Yahoo Autos 2019 Audi e-tron Is Heavier Than Our Long-Term 2019 Ram 1500
The 2019 Audi e-tron weighed 78 more pounds than our long-term 2019 Ram 1500 in C/D testing.
This is explained by the fact that, according to Audi, the e-tron's 95.0-kWh lithium-ion battery weighs 1543 pounds.
The e-tron is the heaviest EV we've tested, weightier than Teslas with larger battery packs and more range.
We weigh every vehicle that comes through C/D headquarters, and when we had an Audi e-tron, we stumbled upon something that surprised us. The e-tron, with its liquid-cooled 95.0-kWh lithium-ion battery, weighed in at 5843 pounds. Shockingly, that's 78 pounds more than our 5765-pound long-term Ram 1500.
This came as a surprise to us, because the hulking Ram has a 5.7-liter V-8 and is 49 inches longer and 12 inches taller than the e-tron. Plus it can tow 11,000 pounds. Of course, EVs' large battery packs—the e-tron's is 95.3 kilowatt-hours—are heavy, but even among electrics the e-tron is abnormally porky.
The two-tier battery pack is seven and a half feet long, and it cozies itself into the middle of the e-tron's 115.1-inch wheelbase. It's five feet wide and over a foot deep, and Audi claims it weighs 1543 pounds. So the battery alone makes up about 26 percent of the e-tron's curb weight. Compared with other EVs, the Audi's battery pack is heavier. On a per-kilowatt-hour basis, the Jaguar I-Pace comes in at 14.8 pounds per kilowatt-hour, the Porsche Taycan at 14.9, the Kia Niro EV at 15.8, and the Audi at 16.2. But that doesn't explain all of the difference.
That 95.3-kWh battery helps give the e-tron its EPA-rated 204-mile range, although, during our testing, we achieved a 190-mile highway range. We suspect that the e-tron's 5843-pound curb weight could be why we got this lower number. For comparison, we managed to get the same range when we tested the Jaguar I-Pace, although it weighs almost 1000 pounds less and is powered by a smaller, 90.0-kWh battery. We have yet to test a Tesla Model X, which is rated at 295 miles of range; we estimate that it weighs between 5450 and 5500 pounds.
Although the Tesla Model S is longer with more wheelbase than the e-tron, the last one we tested, a 100D (with a larger battery pack than the Audi) was a whopping 889 pounds lighter. The Model X is even larger, and the last one we tested, back in 2016, had a 90.0-kWh battery and weighed 5594 pounds.
The heavy curb weight is certainly a factor in the e-tron's not very impressive EPA range rating of 204 miles; the current Model X Long Range is rated at 328 miles with a slightly larger, 100.0-kWh battery pack. But the e-tron's heaviness remains somewhat of a mystery. There isn't a simple explanation.
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