Double punch

It was a bold step at the start of the year when Audi Sport not only took on the toughest off-road really on earth using electric drive, but proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that its revolutionary new approach was competitive.

The powerplant adopted for its initial assault on the famed Dakota Rally took the form of an electric drive with energy converter – a powerful electric drive module developed over Audi Sport’s time in Formula E, coupled to a highly-efficient petrol motor to supply electricity to the drive unit out in the middle of the desert during the long race stages.

The resulting Hybrid Electric Vehicle, the first generation Audi RS Q e-tron took the Dakar and the world by storm, taking the race right up to the traditional contenders, winning four stages on debut and bring all three vehicles home at the end of the gruelling 8000km event.

Now, the second generation RS Q e-tron E2 will look to achieve an even better result in the next Dakar starting next month with an even-more environmentally-friendly drive unit, using an innovative fuel to power the energy converter.

This eFuel further reduces carbon dioxide emissions, with engineers using biogenic plant parts as the starting product and then using a process that converts biomass into ethanol in a first step. This is ultimately refined into a usable fuel in a process known as ethanol-to-gasoline (ETG). 

This means that fuel mix in the RS Q e-tron consists of 80 percent sustainable components, including ETG and e-methanol and the result not only complies with the strict chemical specifications of the FIA and ASO fuel regulations, but according to Dr Fabian Titus, Application and Thermodynamics Development, results in a saving of 60 percent in carbon dioxide emissions.

At 102 octane, the eFuel guarantees the anti-knock properties of the fuel-air mix during the combustion process and means that the already highly-efficient combustion engine achieves slightly higher efficiency than with fossil-based fuel as well as the drastically reduced emissions.

“At Audi, we are pursuing a consistent strategy of decarbonisation,” says Oliver Hoffmann, Board Member for Technical Development at Audi. “Our battery vehicles and renewable electricity are the lead technologies. To complement this, renewable fuels offer the possibility of running internal combustion engines in a more climate-friendly way. The Audi RS Q e-tron combines both systems in its innovative drive. As a result, we are now even more sustainable on the road in the toughest motorsport imaginable for electric drives.” 

The ultimate aim is to tackle Dakar with 100 percent renewable fuel and this new eFuel combination represents a quantum leap in that direction. Of course another significant goal remains, and that is to win the race, something the teams will be focusing on in a matter of weeks when Dakar 2023 gets underway in Saudi Arabia on December 31st.