Audi seems to be to uncover footing in Dakar with beastly electrified rally auto

The story of present day-working day Audi motorsport commenced when it drove its quattro into the Environment Rally Championship sequence back again in 1981. Rallying thus operates deep at Audi, but the Four Rings has even now hardly ever raced in the hardest of them all: Dakar. That’s set to improve in 2022, as Audi designs a Dakar debut that will see it develop into the initially automaker to race a auto with an substitute powertrain, a auto that appears to be like like a eco-friendly but totally indicate snarling beast from underneath the handles.

When it comes to electrified racing, Audi has a single of the world’s most impressive resumes, owning achieved a Le Mans hat trick in between 2012 and ’14 with the R18 e-tron quattro, before relocating on to excellent achievement in the all-electrical System E sequence. It is really now planning to finish manufacturing facility participation in Components E subsequent the 2021 season, turning its awareness to Dakar and other racing pursuits.

“We are having the future move in electrified motorsport by going through the most serious circumstances,” states Markus Duesmann, chairman of Audi’s Board of Management. “The a lot of technological freedoms offered by the Dakar Rally provide a excellent take a look at laboratory for us in this respect.”

Given that Audi will step on to the Dakar battlefield in 2022, not at following month’s 2021 event, its rally car is still in the is effective and hidden underneath fabric. The solitary teaser photo produced this week hints at a properly smooth and muscular rally rig that could just give the Peugeot 3008DKR Maxi a run for its money as the coolest Dakar automobile of contemporary periods. Big tires, higher arches, razor-sharp headlights, a sloped Sportback-like roofline topped by a wicked air scoop … what is actually not to love?

Audi describes that its Dakar prototype will get travel drive from a effective electrical push wired up to a substantial-voltage battery pack. To give the automobile the legs it demands to trek throughout 1000’s of kilometers of sizzling, brutal desert, Audi will use a substantial-performance TFSI motor as a generator to source variety-boosting electric power.

Audi will not specify irrespective of whether its hybridized electric powered drive will electrical power all four wheels. We presume it’s going to want to highlight its prosperous “quattro” historical past, but rear-wheel-travel automobiles have been creating a powerful scenario for themselves of late, capturing the previous four out of 5 Dakar Automobile titles (the 2019-winning Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux has AWD). Most recently, at the 2020 event, the RWD X-Raid Mini John Cooper Works Buggy grabbed the very first and 3rd spot places in the Autos class, though the greatest-inserting 4×4 Mini JCW Rally adopted in sixth.

Audi’s concentrate on Dakar will make cross-state rally racing a cornerstone of the brand’s “Vorsprung durch Teknik” philosophy as it transitions its generation lineup from “quattro” to “e-tron quattro.” Audi intends to use the encounter and perception acquired in rallying to refine electrical powertrain technological innovation for its output cars. By 2025, the enterprise expects up to 40 % of worldwide revenue to come from electrified types.

Audi isn’t really the only just one decided to see different-powertrain technology split as a result of in Dakar. Acciona turned the first group to effectively operate an all-electric powered auto back again in 2017, and many groups program to deal with the occasion with hydrogen-run autos in 2023, according to an announcement from Dakar right now. A person such team, the formidable pairing of 5-time winner Cyril Despres and excessive adventurer Mike Horn, will use this year’s rally to collect scientific info to help in the construction of its 2023 hydrogen rig.

Over and above Dakar, Audi is also organizing a massive return to the Planet Stamina Championship series it exited in 2016 to pursue Method E. That indicates it’ll be again at the rear of the wheel at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race it was dominating significantly less than a 10 years back.

“We are evaluating other probable fields of action for us in global motorsport,” says Julius Seebach, running director of Audi Activity. “In doing so, we have our customers’ needs in brain as significantly as the company’s long term technique, which is plainly centered on electrification and carbon-neutral mobility. This is why we are intensively preparing to enter the new athletics prototype classification LMDh with its highlight races, the Daytona 24 Hrs and Le Mans 24 Hrs.”

Resources: Audi, Dakar