THE ELECTRIC FUTURE, Audi-style

The first-ever electric vehicle from Audi, the e-tron, is production-ready. As expected, it's impressively engineered.

It seems safe to say the global shift to battery-electric vehicles is now in full swing, with the Volkswagen Group's Audi brand unveiling on September 17 its first electric vehicle (EV), the e-tron, barely a week after chief rival Mercedes-Benz revealed its EQC and mere months after Jaguar launched its i-Pace. An additional sign of the times: all three new luxury EVs are crossovers.

In a glitzy global reveal event in San Francisco, Audi finally pulled the sheet off the production version of the e-tron, some three years after it was first shown as a concept. Production already is underway in Brussels, Belgium, with Audi intent on delivering the first customer vehicle in Europe by the end of this year. The company is cautiously pegging the start of U.S. sales for the second quarter of 2019 and the e-tron will not be inexpensive, with the heavily-equipped Prestige “base” model starting at $74,800 and moving to $86,700 for First Edition (limited to a run of 999 units), which tops the three-trim e-tron lineup.