While the rest of us are making our New Year’s resolutions, or perhaps trying to remember them, the Audi Sport teams will be making final preparations for the coming Dakar Rally 2023. With the prologue getting underway in just over a week on December 31, there will be very limited ‘partying’ in the Saudi Arabian desert as the three driver pairings, race engineers and support crew for Audi Sport’s second Dakar Rally make their final checks and ready for the start of the race.

Awaiting them is a gruelling 8,500 kilometres of unforgiving terrain and some of the finest off-rad racers in the world that will challenge the teams and the their machines over the course of two weeks.

After its unprecedented success in the 2022 chapter of the Dakar, expectations are high with a new, more efficient race vehicle and another year’s worth of experience and fine tuning on board. The overarching goal remains the same as before,  ‘to be the first automobile manufacturer to fight for overall victory in the world’s toughest rally with an electrified drive in combination with an efficient energy converter against conventionally powered competitors’. 

A more refined goal for the coming rally is to bring home a podium finish – by no means a given in what is considered the toughest off-road rally in the world. 

The new E2 version of the RS Q e-trion that proved so successful in 2022 will play an important role in achieving that goal, with its improved aerodynamics and lighter frame as well as a more efficient TFSI engine able to use sustainable efuel.

The body is completely new and has no shared components with the first generation RS Q e-tron. Significantly lighter then before, it now tips the scales at the raised minimum weight of 2,100 kilograms. At the same time, it is significantly more aerodynamic and reduces overall drag – i.e. the product of cW value and frontal area – by 15 percent. This does not change the top speed which remains at the limited 170 km/h, but it does improve air flow and offers the advantage of further reducing the car’s electrical energy requirements.

Once again the Audis (this time around the RS Q e-tron E2s) will compete in the T1 Ultimate category for low-emission vehicles and despite the many changes and refinements to the new vehicles, the basic electric-drive principle remains the same in 2023.

Because of the absence of charging opportunities in the desert, the Audi RS Q e-tron E2 – like its predecessor – uses the highly efficient TFSI engine developed in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) as part of an energy converter that charges the high-voltage battery while driving. 

The drivetrain of the Audi RS Q e-tron E2 is electric, with the front and rear axles both fitted with a motor-generator unit (MGU) and a third MGU used as part of the energy converter and serving to recharge the high-voltage battery while driving. In addition, energy is recuperated during braking. The battery weighs about 370 kilograms and has a capacity of 52kWh.

Not only is the system advanced and absolutely cutting-edge, it has already proved itself to be robust and more then up to the challenge of extreme temperatures and conditions – day in and day out.

All of these factors will come into to play again in the 2023 running of the Dakar, as will the experience and expertise of the driver pairings, which again includes the most successful racer in Dakar history, Stephane Peterhansel with his record 14 victories on both two wheels and four.

Nevertheless it will ultimately be another team effort when the race gets underway on the last day of 2022 and the vehicles once again do battle in the desert.