’s big race.

“That’s a very long distance,” said Andreas Roos, the man responsible for the Dakar project at Audi Sport.

“What we are trying to do has never been done before. This is the ultimate challenge for an electric drivetrain.”

But while the RS Q e-tron’s drivetrain is all electric, it has a hidden ICE secret – because there are no charging opportunities in the desert, the RS Q e-tron uses the “highly efficient” TFSI engine from Audi’s DTM car as a generator.

The engine is part of an energy converter that charges the high-voltage battery while driving, and the company says that since the combustion engine is operated in the particularly efficient range of between 4,500 and 6,000 rpm, the specific consumption is well below 200 grams per kWh.

Charging aside, the drivetrain of the Audi RS Q e-tron is electric – the front and rear axles are both fitted with a motor-generator unit (MGU) from the current Audi e-tron FE07 Formula E car which has been developed by Audi Sport for the 2021 season.

Surprisingly, Audi says only minor modifications had to be made to use the MGU in the Dakar car.

A third MGU is part of the energy converter and serves to recharge the high-voltage battery while driving. In addition, energy is recuperated during braking. The battery weighs about 370 kilograms and has a capacity of around 50 kWh.

“The battery is also a proprietary development that we have realised together with a partner,” said Stefan Dreyer, Head of Development at Audi Sport for motorsport projects.

“As engineers, we basically see development potential in every component. But in terms of the drivetrain system, we have already achieved a system efficiency of over 97 percent in Formula E. There’s not much more room for improvement.

“The situation is quite different with the battery and energy management. This is where the greatest development potential lies in electromobility in general. What we learn from the extremely challenging Dakar project will flow into future production models. As always, we are also working closely with our colleagues from road car development on this project.”

Audi says the maximum system power of the e-drivetrain is 500kW, although exactly how much of this can be used during the Dakar Rally is still being finalised by the organisers.

In terms of durability in one of the toughest races in the world, the RS Q e-tron’s electrified simplicity could well be a big advantage – the Audi RS Q e-tron only needs one forward gear, the front and rear axles are not mechanically connected, and the software developed by Audi takes over the torque distribution between the axles and thus creates a virtual and freely configurable centre differential, which has the positive side effect of being able to save the weight and space that would have been required by propshafts and a mechanical differential.

The prototype of the Audi RS Q e-tron had its first roll-out in Neuburg at the beginning of July. An intensive test program and the first test entries at cross-country rallies are on the agenda from now until the end of the year before it ultimately takes its place on the starting line of the Dakar Rally in January 2022.