Audi Announces Its First Dakar Entry With An EV Rally Fighter Prototype

Despite boasting a long and illustrious history of elite rally competition, Audi has yet to try its luck at the infamous Dakar Rally. Though after recently announcing its withdrawal from Formula-E competition, the Four Rings has revealed that it will be entering the grueling rally raid event for the first time in 2022, campaigning a brand-new, all-electric off-road prototype.

Marking the first major manufacturer to develop a “viable alternative drive concept” for the iconic rally race, Audi appears to be taking its rally re-entry very seriously, diverting funding from its Formula-E program into its Dakar efforts. The German firm already has a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw from in the high-performance EV sector, though applying it to the Dakar will make for an immensely challenging endeavor, with the aforementioned two-week event constituting one of the world’s toughest motorsport proving grounds. Thus far Audi has only revealed a teaser image of the vehicle, though from what we can see of the prototype’s three-quarter silhouette, the rally fighter looks like it will be running alongside the T4.2 class, though only time will tell. For more information on this ambitious endeavor, you can check out the full press release linked below.

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