The 2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Is A Nail In The Coffin For Gas Performance

I keep a mental list of the fastest cars I've ever driven. It's not a very lengthy or detailed one, just an informal ranking of the best of the best when it comes to speed.

The Bugatti Veyron was at the top of the list for a long time. I was also fortunate enough to drive a Lexus LFA once; it's definitely on there. So is the Porsche 911 Turbo S—specifically, the 991 generation of that car, but any Turbo S can ruin a supercar's day. Oh, and the Nissan GT-R Nismo. That could always take down the best of the best, even when it had been on sale long enough to buy its own cigarettes.

But a funny thing has happened over the past few years as I've shifted to covering electric vehicles. That mental list keeps getting reset—and in some ways, it almost doesn't matter.

Despite a pervasive myth to the contrary, nearly all EVs are quick, and just about every EV is going to be quicker than its gas-powered equivalent. The BMW i5 M60 is better than the current M5. A Ford Mustang Mach-E GT will outclass pretty much all of its V8 cousins. My dual-motor Kia EV6 is quicker than any gas-powered car I ever owned, and it's not even an EV6 GT.

Hell, even a humble electric Volvo can pack 400 horsepower these days and isn't to be messed with at the stoplight. And none of those cars are two-door supercars; they're often just ordinary sedans and crossovers that anyone can live with.

2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance

Photo by: Patrick George

So the fact that America these days seems dead-set on backsliding to gas-powered cars, with some brands happy to go along for the ride, feels like a step in the wrong direction for countless reasons. Cleaner air is one of them, certainly. So is technological competition.

But so is performance. Let's be honest: in the race for speed, gas power has already been made irrelevant.

Few cars prove that more than Audi's heavily updated RS E-Tron GT. And after a few days with one, I'm not sure why anyone is supposed to care about gas-powered performance cars anymore.

(Full Disclosure: Audi sent me an RS E-Tron GT to test for a week.)

2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance

Photo by: Patrick George

Audi's E-Tron GT has always kind of lived in the shadow of its close relative, the Porsche Taycan. I don't really know how fair that is, but for the 2025 model year especially, it deserves to be considered and lauded in its own right. The American E-Tron GT lineup is now down to just two models: the S E-Tron GT, with "just" 670 horsepower, and the car you see here, the RS E-Tron GT Performance.

Big name, but it comes with a lot of car. Most of the time, its 105 kilowatt-hour battery sends 818 hp to all four wheels. But when launch control and its Boost Mode are engaged, that jumps to 912 hp—making it the most powerful Audi ever, and with more juice than all but three of the top Taycan trims.

2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance

Photo by: Patrick George

It's an absurd amount of power, really, and one that exceeds many supercars. But make no mistake: it is one. Even if it has four doors and a surprisingly cushy back seat (albeit one that's pressed for headroom and legroom), the E-Tron GT is long, low and wide. From some angles, the design even evokes the old R8 supercar, or even the TT sports car, and I still consider myself a fan of both. There's one big downside: how did Audi let Porsche get all the wagon versions? What an oversight. This thing deserves an Avant variant.

Like the Taycan, the E-Tron GT received significant upgrades for 2025. Charging speeds are now at a class-leading 320 kilowatts, so it'll go from 10% to 80% in just 18 minutes, according to Audi. The steering, adaptive air suspension, front and rear motors and more have all been upgraded.

You even get an impressive 278 miles of EPA-rated range, which read as high as 290 miles on a full charge at my house. That's exceptionally good for its level of performance.

2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance

Photo by: Patrick George

You don't see big improvements everywhere, of course. I rolled my eyes after I laid them upon Audi's last-generation Multi-Media Interface (MMI) system, which has been thankfully replaced by Android Automotive OS-based software on newer EVs like the Q6 E-Tron. MMI is fine enough here, but the graphics, speed, menus and overall experience feel far from cutting-edge.

The front driver-facing display is highly customizable, which is a plus. So are the paddles on the steering wheel that let you adjust regenerative braking—albeit without true one-pedal driving, unfortunately.

2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance

Photo by: Patrick George

2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance

Photo by: Patrick George

2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance

Photo by: Patrick George

But here's the thing: if you get an E-Tron GT, you're in it for the speed. And that's where you're really getting your money's worth.

The RS E-Tron GT Performance mixes comfort and outrageous performance perhaps better than any car I've tested before. Yes, really. It starts with that air suspension: in the standard Comfort mode, where I was content to leave it nearly all of the time, the ride is impeccably smooth over any type of pavement without sacrificing even an ounce of handling excellence. You can dial up the firmness with the RS driving modes, of course, but I seldom wanted to.

Photo by: Patrick George

Not when the car can handle like it does. And the handling prowess of the RS E-Tron GT Performance reset my understanding of physics. The car just takes any corner at any speed you want—no drama, no slippage, no understeering. It just goes. On an empty, curving highway, you can bank at far over the posted speed limit with utmost confidence, as if it were designed for every road to be the Ehra-Lessien test track.

2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance

Photo by: Patrick George

This is where electric power presents a distinct advantage. Torque vectoring—the act of independently distributing power to individual wheels—can happen much, much more quickly here than on a gas-powered car. There, some system of processors and sensors would have to tell an engine to adjust its output to deliver the optimum amount of power to each wheel. On an EV, that process happens much more quickly, bordering on instantly.

As InsideEVs contributor Peter Nelson, who is a better and more track-proven driver than I'll ever be, put it recently: "it completely threw my concept of cornering grip and G-force through a loop." I would add that this thing feels built for some other planet than ours, something with different levels of gravity or physics; it is too good for the laws of nature we must abide by here on Earth.

And that's just the handling. In a straight line, I don't see why anyone would care about V8 or V10 or V12 power after experiencing this car, save for some fondness for engine sounds. The RS E-Tron's acceleration is utterly crushing. It uncorks that full power gradually, as if to make sure it's what you want, but then it makes your stomach lurch as it silently shoots up to near triple-digit speeds.

2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance

Photo by: Patrick George

Like the proper grand tourer it is, it never feels out of control. If you want, you can drive it as sedately as any other Audi sedan. But the power is stunning when you want it. Hit that steering wheel button that says "BOOST" and any sense of decorum gives way to utter violence: 10 seconds with a graphic countown where you get the full 912 hp.

It doesn't accelerate in this mode, so much as it ticks up to highway-and-beyond speeds seemingly faster than your brain can handle, all while you desperately keep your eyes on the road. 74. 85. 96. Tick, tick, tick. You will run out of road, or courage, or common sense before that 10 seconds is up. Most of the time, I called it around four.

Oh, and do yourself a favor and pin your head back to your seat before you try this. I didn't, and my neck is still a bit sore today.

2025 Audi RS E-Tron GT Performance

Photo by: Patrick George

So with zero to 60 mph happening in a claimed 2.4 seconds—and Motor Trend's instrumented testing got it down to 2.3—I have to reset my list again. This electric Audi is now as quick, if not slightly quicker, than that Veyron. And that car, at the time, cost $2.35 million.

You pay an immense price for all the speed on this Audi, too. It's not $2 million, but it is $190,690 with options. Then again, that undercuts a lot of supercars in the $300,000 range and well beyond, all with zero tailpipe emissions and probably better handling. (Oh, and depreciation? I'm counting down the days.)

I suppose there are plenty of people who would welcome a return to fossil-fuel power. But those people just haven't had seat time in a car like this yet. For me, the future of performance has never been more obvious—and I know that my list will have to be updated again soon enough.