NEVER mind Tron, if Audi’s e-tron S Sportback were a movie, it would be an action-comedy-thriller. It’s not that it can’t decide what it wants to be, but rather that it aims to cover every genre: it’s a large, practical sport utility vehicle, a sleek coupe, a high-performance car and an electric vehicle all rolled into one.

As with anything aiming for blockbuster success, the e-tron S Sportback provides quite the spectacle. It has a fastback silhouette and smooth front end. with only a slender opening for cooling air to slip into the engine bay. Both styling features convey a sense of wind-cheating speed, and they work well here just as they do on Ford’s Mustang Mach-E, an electric car that has apparently been a hit in the States.

You can still tell the e-tron S Sportback is an Audi, yet it does look futuristic, with its low-drag alloy wheels and the little hatches up front that hide the charging ports. For a pleasing party trick, the charging flaps glide open electrically, but if anything steals the show here, it’s the way the digital matrix headlights put on a little show when you boot up the car. Friends and family are bound to coo.

Come to think of it, if you really want your pals to fawn over your Audi, all it would take is a clear stretch of road for a little demo of what the wider wheelarches and S badges all over the car signal. Tromp on the accelerator, and the Audi explodes noiselessly forward, violently and instantly. Your passengers will gasp, but you’re bound to giggle every time.

Basic electric cars have 1 motor and some high-performance ones have 2, but the e-tron S Sportback is the first one I’m aware of to have 3. That gives it serious muscle, the real benefit is to the handling. Each rear wheel has its own motor, so the Audi can dole out power in a way that sharpens how it turns — more power to the left wheel for right turns and vice versa (think of a way a wheelchair is steered).

It’s certainly effective, because you can power through a corner without feeling like the Audi wants to run wide, so if you’re a brave person, you should be able to tackle bends at an epic pace, and keep the thrills flowing like in a Michael Bay picture.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

For all that, the Audi isn’t fast in a brutal, snap-your-neck-and-take-your-money sort of way, but more in a shove-you-over-and-laugh-at-you manner. It has 496 horsepower, which is a lot in itself, but it also weighs more than a Rolls-Royce Ghost, so that last bit of scary acceleration isn’t quite there. The e-tron GT models, which are lighter and sleeker still, feel faster for sure.

The hefty weight also means the Audi isn’t particularly settled at speed. On the Comfort drive setting, the rear end sometimes bobs up and down on the highway, which obliges you to tweak the air suspension (or select the Dynamic mode) to calm things back down.

Paradoxically, this is one sporty machine that’s defiantly comfy to drive when you’re going at a sensible pace. Like most electric cars, it’s both smooth and silent on the move, which leaves you feeling free to savour the well-padded seats and the lovingly lit cabin. After a bit of acclimatisation, the dual screen infotainment setup is a doddle to use, and the controls are generally laid out thoughtfully, so the Audi manages to feel futuristic without being bewildering.

It’s as spacious as its size suggests, too. The low roofline means you might have to dip your head to climb in, but once you’re aboard, the headroom is pretty generous, even in the back. As for luggage space, there’s 615 litres of it, which is big for the class — presumably it includes the little tub under the bonnet, a nice feature that comes with some electric cars.

With battery-powered cars, though, the storage that counts is energy storage. Audi says you can get 360 kilometres out the car’s 95 kilowatt-hour battery, but your results will vary. I returned the car with 55 per cent left in the battery and a predicted range of 213 km, meaning I should have been able to cover 387 km in total. Do a high speed run on Malaysian expressways, however, and you’ll be lucky to hit 300 km.

Still, the average driver here should be able to get by charging this Audi just once a week. If you have a weekend ritual that involves 2 hours at a mall with a 50 kW charger, that ought to do it. So much the better if you hunt down a speedy 150 kW charger, because then you’ll be good to go in 30 minutes.

Assuming charging isn’t a barrier for you, there’s still the S$6,146 annual road tax to think about. It’s an exorbitant sum by any measure, and it’s down to a flaw in the way the Land Transport Authority taxes electric cars here — it simply combines the peak output of every motor and goes from there, instead of considering how much power the car has at its disposal, which is usually constrained by how much juice can flow from the battery. The hefty tax bill isn’t a character flaw of the e-tron S Sportback, but it does add a sliver of tragedy to its entertainingly action-filled story. 

Audi e-tron S Sportback quattro

Motor power/torque 

496 hp / 973 Nm

Battery type/net capacity 

Lithium-ion, 86 kWh

Max Normal Charge Type/Time

11 kW AC wallbox/9 hours

Max Fast Charge Type/Time

150 kW DC/30  mins 10 to 80 per cent

Range 

330 km (estimated) 

0-100 km/h

4.5 seconds

Top Speed

210 km/h

Efficiency

26 kWh/100 km

Agent

Premium Automobiles

Price

S$496,290 with COE

Available 

Now