Audi Preps RS Q e-tron E2 for Morocco and Dakar

• Audi redesigns the RS Q e-tron for the upcoming rally season, making significant changes to the bodywork and the cabin.

• The RS Q e-tron E2 pairs a high-voltage battery with an internal combustion engine and a generator, with motors at each axle.

• The revised rally car will compete in Morocco in the upcoming weeks, ahead of the big test in Dakar.

Ingolstadt's RS Q e-tron had an eventful debut year. First, after a successful round of tests, one electric rally car got lost in the desert of Saudi Arabia during Dakar, while the other hit a big rock and destroyed its suspension in the opening days. The prototype returned weeks later to the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, and won the event with Stéphane Peterhansel and Edouard Boulanger in the cockpit, with an advantage of 29.49 minutes.

Now, Audi is getting ready for the next big events of 2023, and this means a redesigned prototype of the range-extended EV.

The RS Q e-tron E2, as it is known, is getting ready for the 2022 Morocco Rally as well as the 2023 Dakar Rally, and it will certainly look different on the outside—every body panel will be different.

"We’ve managed a good debut at the Dakar with the Audi RS Q e-tron and even our first stage victories in a motorsport discipline that is new to us," said Rolf Michl, Managing Director of Audi Sport GmbH and responsible for motorsport at Audi. "The entire team is working excellently together and pulling in the same direction. As is usual at such an early stage, the drivers, co drivers and technicians quickly agreed on the next development targets. We have summarized the result in a new evolution package—the RS Q e-tron E2."

For the start of the next season, Audi has made the cockpit much wider, while also changing the front and rear hoods. It is also working to lower the vehicle's center of gravity, even though the overall weight of the car itself will grow from 2,000 to 2,100 kilograms. Audi has also worked on the aerodynamics, with the RS Q e-tron E2 offering an overall aerodynamic drag improvement of 15 percent.

The range-extended EV will once again be powered by a high-voltage battery, with energy produced by internal combustion engine and a generator, with two motors at each axle. But this time, Audi will tackle the issue of short-term surpluses of power in instances where the wheels left the ground as the vehicle jumped or drove over uneven terrain. In 2022, the FIA penalized Audi in these instances at the threshold of 2 kilojoules of excess energy. With the RS Q e-tron E2 this fall, the automaker's racing arm will recalculate the individual limits in each motor to stay within milliseconds, keeping the excess energy within allowed limits.

When it comes to energy usage, Audi will actually turn down the air conditioning system even though the RS Q e-tron E2 will face uncomfortable temperatures once again in Morocco and Saudi Arabia. But that's only because during the previous season, the the air conditioning system was working so aggressively that it could cause the coolant to freeze when running at maximum output. This time around, the system has been tweaked to work intermittently.

For the three driver teams, the major changes will be not only in the width of the cockpit, but with the controls and displays.

"The totality of all the functions quickly creates confusion," said Florian Semlinger, development engineer for embedded software, application and test bench. "That’s why, for the first time, the driver and co-driver can now select from four system areas using a rotary switch."

This time, there will be a Stage theme for the central console display and also a Road theme for the liaison stages that will display a rear-view camera feed. A Settings theme for the engineering team will also be added, along with an Error theme to detect and categorize errors.

"We have combined all the important lessons in a very short time. The result of our ideas is the E2 evolution," said Uwe Breuling, Head of Vehicle Operations at Audi Sport. "Our development team’s determined and cost-efficient work has prepared us perfectly for our second Dakar Rally."

The RS Q e-tron E2's first outing will be at the 2022 Morocco Rally in just under a month with three driver teams: Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist, Stéphane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger, and Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz.