It is inspired by the world’s premier desert rally: the Audi Q8 e-tron edition Dakar1. On the exterior, the special model’s raised chassis and the optional decals are reminiscent of the RS Q e-tron designed for the Dakar Rally and featuring an electric drive system and an energy converter. The off-road capabilities of this exclusive SUV, combined with its high and instantly available torque, are perfect for adventurous people who also want to drive off the beaten path electrically. The Q8 e-tron edition Dakar1 can be ordered in the first quarter of 2024. In Germany prices start from around 120,000 euros.

 

The Audi Q8 e-tron edition Dakar1 is based on a Q8 advanced 55 e-tron quattro2. The net battery size is 106 kWh (gross: 114 kWh) and the quattro drivetrain, with its two motors, delivers 300 kW in boost mode with a torque of 664 Nm. This means the vehicle accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.8 seconds with the standard tires. With the General Grabber AT3 all-terrain tires, the car reaches 100 km/h in 5.9 seconds. The range according to the WLTP is up to 487 kilometers. The top speed is limited to 200 km/h (124 mph). 

Compared to the base model, the electric SUV with General Grabber AT3 all-terrain tires has 31 millimeters higher ground clearance and is designed for better handling on loose surfaces such as gravel or snow. In the base setting, the vehicle has a ground clearance of 206 millimeters. At higher speeds, the vehicle gradually lowers – by 15 millimeters at 85 km/h (53 mph), 17 millimeters at 100 km/h (62 mph), and 13 millimeters at 120 km/h (75 mph). This optimizes driving stability at high speeds for improved aerodynamics and range. In conjunction with the front angle of approach of 20 degrees and the rear angle of approach of 26 degrees, the electric SUV is well prepared to tackle light off-road terrain. The vehicle has a ramp angle of 19 degrees. 

The control strategy for the air suspension was also revised to meet the requirements typical of off-road driving. The wading depth is 300 mm.

Distinctive exterior accentuates sporty off-road look

The Q8 e-tron edition Dakar1 is available in Siam Beige metallic, Mythos Black metallic, and Magnetic Gray. The Singleframe always comes in body color. As an option, the projection light in the Singleframe, with its light strip, creates a visually consistent connection between the headlights. The Bottom Line also comes finished in Mythos Black metallic, giving the vehicle a touch of stability and grip. Widened and continuous wheel arch trims at the front and rear lend the Q8 e-tron edition Dakar1 a confident stance on the road. When the driver’s door is opened, LED lights project the words “edition Dakar” onto the street. The individual class of the edition Dakar is also reflected in the exclusive key cover with a special branding. A convenience key (with anti-theft alarm system) is available as an option, which can be used to open the doors and luggage compartment lid via wireless communication between the key and the vehicle. The key can also lock the vehicle via sensors on the door handles.

The Q8 e-tron edition Dakar1 can be fitted with a unique decal package inspired by the legendary RS Q e-tron. Starting with the body color Mythos Black metallic, the car receives a partial embellishment. This means that the wrap uses purposeful transparencies and does not mask the entire surface, even though all exterior components are treated. The wrapped models are limited to 99 units. On the D-pillar, the special model’s serial number can be seen in frosted lettering.

The edition Dakar features extensive standard equipment

The special edition model rolls off the production line with Matrix LED headlights and taillights as standard for precise and high-resolution road illumination. Standard equipment also includes tinted sun visors for the tailgate, rear door, and side windows. On the inside, the S line interior is now standard : This package includes deeply contoured sports seats upholstered in Dinamica microfiber and artificial leather. The vehicle also features a multifunction sport leather steering wheel, an elegant black roof lining, stainless steel pedals, and a comfort center armrest. The decorative inlays come in brushed matte aluminum, while the door sills feature aluminum inserts. The upper part of the instrument panel and the lower interior elements are finished in black artificial leather. The Audi Sport stitching package in red is available as an option. It adds contrasting accents with colored stitching on the sport seats, steering wheel, knee pads, and door armrests. The seat belts are also trimmed in red to blend in perfectly with the cabin’s sporty feel.

A head-up display supplements the screens. It projects important information right onto the windshield – the projections seem to float front of the driver. Another new feature is a display in the MMI operating system that displays information the vehicle’s tilt angle. Plus, Audi offers MMI background images on the MMI display created especially for the edition Dakar1.

In the MMI display, Audi offers theme worlds generated especially for the Edition with MMI background images and coordinated ambient lighting. The spirit of the vehicle is represented here in three scenes: from desert thunderstorms and tire tracks to a dune landscape. The Audi phone box makes phone use very convenient. It connects the driver’s smartphone, which it charges inductively, to the car antenna. The edition also comes standard with the City and Tour assistance packages.

The robust equipment of the Q8 e-tron edition Dakar1 offers further proof of its practicality. The storage and luggage compartment package is also a standard feature. The durable luggage compartment liner and the sturdy floor mats feature edition lettering. The special edition also comes standard with a roof rack. With its load capacity of 40 kilograms (88 lbs.), the roof rack can be used to store a variety of items. A bag for the roof rack and straps for attaching accessories are included. A second charging socket can be used to charge the high-voltage battery using the Combined Charging System Type 2 (CCS2). What’s more, the e-tron charging system offers everything adventure-seekers need to charge their vehicle – whether at home, with friends, or at a vacation home.

The Q8 e-tron edition Dakar1 is delivered with eight tires. The car comes fitted with General Grabber AT3 all-terrain tires for excellent off-road resilience. The tires also ensure improved grip on a variety of surfaces including gravel, stony terrain, mountain and forest paths, and snow. The special tread pattern optimizes acceleration as well as braking and lateral control quality while also enabling the tires to efficiently self-clean, especially when driving on muddy surfaces. The Grabber AT3 also have excellent driving characteristics and low noise emission on asphalt roads for significantly increased driving comfort. The all-terrain tires have an M+S marking, meaning they are suitable for year-round use. A set of summer tires on 20-inch wheels in an attractive 5-V spoke S design is also included with the Q8 e-tron edition Dakar1.

More light, visibility, and sound: Special features

 

The optional ambient light package plus with six predefined color profiles stages the interior to great effect. Featuring extensive contour lights in up to 30 colors, it precisely traces the elemental lines of the interior. As an alternative to the standard two-zone automatic air conditioning, Audi offers four-zone automatic air conditioning. The system can use an optional second high-voltage heater to noticeably increase the heating power. This means that the interior warms up faster in very cold conditions, while the additional battery heater ensures that the battery is ready for charging in very low temperatures. The optional Bang & Olufsen Premium Sound System with 3D sound makes the electric SUV an even greater high-end sound experience. It drives 16 speakers with 705 watts of power. The optionally available virtual side mirrors with cameras reduce the overall width of the vehicle by 15 centimeters, improving the drag coefficient.  The virtual mirrors provide clearer visibility than conventional mirrors in dusty or wet off-road conditions. 

 
Article source: www.audi-mediacenter.com

The Audi RS Q e-tron faces its third Dakar Rally. Team Audi Sport has optimized the pioneering rally prototype, that has an electric drivetrain, a high-voltage battery and an energy converter, in meticulous detail for the toughest rally of the year. The three driver crews of Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist, Stéphane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger, and Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz are facing the most difficult task of the year with optimism, but also respect.

 

Audi was the first manufacturer to develop a T1U model for the Dakar Rally. The aim: the electrically powered prototype is to prove that a low-emission vehicle can master one of the toughest motorsport events and be competitive at the same time. “The Audi RS Q e-tron has already caused quite a stir in its first two Dakar appearances,” says Rolf Michl, Head of Audi Motorsport. “Audi was once again a technological pioneer in its outstanding motorsport history. We have initiated a paradigm shift. The combination of an electric drivetrain and a reFuel-powered energy converter is unique and very efficient. We know what we have already achieved. At the same time, we are looking forward to the next Dakar Rally with respect. It represents a major challenge.” As was the case the past two years, Audi is relying on the Q Motorsport team of experienced team principal Sven Quandt.

Dakar Rally with a total distance of approx. 7,900 kilometer

The drivers, co-drivers, and management of Team Audi Sport agree: A particularly challenging edition of the Dakar Rally lies ahead of all participants. Twelve special stages during 14 days in Saudi Arabia cover 4,727 kilometers. Including all of the liaison stages, the route results in a total distance of 7,891 kilometers. The teams often have to complete more than 400 kilometers a day on the special stages. “That’s why it’s important not to lose your stamina during the rally,” emphasizes Stéphane Peterhansel. “I have trained a lot on my bicycle. We have to be able to rest well during the nights, and we also pay attention to our diet.” One of the special challenges this year is a 48-hour stage. It takes place on January 11 and 12 and forms a joint stage – the sixth of twelve. The organizers have chosen the Empty Quarter with its seemingly endless sea of dunes as the venue. As the motorcycles and quads are on different routes, the leading crews in the cars and racing trucks will not have any tracks in the sand on these two days. In addition, the participants have to do without the regular service from the team and are only allowed to help each other. That night, however, they are spread across multiple bivouacs. They are also unable to perceive and assess the performance of their opponents. “This will be a big strategic challenge,” says Peterhansel’s co-driver Edouard Boulanger. “But the second week will also be tough, because this year the rocky stages only come at the end. Then things can still change.”

Detailed development work on the Audi RS Q e-tron

The development team led by Dr. Leonardo Pascali has improved the RS Q e-tron in many areas. “The new set-up improves comfort and is also very efficient,” emphasizes Carlos Sainz, who has optimized many rally cars in his almost 40 years as a professional driver. Mattias Ekström adds: “For me, it’s all about how we use the car perfectly in the sand. It helps that we can drive over the dunes without needing to change gears.” Edouard Boulanger notes a shift in the emphasis of individual topics: “At the beginning of the project, the focus was on the fundamental development of the complex drivetrain technology and the car. In the meantime, we have also found the time to improve many aspects of the cockpit. We can better control the noise levels and the effects thereof, and the driver and co-driver are also better protected against the effects of hard impacts and extreme loads. The technicians have worked hard on this during the past year and made real progress. A big compliment for that.” The electric drivetrain of the RS Q e-tron with a high-voltage battery draws its power from an energy converter. Audi has been relying on residue-based reFuel for its operation since the last Dakar Rally. This saves 60 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. The regulations limit the output of the electric drivetrain to 286 kW in January 2024, distributed between the front and rear axles. Many other new details reduce maintenance times for the team and make the prototype safer, more reliable, and more comfortable.

 

Article source: www.audi-mediacenter.com

Audi improves the RS Q e-tron once again: Ahead of its third outing in the Dakar Rally, the rally prototype with its pioneering electric drivetrain with a high-voltage battery and an energy converter receives innovations in many areas. The Audi driver crews of Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist, Stéphane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger and Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz benefits from numerous detail improvements in January 2024. The new ideas make the RS Q e-tron safer, more reliable, more comfortable and a little lighter, as well as having shorter maintenance times for the team.

 

In January 2024, Audi will take on the world’s toughest desert rally for the third time with its low-emission vehicle. “What the RS Q e-tron is fundamentally capable of has been demonstrated by our drivers and co-drivers with six stage victories and 22 other single-day podium results at the Dakar Rally since 2022,” says Rolf Michl, Head of Audi Motorsport. “Now it’s a matter of showing our performance as steadily as possible so that we can fight for top positions.” Audi Sport has analyzed the previous outings, identified weak points and set clear priorities for further development. Dr. Leonardo Pascali, the project’s new Technical Director, has focused on five key topics with his development team since the early summer.

Safety: continue to improve on a high level

The accidents of Stéphane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz at the 2023 Dakar Rally have prompted Audi to improve safety yet again. “Our goal was to reduce the peak vertical acceleration during landings after big jumps,” says Dr. Leonardo Pascali. By working with the springs, dampers and the bump stop in the chassis, the engineers have better distributed some of the load over time. They thus enable optimum control of the platform, which is so important for the overall performance of the car. A second contributing factor comes from the foam in the seats. They help to distribute loads on the driver and co-driver over a longer period of time and thus reduce peak loads. The developers have specifically focused on the material stiffness and geometries of the foam in the seats, also taking into consideration how the cockpit temperature influences the stiffness of the foam. The protection of the occupants after a hard frontal landing of the vehicle, like Carlos Sainz’s second accident at the 2023 Dakar Rally, which ended up with the car rolling over, was also on the minds of those responsible. The CFRP crash box at the front end of the chassis structure is now longer, without compromising the angle of attack, which is so important in cross-country rallying. It now absorbs the energy generated during such accidents better than before.

Reliability: clever details for the big picture

The Audi RS Q e-tron is a very reliable race car, even in the toughest conditions: All three cars saw the finish line at their first Dakar Rally event in 2022. The fact that two of the three cars did not finish in 2023 was not due to technical issues, but due to accidents. As the complex drivetrain technology is basically mature, Audi Sport can concentrate on details in terms of reliability. Previously, penetrating stones got caught between the rim bed, brake disc and upright. In some cases, they caused considerable damage and necessitated time-consuming wheel changes on more than one occasion. New fastening elements for the uprights allow greater clearance so that the stones are thrown out more easily. At the same time, Audi Sport is using more robust rims from now on. Stronger sidewalls also make the new generation of tires, from the control tire supplier BF Goodrich, less vulnerable.

Comfort: better sealing for higher concentration

Audi relies on particularly experienced, well-coordinated and high-performing drivers and co-drivers. To make their strenuous work easier, the engineers optimized the acoustic shielding, as well as sealing the cockpit. A modified front bonnet now better repels swirled mud and water, which allows the windshield to remain cleaner.

Performance: ideas in many areas

From the chassis to the software, from the body to the electric drivetrain: The engineers looked at various aspects to make the Audi RS Q e-tron even more competitive within the framework of the regulations. Working with the shock absorbers and springs helped the team to find an even better set-up. To get even closer to the minimum weight of 2,100 kilograms, while the weight of the new, more robust tires increases, various components have been optimized in terms of weight. This applies to the rear bonnet, as well as the smaller brake calipers, but also to the footrest for the co-driver. The regulations also slightly shift the balance between Audi’s T1U model and the opponents in the T1 class in terms of power-to-weight ratio: The 263 kW of maximum output from the electric motors at the start of the 2023 season (including the efficiency coefficient) turned into a value of 271 kW during the Dakar Rally, following a change in the regulations. As of January 2024, the figure will rise to 286 kW. At the same time, the regulations raise the weight of the opponents’ T1 models by 10 to 2,010 kilograms.

Maintenance times: shorter work, better result

In its search for improvements, the Audi Sport development team also examined the daily maintenance work during rally events. Thanks to many practical ideas in this detail area, quite a few steps have now been simplified. For example, modified bolted connections, improved tool holders, optimized filling cap devices for operating fluids, new locking solutions for body parts and bolted instead of glued connections all contribute to simpler and faster servicing.

“Our engineering team has improved the RS Q e-tron even further with many creative solutions,” says Rolf Michl, Head of Motorsport. “Drivers and co-drivers, as well as all of the mechanics and engineers, benefit from the imaginative ideas. We feel that we are prepared for the Dakar Rally in the best possible way.” Since the middle of the year, Audi has successively incorporated the changes and started testing them, thus ensuring the incorporation of all the innovations in time for the 2024 Dakar Rally.

Article source: www.audi-mediacenter.com

For the 47th time, the Audi Works Council has called on the staff to participate in the traditional Christmas donation. An impressive 99.6 percent of Audi employees heeded the call and donated a total of 493,032 euros to charitable and social institutions, organizations, and associations in the region. As every year, the company also contributed to the staff donation, rounding up the amount to 720,000 euros.

 

Thomas Wendl, Head of Works Council Service, welcomed more than 130 guests to the donation ceremony on Monday evening, where he explained: “Stability, security, a future, but also community and cohesion: That’s what people long for, especially in extreme situations.” According to Wendl, that makes it all the more important to support the work of such organizations, especially in times of crisis. “Because they offer people support, someone to talk to, a hand – or a shoulder,” said Wendl.

Jörg Schlagbauer, Audi Chairman of the General Works Council, thanked the representatives of the 110 organizations and said: “I greatly appreciate your dedication and let me emphasize: It is anything but a matter of course. You are really putting heart and soul into your work.” Schlagbauer also said: “An outstanding 99.6 percent of the Audi employees in Ingolstadt participated in this 47th donation. At the end of the day, that means that once again, more than 41,000 Audi and Audi BKK employees supported the valuable work of social institutions in the region.”

Jürgen Frank, Head of HR Business Partners at Audi Ingolstadt, emphasized the importance of the Audi Christmas donation, which has been regular fixture on the calendar since 1977. According to Frank, the company’s long-standing commitment shows that its employees are willing to help others, even in difficult times. "For many years, this has been an expression of the fact that we Audi employees have close ties to our home region and assume social responsibility,” summarized Jürgen Frank.

 

By way of background:
For over 45 years, the Audi Works Council has been calling on the staff to participate in the long-standing Christmas donation. The former Chairman of the Works Council Fritz Böhm started the fundraiser. Since then, Audi employees have collected more than 20 million euros and used it to support charitable organizations around Ingolstadt, where Audi is headquartered. Together with the Audi site in Neckarsulm, we are able to donate a total of one million euros to the people in need this year.

 

Article source: www.audi-mediacenter.com

The last big test before the 2024 Dakar Rally: Team Audi Sport has put the Audi RS Q e-tron through its final test in the south of France. The three Audi driver crews of Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist, Stéphane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger and Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz carried out the final fine-tuning. Before Audi’s third participation in the Dakar Rally, the engineers’ priority was to further extend the endurance of all the components.

 

The three driver crews covered a total distance of over 900 kilometers during the five-day test hosted at Château de Lastours. “We have thus fulfilled our development tasks and are now concentrating on the remaining logistical work before January,” says Rolf Michl, Head of Audi Motorsport. “We have prepared as well as possible, but the Dakar Rally remains the most ambitious and by far the most difficult task on the calendar. And we approach it with great respect. A big thank you also goes out to the entire team, as well as to our drivers and co-drivers for the work they have done to date for this very demanding challenge.”

Under the leadership of the Technical Director Dr. Leonardo Pascali, the focus for the engineers was the confirmation of quality standards. The innovative Audi RS Q e-tron is characterized by its electric drivetrain with a high-voltage battery and an energy converter. The battery system and other components of the highly efficient and low-emission concept had to pass final endurance tests at the venue between Narbonne and Perpignan on the French Mediterranean coast. “Logistically, this location was ideal for us to travel to and allowed short reaction times if we needed something from Germany,” summed up Pascali. “We have gone over all of the assemblies and systems, both the parts taken over from the previous model and the newly developed ones. It was about meeting the specified quality standards for all areas.” At the same time, the drivers were able to once again confirm the RS Q e-tron’s set-up for the Dakar Rally, which they had developed on different terrain over the course of the season.

“We were able to work through all the necessary points on our checklist,” said Sven Quandt, Team Principal of Q Motorsport. “Our drivers and engineers have put the cars through their paces for the Dakar Rally. Carlos, Mattias and Stéphane are happy. They even tested some of the spare parts in their cars to run in the components. We are going to the Dakar Rally with excitement, but also with peace of mind. Everyone has shown that they are real team players. They approach their tasks purposefully and consistently. This increases our confidence for the Dakar Rally.”
 
Article source: www.audi-mediacenter.com