Is This The Most Eco Friendly Car Ever?

By Jody McCutcheon

What would you look for in an eco friendly car? Electric battery? Recycled interiors? Vegan-friendly materials? The Audi E-Tron GT Concept has it all. It’s a sleek sedan that gets its electric power from the same drivetrain and battery platform that will be in Porsche’s first EV, the Taycan.

The eco friendly concept car was unveiled at the LA Auto Show recently, but this is no mere concept – the automobile will actually be available to consumers in under two years, according the Audi, who have not yet set a price on the vehicle. 

Perched on 22-inch wheels, the E-Tron GT takes power from a 90kWh battery pack and puts it into two electric motors (one on each axle). That drivetrain creates 434 kilowatts of power in total, or 590 horsepower. That’s good enough to go from 0 to 60 mph in about 3.4 seconds, according to Audi.

Because it shares Porsche’s Taycan tech, the E-Tron GT will charge ultra-fast. The 800-volt battery system is able to go from nearly dead to 80 percent charged in 20 minutes, faster than basically anything else currently on the market — and that’s even including Tesla’s Superchargers.

Wondering how far this electric car can go? Audi estimates a range of about 248 miles for the E-Tron GT, according to Europe’s new Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) standards. While WLTP is more stringent than the previous standards that automakers used to predict range, its estimates are a bit above EPA estimates, so the car may actually fall a bit short of that expectation.

One feature we’re especially excited about with regards to the e-tron GT is the fact that it will also boast an all-vegan interior made of recycled fabrics. The floor mats will even be made of recycled fishing nets!  This is great news, since the leather industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gases, which electric vehicles aim to reduce by both rejecting petroleum for fuel, and by using reclaimed, vegan friendly materials. To be fair, Telsa was one of the first electric car makers to produce vegan interiors. But now it seems this is a trend that’s set to continue.

While it’s certainly a bit of a cliche to call a car a “Tesla Killer,” there can be little doubt the E-Tron GT concept heralds an exciting new wave of up and coming electric cars. By the time the GT concept hits the market, Audi will have the E-Tron crossover as well as a sportback version on the road, and Audi has stated that it is fully dedicated to cleaner cars. In fact, the company anticipates that 30 percent of its production will be electric by 2025.

“A changing world needs beauty and intelligence in order to propel itself forward,” Audi of America’s incoming President Mark Del Rosso told the Times. “This is part of our evolution.”

All images courtesy of Audi