Compare the2023 Audi e-tronVS 2023 Acura RDX

Safety
Warranty
Reliability
Engine
Fuel Economy and Range
Transmission
Brakes and Stopping
Tires and Wheels
Suspension and Handling
Chassis
Passenger Space
Towing
Ergonomics

Safety

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The e-tron’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The RDX doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.

Both the e-tron and RDX have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The e-tron has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The RDX’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.

The e-tron’s standard pretensioning seatbelts also sense rear collisions and remove slack from the seatbelts to help protect the occupants from whiplash and other injuries. The RDX doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.

The e-tron has a standard Secondary Collision Brake Assist, which automatically applies the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The RDX doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.

To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the e-tron. But it costs extra on the RDX.

An active infrared night vision system optional on the e-tron helps the driver to more easily detect people, animals or other objects in front of the vehicle at night. Using an infrared camera and near-infrared lights to detect heat, the system then displays the image on a monitor in the dashboard. The RDX doesn’t offer a night vision system.

Both the e-tron and RDX have rear cross-traffic warning, but the e-tron has Automatic Brake Activation (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The RDX’s Rear Cross Traffic Monitor doesn’t automatically brake.

Both the e-tron and the RDX have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and available around view monitors.

The Audi e-tron weighs 1707 to 2299 pounds more than the Acura RDX. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Audi e-tron is safer than the Acura RDX:

	e-tron	RDX
	Driver
STARS	4 Stars	4 Stars
HIC	212	300
Neck Injury Risk	23%	26%
Neck Stress	253 lbs.	262 lbs.
Neck Compression	16 lbs.	23 lbs.
Leg Forces (l/r)	137/335 lbs.	328/464 lbs.
	Passenger
STARS	4 Stars	4 Stars
HIC	323	353
Chest Compression	.5 inches	.6 inches
Neck Compression	67 lbs.	84 lbs.
Leg Forces (l/r)	244/319 lbs.	362/441 lbs.

New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Audi e-tron is safer than the Acura RDX:

	e-tron	RDX
	Front Seat
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
HIC	44	63
Abdominal Force	117 lbs.	130 lbs.
	Rear Seat
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
HIC	123	124
Spine Acceleration	44 G’s	52 G’s
	Into Pole
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
Max Damage Depth	8 inches	11 inches
HIC	279	486
Hip Force	631 lbs.	704 lbs.

New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the e-tron, with its five-star roll-over rating, is 5.8% less likely to roll over than the RDX, which received a four-star rating.

Warranty

The e-tron’s corrosion warranty is 7 years longer than the RDX’s (12 vs. 5 years).

There are over 12 percent more Audi dealers than there are Acura dealers, which makes it easier should you ever need service under the e-tron’s warranty.

Reliability

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2022 survey of the owners of three-year-old vehicles provides the long-term dependability statistics that show that Audi vehicles are more reliable than Acura With 12 fewer problems per 100 vehicles in the first three years of ownership, J.D. Power ranks Audi higher than Acura.

From surveys of all its subscribers, Consumer Reports’ January 2023 Auto Issue reports that Audi vehicles are more reliable than Acura vehicles. Consumer Reports ranks Audi 2 places higher in reliability than Acura.

Engine

The e-tron’s standard electric motors produces 130 more horsepower (402 vs. 272) and 210 lbs.-ft. more torque (490 vs. 280) than the RDX’s 2.0 turbo 4-cylinder. The e-tron S’ standard electric motors produces 224 more horsepower (496 vs. 272) and 437 lbs.-ft. more torque (717 vs. 280) than the RDX’s 2.0 turbo 4-cylinder.

As tested in Motor Trend the Audi e-tron (base engine) is faster than the Acura RDX:

	e-tron	RDX
Zero to 60 MPH	5.1 sec	7.1 sec
Quarter Mile	13.7 sec	15.5 sec
Speed in 1/4 Mile	102.4 MPH	90.7 MPH

Fuel Economy and Range

On the EPA test cycle the e-tron gets better mileage than the RDX:

			MPGe
e-tron
	AWD	Electric Motors	78 city/79 hwy
		S Electric Motors	72 city/75 hwy
		Black Optic Electric Motors	62 city/64 hwy
RDX
			MPG
	FWD	2.0 turbo 4-cyl.	22 city/28 hwy
		A-Spec 2.0 turbo 4-cyl.	22 city/27 hwy
	AWD	2.0 turbo 4-cyl.	21 city/27 hwy
		A-Spec 2.0 turbo 4-cyl.	21 city/26 hwy

The e-tron can travel with zero emissions for 181 to 226 miles (dependent on model). The RDX can’t move without running its internal combustion engine.

Regenerative brakes improve the e-tron’s fuel efficiency by converting inertia back into energy instead of wasting it. The RDX doesn’t offer a regenerative braking system.

Transmission

The e-tron’s launch control uses engine electronics to hold engine RPM’s precisely in order to provide the most stable and rapid acceleration possible, using all of the available traction. The RDX doesn’t offer launch control.

Brakes and Stopping

For better stopping power the e-tron’s brake rotors are larger than those on the RDX:

	e-tron	RDX
Front Rotors	15.7 inches	12.4 inches
Rear Rotors	13.8 inches	12.2 inches

The e-tron’s standard front and rear disc brakes are vented to help dissipate heat for shorter stops with less fading. The rear discs on the RDX are solid, not vented.

The e-tron stops shorter than the RDX:

	e-tron	RDX
60 to 0 MPH	128 feet	133 feet	Motor Trend

Tires and Wheels

For better traction, the e-tron has larger standard tires than the RDX (255/50R20 vs. 235/55R19). The e-tron’s optional tires are larger than the largest tires available on the RDX (265/45R21 vs. 255/45R20).

The e-tron’s standard tires provide better handling because they have a lower 50 series profile (height to width ratio) that provides a stiffer sidewall than the RDX’s standard 55 series tires.

For better ride, handling and brake cooling the e-tron has standard 20-inch wheels. Smaller 19-inch wheels are standard on the RDX. The e-tron’s optional 21-inch wheels are larger than the 20-inch wheels on the RDX A-Spec.

Suspension and Handling

The front and rear suspension of the e-tron uses air springs for a smoother, controlled ride than the RDX, which uses coil springs. Air springs maintain proper ride height and ride more smoothly.

The e-tron has a standard automatic front and rear load leveling suspension to keep ride height level with a heavy load or when towing. The e-tron’s height leveling suspension allows the driver to raise ride height for better off-road clearance and then lower it again for easier entering and exiting and better on-road handling. The RDX doesn’t offer a load leveling suspension.

For a smoother ride and more stable handling, the e-tron’s wheelbase is 6.8 inches longer than on the RDX (115.1 inches vs. 108.3 inches).

For better handling and stability, the average track (width between the wheels) on the e-tron is 1.1 inches wider in the front and .8 inches wider in the rear than the track on the RDX.

The e-tron Chronos Edition handles at .85 G’s, while the RDX A-Spec AWD pulls only .83 G’s of cornering force in a Car and Driver skidpad test.

The e-tron Chronos Edition executes Motor Trend’s “Figure Eight” maneuver 1.1 seconds quicker than the RDX AWD (26.6 seconds @ .71 average G’s vs. 27.7 seconds @ .62 average G’s).

Chassis

The front grille of the e-tron uses electronically controlled shutters to close off airflow and reduce drag when less engine cooling is needed. This helps improve highway fuel economy. The RDX doesn’t offer active grille shutters.

Passenger Space

The e-tron has .3 inches more rear headroom, .7 inches more rear legroom and .7 inches more rear shoulder room than the RDX.

Towing

Maximum trailer towing in the Acura RDX is limited to 1500 pounds. The e-tron offers up to a 4000 lbs. towing capacity.

Ergonomics

Unlike the driver-only memory system in the RDX, the e-tron Prestige has a passenger memory, so that when drivers switch, the memory setting adjusts the driver’s seat, steering wheel position and outside mirror angle and the front passenger seat also adjusts to the new passenger’s preset preferences.

The e-tron’s rain-sensitive wipers adjust their speed and turn on and off automatically based on the amount of rainfall on the windshield. This allows the driver to concentrate on driving without constantly adjusting the wipers. The RDX’s standard intermittent wipers change speed with vehicle speed, but can’t turn on and off or change speed based on changing rainfall.

The e-tron has a standard heated steering wheel to take the chill out of steering on extremely cold winter days before the vehicle heater warms up. A heated steering wheel costs extra on the RDX.

The e-tron (except Premium) offers optional massaging front seats in order to maximize comfort and eliminate fatigue on long trips. Massaging seats aren’t available in the RDX.

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