Audi E-tron S Sportback 2021 UK first drive

In the early stages of this new era of the electric car, so much of the talk is around numbers, and how big they are. Range, battery size, power and torque levels, price… Now Audi has added another larger number to its new E-tron S Sportback: a third electric motor.

The new car, launched alongside a new S version of the existing E-tron at the same time, adds one extra motor over the E-tron 55 Sportback that sits below it in the range.

In the E-tron S Sportback, a large electric motor powers the front axle and there are twin smaller motors at the rear, allowing torque vectoring and fully variable torque distribution between the rear wheels for a promised increase in agility.

The presence of three motors, of course, means plenty of power and torque: 429bhp and 596lb ft all in, or 496bhp and a mighty 718lb ft in an overboost function in Sport mode.

Such hefty reserves require an equally hefty battery to draw their power from. In the E-tron S Sportback’s case, it’s a 95kWh lithium ion battery that’s good for a typical 226 miles. 

The new twin-motor rear axle in the E-tron S Sportback left a huge smile on our face when we drove a prototype version on a German test track just under a year ago, finding a coupé-SUV that could oversteer on demand with a tinker of the settings and in the right driving mode. 

In its press literature to accompany the E-tron S Sporback, Audi boldly refers to the system as ‘Handling 2.0’. It effectively mimics a mechanical differential, albeit one acting in a much faster way and with far greater control. 

Back in Blighty, on a dull, damp locked-down January day on roads limited to 60mph, there were, of course, no such sideways antics, nor indeed any revelations of a new handling benchmark. Instead, it all felt much like Audi E-trons we’ve driven before.

That’s no bad thing, mind. Any E-tron is brisk and supremely refined, if lacking any real driver involvement. And so it is here. In real-world conditions, the handling gains feel marginal but are apparent. You won’t be trading in your Porsche 911 but you will be impressed by the grip levels, and how keenly the E-tron S Sportback turns in to corners. 

What the sporty positioning and S treatment also bring with them - big 21in alloy wheels, a firmer suspension tune - actually detracts from that incredible refinement E-trons have all delivered. However trick the rear axle is, it can’t mask the 2.5-tonne-plus mass of the E-tron S Sportback.