Audi's Vision Gran Turismo concept car will come to life this weekend for the inaugural Rome ePrix where it will serve as the all-electric championship's 'race taxi'.
The car, which was developed and designed for PlayStation 4 game Gran Turismo Sport, features three electric motors, each with a power output of 200kW – the equivalent of 815 horsepower.
The Vision Gran Turismo is all-wheel drive and has each of its motors split, with one driving the front axle while the other two drive the rear. Audi claims that the car can accelerate from 0-62 mph in just under 2.5 seconds.
Following 11 months of development at Audi's pre-planned production center, the Vision Gran Turismo will make its debut at this weekend's Rome ePrix where it will complete duties as the series' 'race taxi'. These duties will carry on for Formula E's European leg of season four, where the championship will head to Rome, Paris, Berlin and Zurich from April-June.
“Although the design of a virtual vehicle allows much greater freedom and the creation of concepts which are only hard to implement in reality, we did not want to put a purely fictitious concept on wheels,” said Marc Lichte, Audi’s chief designer.
“Our aim was a fully functional car. The Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo shows that electric mobility at Audi is very emotive.
"This car incorporates numerous elements of our new design language such as the inverted single frame in the vehicle’s color that will be typical for our new e-tron model."
Three times Le Mans winner Rinaldo Capello and former DTM racer Rahel Frey will drive the car, where Audi customers and guests will receive rides.
“In our development laboratory motorsport, we are continuously expanding our expertise in e-mobility and gathering valuable experience also in extremely demanding conditions,” said Peter Mertens, member of Audi's board for technical development.
“With the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo race taxi we are turning electric mobility into a tangible experience for our customers and guests as part of the Formula E races – in the middle of the world’s metropolises.”
