Audi RS Q e-tron Rally Car- Desert Torture Test

The workers of Audi Sport have just finished the first extreme 2 week torture test run in the scorching sand dunes of Morocco with the Audi RS Q e-tron rally car in preparation for the Dakar Rally on January 2022.

Former champion and record holder of Dakar Rally; Stéphane Peterhansel as well as Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström all had a chance to test drive this e-tron rally car in extreme weather conditions.

Ambient temperature in the area clocked in at around 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degree Celsius) along with sandstorms that bombarded the vehicle which pushed the limits to what this electric rally car could handle.

As a result of these extreme conditions some problems arose to the surface that interrupted the testing on multiple occasions however they are to be fixed before the next test.

Bringing the RS Q e-tron to the Morocco desert was to make sure that even in the harshest of conditions it can still perform within the correct parameters so that during the Dakar Rally (which has way lower temperatures) it would be able to potentially out-perform the competition.

While using a powerful high-voltage battery for this RS Q e-tron is ideal for speed, the greatest challenge was keeping the batteries from overheating which therefore leads to power loss.

A great amount of knowledge and experience has been gained while doing these tests which will be passed on to Audi engineers for the improvement of upcoming electric road vehicles. Audi sport is aiming for “absolute perfection” for this RS Q e-tron which means test, fail, refine on repeat until perfection is reached.