Sliding across a Namibian salt pan, I wonder what the lions that patrol this patch of desert would think if they came across our herd of seven all-electric Audi E-tron SUVs—test prototypes still clad in a zebra-like camouflage, despite the car’s recent full reveal—silently kicking up a wall of dust.

Working the throttle delivers smooth, precise waves of torque from the E-tron’s two motors, one on each axle. I easily enter into a drift, stabbing the gas pedal and flicking the wheel to start the move, then hang in it for a few seconds, correcting with only an occasional throttle modulation. I feel more like I’m playing a musical instrument than driving an SUV, so harmonious is the link between brain, foot, motors, tires, and salty ground.

Electric motors have proven themselves the Swiss Army knives of the automotive world, able to pitch in for efficiency, lay down gobs of torque at stoplights, and boost handling via their immediate distribution of power in multimotor, all-wheel-drive configurations. Now that Audi has joined the electric party with the all-new E-tron, it used this performance on the salt flats of Namibia—an analog for the low-friction challenges of sand and snow—to demonstrate the granular control such systems can deliver.

Commanding the SUV through sweeping turns, I start to wonder if any safari hats come with the flat brims that drift bros love so much.

Audi’s joining a crop of electric vehicles showcasing the opportunities that come with ditching the internal combustion engine. Tesla proved you could manage massive power safely and with startling acceleration capabilities. Jaguar’s I-Pace crossover deftly handles the high-speed dynamics of the race track, lap after lap. Now the $74,800 E-tron demonstrates that digitally controlled all-wheel drive systems, much more than their mechanical counterparts, can shoot power back and forth between the wheels with such precision that it’s become the only electric SUV we’re aware of that allows drivers to completely disable electronic stability control.

Achieving that sort of performance and reliability, according to chassis development engineer Stefan Lehner, required a degree of collaboration that’s rare even with today’s deeply integrated systems. “It used to be that the all-wheel-drive system would be developed without a lot of input from, say, the engine development team,” he says. “But this new electric system is dependent on the battery’s ability to supply power quickly, so we work with that team. The motors’ vibration damping affects the AWD performance, and their responsiveness has to replace the mechanical clutches we typically use to control power delivery to the wheels, so that side comes into play.”

So to make a new kind of Quattro—an all-electric version of the Audi systems that for decades have won accolades on the street, as well as trophies on the track—which generates excitement when you want it and safe control when you need it, the automaker developed an entirely new system architecture called the “electronic chassis platform.” For the first time, engineers at Audi bundled the driving dynamics controller with the all-wheel-drive controller and the wheel-selective torque control, creating faster and more unified responses under hard driving. They also shifted the computing of the ESC system to the faster processors in the motor-control units, enabling that system to keep pace with the motors.

“With electric vehicles, if the controller is slower than what the motor can manage, you’re going to have wheel slip and still some instability,” says Michael Wein, project manager for the electric Quattro system developed for E-Tron. “But by integrating traction and motor speed controllers, it will calculate the optimal speed and torque you need, and deliver it immediately.”