The Audi Q4 e-tron is a family all-electric SUV, which takes on alternatives such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Kia EV6, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and of course the Volkswagen ID.4 and Skoda Enyaq – both of which are mechanically identical underneath.

Get the version with the biggest 77kWh battery and it can take you for a claimed 317 miles before you’ll need to charge it up again. A smaller battery (52kWh with a 211-mile range) is available, and if you fancy, you can have a slightly sleeker, sportier-looking Sportback model with a lower roofline and a sharply sloped tailgate.

Audi Q4 E-Tron Review

Audi has big aspirations in the luxury electric-vehicle space, and the 2022 Q4 e-tron and Q4 e-tron Sportback SUVs will double the size of the company’s EV-centric e-tron lineup. Smaller than the mid-size e-tron SUV, the Q4 siblings sit on a footprint similar to the compact Q5 crossover. While the base powertrain is a single 201-hp electric motor and a 77.0-kWh battery pack, a more powerful 295-hp dual-motor setup with all-wheel drive is optional. The battery pack is said to deliver up to 241 miles of driving range per charge.

It’s a pretty good-looking car in either form. The nose is very upright and cliff-faced, with the usual massive Audi grille (although, of course, it doesn’t actually need a grille…) and it looks rather more chiseled than the softer, rounder-looking Volkswagen ID.4.

You get smart-looking LED headlights, big alloy wheels that run from 19 to 21-inches, and the slope-roofed Sportback definitely cuts a bit more of a dash on the road.

Inside, it’s all very contemporary Audi – expensive-looking materials, a big 10.1-inch touchscreen in the middle, and a digital instrument panel that’s the same size to make sure that the cabin is very modern. Overall the cabin lives up to the badge’s premium billing – although you should definitely compare it with the Skoda Enyaq.

Still, the good news is that cabin space is generally excellent — the flat-floor layout (the batteries are underneath) means that rear seats are properly roomy. With 520 litres of bootspace, the Q4 e-tron lags behind alternatives such as the ID.4 and Enyaq, but the load space itself is still nice and flat, and access is easy enough.

Go for the mid-spec Q4 40 e-tron and you get the big 77kWh battery. That means you get the longest possible 317-mile range and it feels pretty brisk, but not exceptionally fast.

But even with that power, it’s not that fun to drive – it’s more calm, gentle and sensible. Even the four-wheel drive 50 e-tron quattro isn’t all that thrilling. If it’s sharp cornering mixed with electric power you’re after, go and check out the Ford Mustang Mach-E or the ever-popular Tesla Model 3.

As with most electric cars, the real-world range is rather less than it says on the tin. We averaged 3-miles per kWh, which allows around 231 miles between charges, which is not too shabby.

Audi is banking on its peerless badge appeal to draw buyers in, and the Q4 definitely looks and feels a bit posher than those aforementioned alternatives.

However, items such as adaptive cruise control, a panoramic roof, a premium sound system, and the rather useful heads-up display are either reserved for the top-spec Vorsprung model or are expensive options, which is a bit of a letdown for a car that’s supposed to be cutting-edge.

Despite the fact that they’re all built in the same factory, and that they all share the same parts underneath, the Audi Q4 e-tron is more expensive than the likes of the Volkswagen ID.4 and the Skoda Enyaq.

 

So that’s largely why the Audi scores so well for interior materials and equipment, while the Volkswagen doesn’t. The Audi just feels more posh. That said, there are pieces that should be included as standard in a car that costs as much as the Audi does.

Audi E4 (Audi A4 e-tron) Electric

Adaptive cruise control, a panoramic roof, a premium sound system and the head-up display are all reserved for the pricest Vorsprung model, and you’ll have to part with a fair bit of extra cash to get them on the lower-rung Q4 e-tron models.

There are other rivals, too, with the universally respected Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Kia EV6 and even the BMW iX3 swimming in the same price pool as the Audi. So you’ve got plenty of options.

Audi Q4 E-Tron Price

Model	Price
Premium	$45,095
Premium Plus	$49,195
Sportback Premium	$53,895
Sportback Premium Plus	$57,995
Prestige	$58,695
Sportback Prestige	$61,495

With a base price of $44,995, the Q4 e-tron is actually cheaper to start than the gasoline-powered Q5 SUV. We recommend the more powerful 295-hp 50 model, but those who prefer a coupe-like look to their SUV can opt for the swoopier Sportback model, which is offered with the same dual-motor all-wheel-drive powertrain setup.

Audi Q4 E-Tron Color

1. Navarra Blue metallic
2. Pebble Gray
3. Glacier White metallic
4. Mythos Black metallic

Audi Q4 E-Tron Range, Charging, and Battery Life

The Q4 e-tron’s 77.0-kWh battery pack is said to provide up to 241 miles per charge. The Q4 e-tron supports charging up to 125-kW and, according to Audi, the state-of-charge can hit 80 percent in about 30 minutes.

Audi Q4 E-Tron Performance and drive comfort

Right now, you can choose between two sizes of  battery when buying an Audi Q4 e-tron. Our 204hp 40 e-tron test car came with a 77kWh (useable) battery, but there’s a cheaper, 35 e-tron model that comes with a 52kWh battery and a 170hp motor.

The dash from 0-60mph takes just under 9 seconds, and you’ll get a claimed 211 miles between charges (with the sleeker Sportback offering a slightly longer 217-mile range).

You can also get a beefier Q4 ’40’ e-tron with a 77kWh battery and a 204hp electric motor, which can do 323 miles on a single charge. Again, the Sportback version goes that little bit further; it can do 328 miles (the most of any Q4 e-tron model.) Both versions will accelerate from 0-60mph in 8.5 seconds.

If you want quattro four-wheel drive, you’ll have to upgrade to the 50 e-tron quattro, which gets a second electric motor. Driving the front wheels, you get 299hp, and a slightly shorter 302-mile range, (309 miles for the Sportback). The 50 cuts the 0-60mph time to 6.2 seconds.

Interior style, infotainment and accessories

If you’ve specced the Audi Q4 E-Tron cabin up with leather (or one of the leather-free options, some of which are made from cleverly recovered and recycled plastic sea waste) then its combo of big, crisp screens and lots of aluminium-look trim make it feel very upmarket inside. It’s certainly ahead of the ID.4 in that respect, albeit maybe with a slightly smaller gap to the nicely designed Skoda.

 

Pic Credits: Audi

The Audi image doesn’t fit with the cheap plastics at the lower edges of the dashboard and on the doors, but those are largely tucked away, and overall the cabin looks and feels appropriately plush and upmarket.

Infotainment features and how to use them

You’ll breathe a sigh of relief when you see that Audi has kept proper, physical buttons and rotary switches for the air conditioning system – they are so much easier and more intuitive to use than the touchscreen-slider controls in the ID.4.

Even the entry-level Q4 e-tron comes with an 11.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system with satellite navigation, as well as Android Auto and (wireless, if you’ve got the right phone) Apple CarPlay connectivity. There’s optional wireless phone charging too. You get two USB-C connections up front, and two more in the back.

It’s also now available with Amazon Alexa as the on-board assistant, allowing people to manage their calendars and shopping lists, as well as control compatible smart home devices via voice commands.

The systems are very impressive and respond to pokes and prods in a slick, almost seamless fashion. The screen is easy to read, too, and you don’t have to spend hours figuring out how to make it all work.

The standard system also comes with live hazard alerts, and an e-tron route planner, which helps you to find convenient charging points along any route that you’ve planned, and updates in real time, depending on traffic conditions.

In fact, compared with the overly fiddly and sometimes glitchy system you get in a Volkswagen ID.4, this is much easier to use. Well, at least it is when you’re still – out on the move you occasionally need to avert your gaze from the road to find the button you’re looking for.

The only downside is that Audi has decided to use touch-sensitive steering wheel controls, rather than physical buttons, and these are rather too fiddly to use, making it too easy to select something you didn’t want, or miss the menu item that you were looking for. Sometimes, innovation is a bit too clever for its own good.

MPG, emissions and tax

Right from the off, the Q4 e-tron loses out to cheaper rivals because its starting price is too high to meet the Government’s plug-in car grant, so you’re left paying normal taxes, at the normal rate.

The upside to that, besides being allowed to drive inside London, is that the first year road tax is a big fat zero, and that’s across the range of Q4 e-trons.

The base car’s consumption rate of 17.1 to 20.0 kWh per kilometre on the WLTP scale works out to about 3.6 miles per kWh, and there are no local emissions.

That efficiency drops to 3.5 miles/kWh as the power output rises from 170hp to 224hp in the mid-range 40, then drops again to 3.4 miles/kWh with the all-wheel drive 50 quattro.

Safety and security

Europe’s independent car safety investigators, Euro NCAP, gave the Audi Q4 e-tron five stars, and that means more these days than just how well it bounces off a wall or a pole.

It also covers occupant security functions, like its autonomous emergency braking systems, so NCAP thinks the Q4 is excellent at avoiding crashes as well as absorbing them.

Even the standard Q4 e-tron receives front side airbags, with their own head airbags and a central airbag to stop the front-seat occupants from their banging heads together.

There are front airbags for both the driver and the passenger and the car also detects if there is somebody sitting in the passenger seat, and how big they are, so it knows how much force to use when unleashing the airbag. It also decides whether or not to set it off at all.

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Besides the security of electric child locks, there is also an array of three three-point seat belts in the rear, keyless go (so you don’t have to physically insert a key to make it start) and a combination of anti-theft wheel nuts and an indicator for a loss of tyre pressure, which could prevent dramatic tyre failures.

It brakes autonomously when it senses a pending impact with a pedestrian or cyclist, too.

It also delivers lane-departure warning systems, plus an assistant that helps the driver swerve around obstacles.

There’s an Assistance Package Pro option that adds adaptive cruise control and four cameras that deliver 360-degree sensor visibility around the car to help with parking and city driving.

There’s another safety package called, oddly, Safety Package Plus (and standard in the Vorsprung models), which also adds blind-spot monitoring and a system to autonomously stop the car from reversing into oncoming cars, pedestrians or cyclists.