Sean Evans

-UUUUUCK! I am going to die. I assumed if I ever died in a car, Id be the one driving. Let it be quick. I dont want to slowly asphyxiate after breaking my neck. That would suc-

A massive impact jerks the car around. My butt lifts out of the seat but the seat belt pins me. It feels like piano wire trying to split me. Ambient light seeping through my clenched eyelids vanishes. Its dark and were still careening at extreme speed.

Did we just roll? Are we upside down? We are inverted and not slowing down. Another enormous bang and were right side up again, per my internal gyroscope. Were still airborne and theres a moment of nothingness, just whooshing wind and that stomach-dropping feeling, like on a Six Flags ride that plummets you 15 stories in five seconds. Is this like the eye of the storm, the calm before shit gets real? Will the landing be what kills me? When will we lan-

An explosive thud and were rolling over again. I cant take much more. Please, let this end. We slam around again and finally come to a creaking rest. I blink twice, recalibrating my eyes, blinded by the bright California sun. Were right side up. Smoke from the airbags and a cloud of dust envelop the chirping car in a hazy cloud, but its not on fire. Small victory there. My eyes survey my body for blood or compound fractures.

The car was largely intact, though a wide debris field dotted the steep mountainside.

No visible wounds. I spastically fire each of my limbs, praying for painless function. Success. My fingers frantically spider over my face, feeling for gashes or anomalies. Normal. The driver checks out, too.

I close my eyes. For the first time since the car left the road, I exhale.

I was the one who suggested we undertake the five-hour-plus drive from Los Angeles to Monterey,

California. I even suggested the very route that was nearly my demise: Route 33, a serpentine road that bisects the Los Padres National Forest, twisting you up to a summit of 5,100 feet before winding you back down onto Route 166.

This was in August 2018, when British supercar maker McLaren let me, an automotive journalist, pilot a 570S Spider, a $235,000 drop-top coupe that boasts a midmounted twin-turbo V-8 engine, good for 562 horsepower and 443 lb-ft of twist. From a dead stop, it shrieks to 60 mph in just over three seconds. In another 6.5 seconds, 124 mph. The sensation of that kind of speed is otherworldly. The road and surroundings warp around you as you hurtle through space in a machine that becomes more alive the closer you push it to the limit. McLarens are beloved for how accessible they make the knifes edge.

Another journalist, an eager twenty-something kid from England whom Id never met, was my passenger.

Route 33 is not meant to be driven at ten tenths. Its a technical route with tight hairpins that can appear out of nowhere. When I swapped places with the kid, he ripped off, seemingly capable. The 570 was lively and twitchy as he pressed harder, but his inputs seemed smooth and the car was responding favorably.

Less than five minutes later, he ran out of talent and we ran out of road.

We had traveled 225 feet out from where the 570s now-mangled tires last touched asphalt and some 70 feet down the mountain. Thats about one New York City block. Although wed gotten up to 110 mph, we left the road at 70, flying over two metal drainage pipes, each the diameter of a manhole cover, and missing most of the bigger trees. The car was largely intact, though a wide debris field dotted the steep and loamy mountainside. My sweatshirt, stored in the now-demolished frunk, was located some 80 feet back up the cars flight path. My phone was never found.

It took several minutes to catch my breath after clambering up the 50-degree slope to the top of the hill. The shock dissipated and, after talking to the highway patrol-When vehicles go over the side here, we get body bags ready. We rarely see survivors-and watching him wave off the air ambulance, I borrowed the officers phone, walked away from the scene, and called my parents. I kept it together until my father quietly said, He couldve killed you. Those simple words triggered a full breakdown and I just sobbed, thick tears leaving streaky trails down my dirt-caked face. I told him I needed to call my fiance, and his parting words stuck with me: Im glad youre okay. Planning a wedding is a lot better than planning a funeral.

One door was still up, waving at me: Hi there. Glad I was able to protect you.

I wiped away the tears and peered down at the mangled McLaren, its bright-orange body barely visible through the thick shrubbery. One dihedral door was still up, waving at me: Hi there. Glad I was able to protect you.

Theres a one-piece carbon-fiber safety cell under here, a McLaren engineer said later that evening at Pebble Beach, rapping the side of a 600LT, the newest model to emerge from the companys Woking production line. This MonoCell is virtually bombproof. Youll survive just about anything in a McLaren. I glanced at my only injuries: a nick on my hand, the result of grasping at a pricker bush when climbing up the mountain, and the already-scabbing scrapes on my shins from the knee airbags that had shielded my legs. I wasnt even sore, contrary to the paramedics prediction.

McLaren employs a carbon tub as standard in every single car it produces.

Credit McLarens multi-championship Formula One team for the pioneering invention. Race cars are designed to go fast and protect the driver. A decade after founder Bruce McLaren perished while testing one of his race cars, a carbon-cell tub was created for the 1981 MP4-1 F1 car. Rival teams pilloried the idea, believing it to be unsafe and their all-aluminum chassis to be superior. After McLaren driver John Watson walked away from a horrific fireball crash that split his car in two at Monza, every Formula One car eventually had a carbon cell installed. When McLarens iconic three-seat F1 road car debuted in 1992, engineers included a carbon tub. McLaren employs a carbon tub as standard in every single car it produces-the only car manufacturer to do so.

We need the carbon fibers strength to protect our occupants, Charles Wildig, head of design execution for McLaren, offered in a charming British accent. Especially, for example, when enthusiasm overcomes adhesion and a high-energy crash results.

To create the tub for all McLarens vehicles, dry sheets of carbon fiber as thin as two pieces of paper are placed into a tool mold and resin is injected into the mold under high pressure. After the mixture is compressed and baked, youve got a tub that can withstand more than 50 tons of force in a front crash. Thats the equivalent of turning the tub on its end and stacking four London buses on top. It wont break, Wildig said. McLaren declined to comment on the price, but producing a single carbon-fiber tub likely costs about $10,000.

In the 570S Spider, the tub is the stable, core building block upon which bits are added to complete the chassis. For example, the A-pillars-the sides of the windshield-marry reinforced aluminum to the tub. When I expressed surprise that the pillars didnt crumple during our wreck, because they had visible damage from the impact, Wildig shared, We require those pillars to withstand more than three times the weight of the 570S being placed on the corner of the windshield without breaking.

Crashes like the one I survived are extremely rare. Rolling a McLaren is really difficult because of how low the mass is to the ground. Driving a McLaren off a slope is one of the few ways you can do this-as you well know, Wildig said. Crashing into an object is over in 100 milliseconds, and big aluminum beams up front absorb that force in a front impact. In a sustained crash like yours, where its a long time before the vehicle comes to a stop, shedding energy is vital to surviving. Our debris field meant the kinetic energy from the crash sloughed off the parts of the car that were designed to disintegrate, like the front fascia and even the frunk.

We crashed one 675LT twelve times, Wildig recalled. The tub was perfectly fine after each test, so we rebuilt the chassis around it and crashed it again. You cant do that with a metallic car.

I now get the teensiest pang of panic when Im on curvaceous mountain roads.

The tub McLaren incorporates into every model it produces represents the apex of safety. Ordinary cars dont have a carbon cocoon because the likes of, say, a Nissan Maxima arent powerful enough to warrant it. Thanks to solid crash--safety standards, though, manufacturers have worked tirelessly to build a (usually aluminum) version of a safety cell into every vehicle, giving you a chance to walk away from what mightve been a deadly crash just a few decades ago.

Im typically not one to reflect on seismic life events, but when the event is so catastrophic you mentally replay it daily, multiple times, you are altered, whether you like it or not. I drive slightly slower now, especially with a passenger onboard. I get the teensiest pang of panic when Im on curvaceous mountain roads. And Im warier of riding with anyone I dont fully know behind the wheel.

Before I left the site, a firefighter handed me a blinker from under the side mirror. A memento, he said. Still caked with dirt, it resides beside my bed. Whenever my eyes study it, I flash back to the instant when I knew we were about to fly off the mountain. Goose bumps always appear.

Returning to work has been a largely smooth process, with few hiccups. While testing the new Ford Raptor, engineers invited us to jump the pickup on a closed, off-road course. I was stoked until the minute the wheels left the ground. The sensation of falling in a speeding vehicle snapped me back to the crash, and it took a second to regain my focus. When I let another journalist tear up the side of a mountain in Abu Dhabi in a new Audi, my brow was flecked with sweat. But when Im behind the wheel, when Im in control, I feel confident.

I will never be a race-car driver, but I feel a slight kinship, because the same technology that protects them also saved my life. Im terribly sorry this accident happened to you, but Im glad you were in a McLaren, Wildig said. Me too.

FUuuUU- Were airborne. Im a passenger in a McLaren 570S Spider with the roof down and were hurtling down the side of this mountain. I noticed the speedometer at 110 before I saw the road snake hard to the right, a sickening feeling flooding my body as we start...flying. My eyes clamp shut, I bear-hug myself, willing my six-foot-two-inch frame to disappear.

How This Car Saved My Life

Audis selection of the Middle East as the perfect backdrop to launch its first foray into fully electric vehicles wasnt accidental. Tester e-trons were allocated in Masdar City, an urban residential and commercial oasis nestled on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, purposefully built to be zero-carbon emissions. Heavily funded by the UAE government, Masdars promise of a fossil fuel-less future is still underway, with construction slated to complete a decade from now, and while its currently more a ghost town than a booming example of renewable energy, it represents the start of the tides turning.

And thats something Audis parent company, Volkswagen Group, can strongly relate to. Despite producing more than 10 million vehicles with combustion engines in 2017, Volkswagen Group is planning to launch 27 electric vehicles by 2022, at a cost of $50 billion dollars. The e-tron represents a solid start to that push, a luxury battery electric vehicle that adheres closely to Audis brand DNA.

That means theres a lot to love about the e-tron. Audi didnt set out to reinvent the electric utility vehicle-a market segment already containing Teslas Model X and Jaguars I-Pace, and soon, Mercedes-Benzs EQC and Rivians R1S. Instead of radical swooping lines that designers tend to impart on electric vehicles, the e-tron looks like every other Audi rolling off the assembly line: modern, clean, sporty and a bit aggressive. Its even more handsome in person, especially when dipped in Antigua Blue metallic paint.

Inside, all the finer creature comforts await. Heaps of Valcona leather, fine grain ash inlays, massaging seats, contour LED lighting, the easy-to-use multimedia interface (spread out over several large touch screens), a Bang and Olufsen speaker system, and more. Ample legroom in the rear means passengers over six-feet tall wont be cramped and the lack of conventional drivetrain running down the center of the vehicle allows more room for storage.

Beneath the floorboard sits a 95 kWh battery pack that powers two motors, one per axle. The rear is slightly larger than the front, but together, they provide up to 408 horsepower and 489 lb-ft of torque. The system is punchy, but its not ludicrous fast, like a Model X. The shuffle to 60 takes 6.6 seconds, though a boost mode-a ten-second session where the motors overdrive for maximum power, achieved by matting the accelerator-will shave about a second off that time.

On the flat, silky-smooth roads of Abu Dhabi, the e-tron proves itself a sedate highway cruiser. The assistance systems help to automate acceleration, braking and lane-changing with ease, though the exterior camera system in lieu of traditional mirrors proved to be more of a hindrance than a help. Small OLED screens mounted in the doors below the cameras take some getting used to since thats not the natural place for your eye to fall when checking traditional mirrors, but presumably with time, drivers will adapt. (Audis lobbying for the system to come to the U.S., though its currently only approved for Europe.)

Part of the rationale behind the cameras is to increase efficiency while reducing noise. Audi spent mountains of time and money in pursuit of the sound of silence, as engineers internally dubbed the endeavor. Combustion engine consumers dont mind the engine noise and the accompanying road noise, much of which stems from conventional side mirrors slicing through the air. But a battery electric customer wants to hear a pin drop at 70 miles an hour, so Audi employed sound deadening in places it hasnt before. Theres foam everywhere, inside the door panels, even inside the wheels to help hush the tires. The e-tron engineers efforts were successful: you can clearly hear a passengers breathing while pushing 80 down the highway.

The ride itself is supple in comfort mode, and stiffens a bit when sport mode is engaged. That 1,500 pound battery low in the middle of the chassis helps keep the e-tron planted, no matter how hard youre flogging the 5,500-pound brute. Torque vectoring helps keep the power to the wheels that need it most and even under the most dynamic driving situations, like flying up Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road, near Abu Dhabi. Theres no understeer and the adaptive air-suspension, borrowed from the Q7, helps the e-tron turn in precisely when and where you want it to. The steering goes slightly light under hard acceleration, but that probably wont bother future owners.

What may cause prospective buyers to bristle is the range of the e-tron. Audi coyly deflected queries, stating all would be revealed after the EPA rating, but the unofficial consensus is the e-tron has a capacity to get between 200 and 220 miles. Thats nearly a third less than the 295 mile range of Teslas Model X 100D. Even Jags I-Pace clocks in at 234 miles, so while the e-tron is close, its still under the competition for now. While we racked up more than 300 miles-with a charging break in the middle-the energy dissipated faster than estimated, but we were on highways with a speed limit of more than 100 at points, so our test drive wasnt exactly an indicator of a real use case.

While range anxiety is a real issue for some buyers, manufacturers are trying to pivot the conversation with trepidatious buyers from those stats to a different consideration: charging time. And Audis aint half bad. The standard metric is the time to charge to 80 percent, due to the battery cells being unable to accept electrons as quickly the fuller they get, and Audis able to get to 80 percent in 27 minutes. Compared to filling the gas tank, thats an eon, but compared to the 40 minutes itll take a Model X on a supercharger, thats pretty quick.

In fact, if you plug the e-trons into a fast charger (Level 3 DC 150k kW), youll be to 100 percent in 45 minutes. You can also use regular 240-volt outlets to get a full charge, as there are ports for both on the side of the e-tron, but dont plan on going anywhere for at least nine, possibly 12 hours. (Volkswagen group is working with Electrify America to give e-tron owners access to more than 500 fast chargers across 40 states by this summer, and owners will get 1,000 kWh of charging free, affording some 2,000 miles of driving.)

With a battery electric vehicle, the name of the game is efficiency, and with some throttle and brake consideration, the e-tron can help recoup an admirable chunk of the energy it expends. Audis existing program called Predictive Efficiency Assistant comes standard to help train drivers, by using GPS routes and its cameras to monitor other vehicles and traffic signs. If the computer senses a slow down in traffic ahead, a little green foot icon blinks on your dash, letting you know to ease off the throttle and let the car coast. In cities where car-to-x is enabled, your Audi will know that its about to encounter a red light and alert you. Adhere to the suggestion and you shouldnt need to use the brakes to roll to a complete stop, as we repeatedly experienced in Abu Dhabi.

But how the EUV recoups the energy is truly innovative. The e-tron uses a brake-by-wire system that employs the motors to slow the car and recapture that energy from the wheels. Audis figured out that you dont need them 90 percent of the time, for stopping situations under .03 gs, so even if youre hitting the brake pedal, youre not actually using the hydraulic brakes. Instead, a tiny fluid reservoir behind the firewall fills up, simulating a traditional brake pedal feel, but really, the engines are doing the work. Its easy to read this and not think much of it, but this is a giant deal, as no other electric car has ever done this. Hit the brakes on a Tesla and the hydraulic brakes bite down on the rotor and recuperation is added to that, but Audis sees that method as wasted energy and ingeniously decided to separate the two systems. Granted, the e-tron can tell if you actually do need friction brakes and they will absolutely work, but even during hard driving, we only saw those step in about 10 percent of the time.

For example, when climbing up Jebel Hafeet Mountain, we burned through about 12 kWh, but the system was able to return about 10 kWh to the battery on the way back down. Not too shabby, e-tron.

Most importantly, all that technology translates to a superbly fun driving experience. A small section of dune driving afforded the opportunity to switch the e-tron into Offroad mode, which raises the ute up a bit, and just thrash it. If you havent drifted a 5,500-lb SUV sideways through sand dunes, I highly recommend it. Even on the straights, at speeds above 80, the e-tron sopped up the sandy bumps with pleasure, drawing laughter from this driver. Its not a typical use-case for a $74,800 electric vehicle, but its certainly a riotous one.

Audis e-tron may not be the quickest, fastest, nor most radical-looking electric SUV, but it is the perfect transition vehicle for people who want to ditch combustion cars in favor of a hard-charging vision of the future.

We Took the 2020 Audi e-tron On a Road Test

The irony of ripping through the oil-rich desert in the United Arab Emirates in Audis new 2019 e-tron, an all-electric SUV, is enough to draw a chuckle. Perching Audis vision for the future of mobility atop a windswept dune somewhere in between Al Ain and Abu Dhabi, and the metaphorical game of king of the (fuel) hill becomes literal. Electrification is here and it wants to zap fossil fuels into yesteryear.

The 2020 Audi e-tron Will Be the First Electric SUV You’ll Actually Want to Buy

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Sean Evans

Articles written by the author

How This Car Saved My Life

The 2020 Audi e-tron Will Be the First Electric SUV You’ll Actually Want to Buy