Audi e-tron GT vs Mercedes-Benz GT63

What's the difference?

Anyone lamenting the demise of V8 and V10-powered internal combustion sports cars will change their mind after driving the Audi e-tron GT.

It is a phenomenal car and you can feel the engineering expertise that’s gone into making it. 

The e-tron GT feels at home on German roads and autobahns, but a drive on Australian roads could well reveal some flaws. We will wait and see.

Until then, the e-tron GT is one of the most deeply impressive cars I have ever driven. And if you’re fortunate enough to be able to afford a car like this, perhaps it’s your next (very fast) family car?

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S 4-Door Coupe fulfils the brief for an ultra-fast, ultra-luxurious, four-door weapon. The theatre that surrounds it will be enough for some, and those that want to a have a serious crack won’t be disappointed.

You could argue the e-tron GT was already a stunner and didn’t require any visual changes, but Audi has still made a few tweaks. Thankfully, they are relatively subtle.

The 2025 e-tron GT gains refreshed front-end styling with a new front grille, headlights and lower bumper and air intakes. The look is inspired by Audi’s latest design language as seen on the recently revealed A6 Avant e-tron.

The S has more subtle front and rear styling, while the RS and RS performance take on a more aggressive and sporty look with a dramatic rear diffuser and different lower front styling. 

The RS performance further differentiates itself from the RS with an optional matt, darkened carbon roof and optional ‘carbon camouflage’ elements found in the embossed bumper, door trim, parts of the diffuser and side mirrors.

Audi has introduced some rather gorgeous new alloy wheel designs, some standard, some optional.

I had forgotten how stunning the e-tron is in the metal. You can see by its stance that it’s related to the Porsche Taycan - they share the 'J1' platform.

Despite the low-slung sports sedan vibe, they have their own distinct identities. If you’re after elegant clean design, you’ll likely favour the Porsche. But I am increasingly leaning towards the Audi on the design front.

Inside you get redesigned sports seats, a new steering wheel and fresh inlays, including sustainable wood on some grades. I love the new steering wheel, covered in Audi’s version of synthetic suede. BMW take note - you don’t need a big chunky steering wheel in a performance car. This rim is just right.

There’s new readout and graphics for the digital driver display and the carpet and floor mats are made of 100 per cent recycled nylon fibres. Audi’s used synthetic suede and leather throughout, and the non-leather grey cloth trim in the S is a knockout. But you can get real leather if you want.

Some of the grades we drove at the launch event come with Audi Exclusive elements which add unique touches and colours chosen by the customer, from the interior inserts, trim, stitching and more. Audi Australia isn’t saying too much but some of these Exclusive options might end up here eventually.

At a fraction over 5.0 metres long and just under 1.9 metres wide, the GT 4-Door Coupe is substantial, but an overall height under 1.5 metres sets up an aggressive stance that screams speed.

Fat guards are filled by dark 21-inch rims, and the low-set, bulging bonnet sits behind menacingly angular ‘Multi-beam’ LED headlights sitting either side of AMG’s now signature ‘Panamericana’ grille, looking ready to chew up and spit out lesser machines.

It has to be said that calling this car a four-door is a bit cheeky because technically it’s a hatch, and to my eyes at least the gentle rearward slope of the turret and large cargo door enhances the design’s understated power.

Inside is a sea of top-shelf nappa leather, with the twin-widescreen cockpit layout (two 12.3-inch hi-res displays) dominating the dash. Carbon-fibre is applied liberally (in the 63 S), and the grippy sports steering wheels and seats look and feel close to track grade.

Turbine-style air vents (four in the centre, and one at each edge) are now a Mercedes design signature (used in the back as well) and they combine with the brushed metal finishes around the broad centre console and on the pedals to deliver a sense of occasion and anticipation just sitting in the car. Fit and finish is flawless.

The e-tron GT is a big car, so it has potential for family duties, but it’s also a sports car, and that means some compromises. 

The new front sports seats in any of the various trim options offer incredible levels of comfort, ample support and they’re well cushioned. This is a Grand Tourer so comfort is important and that box is well and truly ticked.

It’s low to the ground which helps with feeling connected to the road, and the multi-adjustable seats and steering wheel mean it’s easy to find your perfect driving position.

With the addition of new air suspension as standard, the e-tron GT has a neat trick. When you touch the door handle, the set-up automatically increases the vehicle’s ride height by up to 77mm to make it easier to get in and out of. \

Don’t expect much visibility out the tiny rear windscreen, but you can rely on the clear surround-view camera display. 

From the driver’s seat, everything comes easily to hand. The multimedia screen isn’t a stretch to reach, nor are the buttons on the stack and console. Thanks for keeping buttons, too, Audi.

Audi’s current multimedia setup is solid. It has big menu icons, logical menu steps and you can swipe across for more.

The ‘Virtual Cockpit’ digital instrument cluster is also excellent and easily customisable. The built-in sat nav shows up in multiple places if you like, such as the head-up display, instrument display or multimedia screen. During our extensive drive from Frankfurt, it didn’t miss a beat.

The optional panoramic glass roof has a cool feature. You can switch from opaque to clear with the touch of a button. And you can even have a mix of the two. Clever.

To maximise space, Audi moved the phone charger to inside the central bin. Given it is hard up against the side, it doesn’t consume that much room.

Elsewhere up front, smaller bottles will only fit in the door pockets if they are lying flat.

In a smart bit of design from Audi, the battery pack is split to accommodate deeper footwells for the rear passengers. So many electric cars, especially sedans, suffer from having the battery pack under the entire length of the vehicle's floor which means your legs sit awkwardly upright. Hello Tesla...  

As a result, you can sit like a normal human in the back of the e-tron GT, and there’s ample legroom behind my six foot-plus driving position. That’s helped by scalloping the rear of the front seats. Headroom is tight but that’s expected given the swoopy roofline. 

There’s no bottle storage in the rear doors, only enough room for a phone. You get lower air vents, seat heating controls and a central fold-down armrest with cupholders. 

The boot is long and the 60/40 split seats fold flat which is handy for loading long items. There are a number of nooks and a handy cargo net, too. Luggage space ranges from 405 litres for the S e-tron GT to 350L for the RS performance. There’s a sizeable front trunk for housing charging cables.

At surface level the GT 4-Door Coupe is a more liveable alternative to the GT Coupe, for blazing fast road trips, and obscenely rapid grocery runs. But the fact is it’s sooo much more practical than its two-door stablemate.

Space in the front is generous with storage running to twin cupholders in the centre console, as well as a modest glove box, decent sized door bins (with room for bottles), and a lidded storage box between the seats.

Connectivity and power options include 12-volt outlets, multiple USB ports and NFC (Near Field Communication) tech for easy Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connection of enabled devices.

Rear seat room is healthy. At 183cm I was able to sir behind the driver’s seat set to my position with plenty of leg and headroom to spare. Although anyone travelling in the rear centre position will have drawn the short straw, because the back seat is sculpted with bolstered positions for the two outer positions only.

A fold-down centre armrest offers more storage with a lidded box and a pair of cupholders and twin vents in the rear of the front centre console can be adjusted individually as part of the four-zone climate control system.

Hit the button, near the driver or on the key fob, to open the tailgate door and you’re presented with 461 litres (VDA) of cargo space, with the rear seat split-folding 40/20/40 to increase flexibility and liberate considerably more room.

There are tie-down hooks at each corner of the boot floor, an elasticised cargo net is included, and 12-volt power is provided.

Don’t bother looking for a spare wheel, the tyres are run-flats, and both GT 4-Door Coupe models are a towing no-go zone.

So, the GT 4-Door Coupe can’t just be about staggering performanmce. The GT 53 kicks things off at $249,900, before on-road costs, and at that price you’ll want a handsome load of standard features to go with all that performance potential.

We’ll cover active and passive safety tech in the Safety section, and aside from that the GT 53’s standard equipment list includes, performance front seats (heated and ventilated with electronic adjustment and memory), sports steering wheel (trimmed in nappa leather and ‘Dinamica’ microfibre), ambient interior lighting (with 64 colour choices), nappa leather upholstery, open-pore ash wood trim, sliding glass sunroof, four-zone climate control, a head-up display, keyless entry and start, active cruise control, Burmester 14-speaker, 640-watt audio, the ‘Comand’ multimedia system (including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), 3D sat nav, the previously mentioned ‘Widescreen Cockpit’ and wireless charging for mobile devices.

The GT 63 S shifts things up to $349,900, before on-road costs, adding interior carbon-fibre trim, even more leather around the cabin, the ‘AMG Light Display’ (shows the AMG logo under the side of the car), dark-tinted privacy glass (from B-pillar back), and power closing doors.

On the more technical side the GT 53 features, 20-inch alloy wheels, the ‘Dynamic Plus’ package (specifically tuned steering and suspension), ‘Dynamic Select’ (individual set-up for engine, transmission, suspension, steering and exhaust), a rear limited-slip diff, adaptive suspension, active parking assist, metallic paint (with nano ceramic paint technology) and yellow-painted AMG brake calipers.

The GT 63 S tips in the full-fat powertrain, 21-inch rims, and rear axle steering (an element of rear counter-steer up to 100km/h).

And if you want to go further there are eight option packages, from exterior chrome or carbon-fibre, to a luxury rear seat set-up incorporating two elaborately sculpted individual chairs with a touchscreen, extra USB ports and heated and cooled cupholders.

There are also more than a dozen individual cost and no-cost options, as well as multiple alternate wheel designs to choose from.

Plenty of dollars and plenty of fruit to go with the fire and fury. And thinking about the upcoming V8-powered BMW M8 Gran Coupe (likely to launch in the first half of 2020) it will need every bit of it to stay competitive in this ultra-exclusive market niche.

The fully electric e-tron GT has two motors - one on each axle, ensuring ‘quattro’ all-wheel drive traction.

For the S e-tron GT, the total system output is 430kW of power (or up to 500kW in launch control mode) and 740Nm of torque. 

That’s more power than the previous RS e-tron GT, and enough to get it from zero to 100km/h in 3.6 seconds.

The RS now pumps out 500kW (630kW in launch control mode, no total torque figure available) and can hit triple digits in 3.1 seconds, while the new RS performance flagship boasts impressive outputs of 550kW/1027Nm (680kW in launch control mode) for a dash time of 2.9 seconds. These 0-100km/h times improve in launch control mode.

A newly developed air suspension is standard across the range, and tech wizardry like active suspension and rear-axle steering are optional.

The V8 volcano generating this car’s prodigious power is the same all-alloy, direct-injected, 90-degree 4.0-litre (M178) unit used in the two-door GT coupe, in this case with dry rather than wet sump lubrication.

Its two turbos are located in the engine’s ‘hot vee’ to improve under-bonnet packaging and reduce the distance exhaust gas has to travel to reach each twin-scroll turbo, and that charged air has to travel to the cylinders (minimising throttle lag).

Maximum power of 470kW is available between 5500-6500rpm and peak torque of no less than 900Nm is delivered across a broad plateau from 2500-4500rpm.

The GT 53’s 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder unit produces 320kW at 6100rpm and 520Nm from 1800-5800rpm, with an ‘EQ Boost’ starter-alternator unit between the engine and transmission adding an extra 16kW/250Nm.

Drive goes to all four wheels via a nine-speed automatic transmission, in the 63 S featuring a wet, multi-disc start-off clutch, and a conventional torque converter in the 53.

The ‘4Matic’ all-wheel drive system sends drive to the rear axle permanently, and the front wheels variably, with the torque split continuously adjusted according to conditions and driver input.

Audi has reduced the weight of the battery pack by 9.0kg while also increasing energy density.

Audi has also improved the charging rate which now peaks at 320kW, up from 270kW.

The 105kWh lithium-ion battery on all grades can be charged from 10 to 80 per cent in just 18 minutes using a high-power charging station, according to Audi.

AC charging is 11kW and doing that at home will take about 11 hours from depleted to 100 per cent.

The update to the information in the instrument cluster includes details about current operating state of the battery, including temperature, a quick-charging forecast and the pre-conditioning status.

Driving range is impressive and runs from up to 609km on the WLTP cycle for the S e-tron GT, up to 599km for the RS e-tron GT and up to 592km for the RS e-tron GT performance.

Energy consumption ranges from 18 to 19.7kWh/100km for the S, 18.4-21.1 for the RS and 18.7-20.8 for the RS performance.

At the time of writing, Mercedes-Benz Australia hadn’t issued Australian Standard combined cycle fuel economy figures for the GT 4-Door Coupe, but NEDC Euro standard numbers are 9.4L/100km for the GT 53 and 11.3L/100km for the GT 63 S. NEDC CO2 emissions for the combined cycle are 215g/km and 257g/km respectively.

Despite the GT 63 S’s stop-start system (with glide mode) and eight- to four-cylinder deactivation tech (available from 1000-3250rpm), over close to 280km of mainly open road driving on the launch program we saw a dash-indicated figure of exactly 16.0L/100km.

Minimum fuel requirement for both models is 98 RON premium unleaded, and you’ll need 80 litres of it to fill the tank.

Having the air suspension increase the ride height to get into the e-tron GT is useful, given how low to the ground it is. Once you’re in, you’ll nestle into the sports seats and feel a real connection with the road.

Audi’s generated EV noise sounds like the low, deep growl of a V8, but dialled down. It’s very cool.

The new RS e-tron GT is quick but it delivers acceleration in a smooth, linear manner. There’s no neck-snapping ‘Ludicrous’ moment here. Just straight line performance that will elicit the word ‘wow’ multiple times.

Picking up pace at speed is a breeze - as we discovered on Germany’s autobahns - thanks in part to a ‘push to pass’ button on the steering wheel that adds 70kW of power for 10 seconds, when you need to overtake quickly.

The steering is sharp, but almost a little too sensitive in the RS, to the point where you need to be conscious of your steering inputs. You don’t want to overdo it, but if you do, the onboard electricals should keep things in check. That beautiful steering wheel adds to the engagement.

Audi’s engineers deserve plaudits because they’ve somehow made a five-metre long, 2.3-tonne electric sports sedan feel light and nimble. 

It is dead flat in corners without a hint of lean or body roll and navigates tight bends with a surefootedness that is astounding. 

Accelerating out of a corner is executed without fuss and will bring a smile to your dial, helped in part to the optional rear-axle steering.

The technical wizardry that is active suspension - it uses cameras and radars to analyse the road surface ahead and moderate the dampers and the like accordingly - is impressive.

The ride quality of this heavy car with 21-inch rims is a surprise. You’ll notice road joins and bigger corrugations but overall it's quite composed.

And that’s part of the beauty of the e-tron GT. Its Porsche Taycan cousin is a more focused sports car. Whereas the Audi e-tron GT is a Grand Tourer or Gran Turismo if you will.

Yes, it’s incredibly powerful and is blisteringly fast, but it’s also a comfortable cruiser, and something you could easily live with every day.

The S e-tron GT could be all the Audi you need. It’s still incredibly quick, but not as powerful as the RS. It is the more subtly styled model which will appeal to an understated buyer.

A brief stint on a makeshift track in the e-tron GT performance grade highlighted how the active suspension, rear-axle steering and other tech gubbins help it hold the road so well.

It’s an extraordinary car to drive and taking a different approach to Porsche has served Audi very well indeed.

The advanced safety gear is well calibrated and not intrusive. While the speed limit alert can be annoying, the speed sign recognition is spot on. Let’s see how it goes with Australian speed signs next year.

Okay, so first up this is one fierce four-door, claimed to sprint from 0-100km/h in 3.2 seconds, which is properly supercar fast, and if you’re game and have a driveway long enough, able to blast up to a maximum velocity of 315km/h. Wow.

And behind the wheel it feels every bit of it. A flat-chat, launch-control assisted take-off narrowing your field of vision ever-so slightly and inducing an involuntary tensing of the abdomen.

The accompanying soundtrack is suitably ferocious, with a full-noise pass delivering a satisfyingly sharp spike on the decibel meter.

With 900Nm available from just 2500rpm there’s always an ocean of torque available, and by the time you’re into the upper rev range in anything above third gear you’re either headed for licence loss or the first corner of your favourite race circuit.

The nine-speed ‘MCT’ transmission in the 63 S features a (wet) take-off clutch and the big four-door puts its power down beautifully, the rear axle LSD and carefully tuned ‘4Matic’ all-wheel drive system seamlessly distributing torque between the axles and individual wheels able to make best use of it.

Slip into manual mode and the fun factor dials up a few notches with sharp and positive moves between ratios. But if you prefer leaving it in drive the transmission will sense what you’re up to and pick up ratios at just the right spot to keep things on the boil.

The electrically assisted steering delivers good road feel and the 63 S’s rear axle steering helps with precise and predictable turn-in on cornering.

The adaptive damping system helps keep this roughly 2.0-tonne weapon in check on twisting backroads, the optimal setting for our launch drive being engine, transmission, steering and exhaust turned up to 11, with the suspension in ‘Comfort’ mode. Spot-on.

A monster brake package comprises big ventilated discs (390mm fr / 360mm rr) with six-piston fixed calipers at the front and single-piston floating units at the rear. They wash off speed quickly and calmly time after time.

But dial things back to a less aggressive, more everyday mode and the ride comfort remains a stand-out trait. Even on big 21-inch rims the GT 63 S turns coarse-chip rural bitumen into a smooth carpet, with very little noise filtering into the cabin.

The front seats are super-supportive and comfortable for long stints behind the wheel and ergonomics are top-shelf with all major controls ideally placed and easy to use.

And if you want to get into the nitty gritty the AMG ‘Track Pace’ function in the Comand media system captures and analyses over 80 vehicle-specific data points as well as circuit lap times. Fun

The Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe offers in impressive suite of active features including ABS, BA, EBD, stability and traction controls, a 360-degree camera and reversing camera (with dynamic guidelines), ‘Active Brake Assist’ (Merc-speak for AEB) with cross-traffic function, ‘Adaptive Brake’ (with hill-start assist and brake drying in wet weather), active cruise control, ‘Active Lane Change Assist’, ‘Active Steering Assist’, ‘Attention Assist’ (drowsiness detection), and a tyre pressure monitoring system.

If all that fails to prevent an impact ‘Pre-Safe’ arms various systems to minimise damage and injury and you’ll be protected by nine airbags (front, pelvis and window for driver and front passenger, side airbags for rear seat occupants and a driver’s knee bag). The standard ‘Active Bonnet’ automatically tilts to minimise pedestrian injuries in a collision.

The Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe hasn’t been assessed by ANCAP or Euro NCAP for crash safety performance.

For kids there are three child restraint/baby capsule top tether points across the back seat, with ISOFIX anchors on the two outer positions.

The e-tron GT comes with Audi’s five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty which is fairly standard for the premium segment. The battery warranty is eight years or 160,000km.

Impressively, the outgoing model comes with six years of complimentary servicing by Audi, and the schedules start at every two years or 30,000km. This should carry over for the new model but will be confirmed when the rest of the pricing and specs are locked in.

Mercedes-Benz covers its AMG range with a three year/unlimited km warranty, like the other two members of the German ‘Big Three’ (Audi and BMW) lagging the mainstream market where the majority of players are now at five years/unlimited km, with some at seven years.

On the upside, Mercedes-Benz Road Care assistance is included in the deal for three years.

Service is scheduled for 12 months/20,000km (whichever comes first) with pricing available on an ‘Up-front’ or ‘Pay-as-you-go’ basis.

For the GT 63 S pre-payment delivers a $1230 saving with the first three services set at a total of $6450, compared to $7150 PAYG. Fourth and fifth services are also available for pre-purchase.