I’m intrigued by James Attwood’s current drive of the Audi Q8 E-tron Edition Dakar.

It’s a automotive that directly could possibly be simply dismissed as an costly folly: only some will probably be just a few made, it prices some £20,000 greater than an everyday Q8 E-tron and Audi will cost you one other £8600 for a wrap that appears like its Dakar Rally raider, simply to make sure that you gained’t wish to be seen in it.

Yet on the similar time, it feels to me like a related, early and still-rare foray into electrical off-roading, which is a factor that someday must turn into not extraordinary.

And in the best way that, say, the multifaceted Hyundai Ioniq 5 N can change what we anticipate from efficiency vehicles, so an electrical 4×4 might redefine what we anticipate from off-roaders.

It gained’t simply try to copy what an internal-combustion 4×4 can do now however rewrite the e-book on it.

Jaguar, for instance, by no means pitched the I-Pace as an off-roader, but on its launch in 2018 it took us not solely to a race observe to pattern how effectively it might rotate into corners but in addition up stupidly steep gravel tracks, by way of riverbeds and extra.

The I-Pace has a little-publicised wade depth of 500mm, which individuals don’t routinely got down to problem.

But, in fact, not needing oxygen for a whole bunch of explosions each minute, the best electric car might theoretically wade as deep because it needed. Just pack scuba gear for the occupants.

There’s extra: as Attwood notes, the Edition Dakar has no extra underbody cladding than some other Q8 E-tron.

Partly that’s as a result of it’s not a severe rock-crawler but in addition partly as a result of EVs have already got heavy armour for his or her batteries and have fewer spinning or delicate ancillaries that want it.

Finally, and most significantly for going off street, there’s the ability supply. The manner an engine delivers its energy is basically ruled by the best way it’s designed.

For occasion, large journey or scrambling bikes have large-capacity, few-cylinder engines as a result of they make good quantities of torque but in addition as a result of the uneven, pulsing energy supply can assist a tyre discover higher traction than a smoother torque supply.

An EV can ship torque to wherever it needs, at any time when it needs, solely the way it needs.