What is e-tron anyway? How Audi's past sets a precedent for the future of its EV line-up

The Audi e-tron - that is the brand’s original fully electric SUV - is no more, with it to be replaced by the Q8 e-tron in Australia by the end of 2023.

It’s a significant downgrade for the e-tron marque, but Audi says it is one that was planned all along, so that it could have a new sub-brand to expand on its already expansive range of nameplates.

Speaking to CarsGuide at the launch of the e-tron GT, the model’s local product manager, Peter Strudwicke, explained that the original e-tron SUV was designed to celebrate a milestone in Audi’s history.

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“With e-tron moving to Q8 - if you look at the history of Audi’s model range, it’s consistent. Quattro started out as the name of a model and e-tron is very similar. It’s a mark in our history which marked our first battery-electric SUV. Now e-tron will live on as a name which will remain on all our battery-electric vehicles.”

“We think the e-tron SUV has gone rightfully to the segment where it belongs - the Q8 range is in that halo position amongst our SUVs.”

Audi’s all-wheel-drive nameplate Quattro originally started out as a model, the Audi Quattro coupe in 1980 on the Volkswagen B2 platform. This car was essentially a spin-off of the Audi 80 sedan, but introduced permanent all-wheel drive coupled with a turbocharged engine to performance-car buyers.

Audi’s all-wheel-drive nameplate Quattro originally started out as a model, the Audi Quattro coupe in 1980 on the Volkswagen B2 platform.

The famous rally car version of the Quattro went on to win four World Rally Championship titles.

Similar to Quattro, Audi’s line of S-badged sports variants started out with the original Audi S2 released in 1991, which was also a stand-lone Audi 80 spin-off. It upped the ante significantly, with a 2.2-litre five-cylinder turbocharged engine available initially as a two-door coupe.

Later, the S line was developed into RS, with the first model being the RS2 Avant station wagon in 1994, developed in collaboration with Porsche. It also used a 2.2-litre five-cylinder engine and all-wheel-drive system, although significantly tweaked to produce 232kW/410Nm.

Audi’s line of S-badged sports variants started out with the original Audi S2 released in 1991.

According to Audi Australia’s chief product planner, Matt Dale, this history puts the e-tron nameplate in a good position to offer what local buyers are after, and might even boost Australia toward more electric cars in the future, despite delays for the Q4 e-tron now.

“We have so many sub-brands at Audi, and we rank number six in the world globally for RS. Australians love performance, and they love technology, and this gives us a lot of sway back in Germany. We hope e-tron will take a similar position in the transition to fully electric.”

Now with an end-date set for production of combustion models though, e-tron seems to be the inevitable future of every Audi. But don’t expect the nameplate to disappear quickly, as Audi takes its time phasing out its popular and expansive combustion range.

The S line was developed into RS, with the first model being the RS2 Avant station wagon in 1994.

“We will maintain e-tron as a nameplate for the foreseeable future” Mr Dale said. “We have a very broad model range, and a very broad customer base with a range of expectations. Audi is going for more of a transition [than some rivals]”

“We’ve now added our first RS battery-electric vehicle with the e-tron GT, but you can’t just switch overnight, it will happen in stages. If you look at more established markets in Europe, it only took 10 years to swap from 80 percent diesel to 80 percent battery-electric, so you can see this kind of transition is viable.”