The best of Audi EV vs the best of Audi combustion, SUV edition. This is a bit of a mashup but the result caught me off guard.
The rsq-8 is peak performance suv over at audi right now but with the e-tron s representing the best the brand has to offer when it comes to electric utility vehicles i want to see how they stack up if you enjoy fun detailed car content without the fluff consider subscribing and hitting the bell for notifications first up we have the e-tron s so under the hood or
Under somewhere are three motors and a 95 kilowatt hour battery total output is about 496 horsepower and 717 pound-feet of torque which that’s only going to come in the boost mode regular mode will just give you 429 horsepower what does that feel like a lot that wasn’t even boost so now oh my god i know my reaction may seem animated but that 10 second boost in
S mode not only adds 121 pound-feet of torque it delivers it without mercy something i wasn’t prepared for since i’ve been primarily driving family crossovers the last 6 months in the regular mode it feels as if it eases you into the torque slightly to reduce the violence i’d also like to thank the great people over at royal on the east side in bloomington indiana
For providing the 2021 rsq8 and 22 e-tron s for this comparison royal east sells all of their new cars without a markup and has knowledgeable friendly staff if you’re in the market check them out let’s first get out the difference between torque and horsepower now there’s kind of a more complex formula to get horsepower but you get more horsepower through either
Having more rpms or more torque or both horsepower is the total work done torque and rpms are just part of that equation what this means for us here is that the e-tron with its hefty torque and 496 horsepower available most of the time should make more power than the rsq8 when it’s below 4500 rpm the only thing weighing it down literally is 6 000 pounds 500 more than
The rsq8 so before i get into more of the features let’s see what that means for the 0 to 60. for this test i pressed and held the traction control off button for about eight seconds and i have ac off plus the battery is at like 95 maybe a little bit above i have the transmission in s mode that’s how you get that boost plant the brake plant the gas or whatever it
Definitely drops off wow no talking back from the tires that is just impressive we came in at 3.9 seconds so full 0.4 seconds quicker than what audi quotes and this is with a 2 800 foot da so this is something that’s more realistic especially during the summer time and this will be a good test with the rsq-8 which will have a little bit of a disadvantage because
It needs to worry about air straight line speed is probably the most important thing in a vehicle like this because people buying this are not i mean they’re not taking these kinds of vehicles to the track however part of the cell with an s product is that it’s supposed to handle well too so now we have it on a little bit more twisty road got some imperfections
In here yeah the steering doesn’t have too much feedback but it is weighted nicely it does give me a pretty precise feeling a little bit slower ratio than i think i would want if i was really desiring a racy experience but i can just feel that torque on demand all the time i’m not even just talking about the flat out literally concussion inducing acceleration
It’s just that every little input there is met with a response and even the brakes feel good and natural for the most part audi does a good job of incorporating regen and you can actually increase the regen with the downshift paddle and vice versa in dynamic mode the car has a very substantial confident feel here definitely a little bit softer than what you would
Probably want in something like an rs product you have torque vectoring here true torque vectoring in the rear because there’s two motors back there and they can each function on their own independently so that does offer a direct advantage and control when compared to the rsq8 i feel like it’d go a lot faster than it probably should in a 6 000 suv it still does
Feel hefty but it doesn’t feel second generation toyota sequoia heavy which it is we can thank the predictable steering and low center of gravity for that but beyond performance the key part to the e-tron s is that it retains a luxury car feel outside of just like floor mats shuffling there in the back this is pretty quiet even on this pretty noisy road now we’ll
Put it into a more cozy mode the steering reduces weight nicely it was never super firm to begin with maybe a little bit more body roll hitting larger potholes more imperfections it stays nice and smooth to the point where i forget it’s riding on 22s it is still more jittery and less forgiving than a similarly priced a84 liter which funny enough is just as quick
To 60 but it remains comfortable in taut through neglected roads in a way that i’d expect from a regular luxury suv now this also is going to use a one speed automatic it is eerily quiet in here this one actually has dual pane glass because it’s the prestige model one advantage to the e-tron is that it’s actually pretty affordable now it is 98 000. but on paper
You have the sport air adaptive suspension giant brakes a ton of power and quite a bit of practicality too the biggest drawback with this one is that it only has 208 miles of range with the right wheels if you have the giant sporty 22 inch wheels that range gets knocked down to 181 although my range counter here is showing like 260 so that might be more conservative
I won’t be able to test that out today and when it comes to practicality i’m six foot three i can fit in both rows comfortably and there’s plenty of cargo space making this a valid option for fortunate families ventilated massaging front seats are on the option table for both cars too as are soft closed doors and each get ridiculous bang olufsen sound systems that
Can be further upgraded and once you’re at higher speeds really the only noise that you hear is just like a slight little motor were but it’s a very quiet and luxurious vehicle and that was one of the big advantages to the e-tron versus a lot of the other evs whenever they came out was that it’s very reminiscent of regular audi suvs which is a very good thing but
Now i want to see what the absolutely ludicrous rsq8 can do under the hood of the rsq8 it is a 4 liter twin turbo v8 pumping out 591 horsepower 590 pound-feet of torque the lamborghini uddis actually uses the same engine tuned differently maybe with a few modifications there to pump it up 50 more horsepower and uses the same 8-speed automatic down to all the gear
Ratios final drive this one does weigh about 500 pounds less than the e-tron and does cost substantially more and feels larger on the inside you know both up front and in the back seat so the rsq-8 feels more expensive not just because of what’s under the hood and they’re both very quiet this one does also have the dual pane glass in fact a lot of the features
Are the same including the procedure in order to get the maximum performance esc is off ac is off dynamic mode transmission in sport we are ready to go while i wait for a safe opening this just has so much more charisma not only with the v8 verbal there but also with the carbon fiber bit to be more extensive leather on the dashboard and whatnot it just feels a
Little bit more special that’s faster i don’t even need to look at that that is faster it’s been a while it’s been a while since i’ve been in a fast car the e-tron is fast but but that hits you and then you know it starts to kind of die out a little bit and that hits you also in the response just like a truck we got 3.2 seconds and for some reason draggy put like
A crazy angle on that but that was actually the same exact place that reported less than one degree with the e-tron which is what that stretch is usually rated at my favorite takeaway here though are the g-forces the e-tron spikes a little earlier than the rsq-8 but the q8 cracks one g for a moment and you can tell that by my facial reaction once the road gets
Twisty the rsq-8 also gets four-wheel steering and active roll stabilization which uses motors on the front and rear sway bars to counteract body lean add this with the optional ceramic brakes with 17.3 inch rotors and 10 piston calipers up front for cornering that’s honestly just as ridiculous as the acceleration you know this does sit notably higher up yet the
Steering is way quicker it is far more alive certainly a stiffer ride especially in dynamic the steering is on a different level of precise yet it still doesn’t have a darty feel to it there’s not a whole lot of feedback and communication which you would not expect to begin with the eight-speed automatic is obviously not going to be as smooth as an electric motor
And the one speed auto in there does do a good job of giving you the most refined powertrain experience that you can imagine in an audi but the eight-speed automatic is extremely snappy and responds to paddle inputs with a remarkable haste but it’s amazing what they can do to make a 5500 pound suv handle flat in corners it’s not quite there with what an urus is
But i thought it was going to be a much bigger leap between the two and it really isn’t and considering that this and the hundred thousand dollar e-tron cost about the same as an udis you have really quite the value proposition here and despite the crazy performance if we dial things back and put it into its comfort mode the card then adopts a new personality the
Throttle response becomes so lulled it feels like an audi a4 unless you have some patience for it to react it is quite comfortable now it might be even more comfortable than the e-tron s actually wow this is a different result than i was thinking it’s almost a little bit more dangerous because it feels just as dirty but now your suspension has more roll i can
Just quickly put it in sport for the transmission and then rip so the e-tron s and rs q8 have quite similar feature sets i think this one just has a more substantial feel because of the interior size and slightly better materials but hopping out of the two you do almost kind of wish it was a little bit more reactive you have to be in the manual mode if you want
More responsive acceleration but there is perceivable turbo lag it’s got a spool up there so there’s still powertrain constraints here that the rsq8 isn’t exactly able to shed off but if you want a performance suv for you know 150 or under the rsq-8 is one hell of an option and for the you know extra 30 rand for one of these things over the e-tron s easily worth
It in my opinion if you have money because it feels way more capable on a back road it’s just a little bit more comfortable even and has more emotion feels more substantial on the cabin but when i say if you have the money i mean it because a twin turbo v8 designed for max performance plus a suspension braking setup that makes a 5500 pound suv fly around a back
Road is likely going to be much more expensive to maintain than the comparatively tame e-tron and that’s not considering the fuel cost advantage or tax credit the e-tron s is hands down the better choice for most people as it gives you obscene acceleration confident handling and good luxury with a much lower running cost and less complexity regardless i think i
Was more impressed with the rsq-8 but let me know which one you guys would spend your money on if you could thanks for watching and thank you for 20 000 subscribers if you enjoyed the video leave a like and help me take on the youtube algorithm subscribe and hit the bell for more i’ll catch you in the next one
Transcribed from video
Audi RS Q8 vs E-Tron S 0-60 Test & Comparison! By Realistick