What is it?
This is the mid-level longest-range version of the new Audi Q4 E-tron, which itself could be thought of as Audi’s first mass-market electric car. Coming after the bigger, pricier and more luxurious Audi E-tron SUV and the Porsche Taycan-related E-tron GT pseudo sports car, this is the model that, Audi will hope, will begin to give the vast majority of its customers an affordable - but also still a desirable, usable and versatile - route into EV ownership.
In smaller-batteried 168bhp form, the Q4 E-tron can be had from just a whisker over £40,000. The version we’re testing is slightly more expensive, but it combines a 201bhp rear-mounted electric motor with a drive battery of a usable 77kWh of capacity, and advertises some 316 miles of WLTP-lab-test-verified range. That’s a figure competitive with the longer-range version of the Polestar 2, albeit not quite equal to the very longest-range versions of the Tesla Model 3 and Ford Mustang Mach-E (both of which can currently be had for a little more outlay than our Q4 test car). For a sub-£45,000 EV, however, it’s decent battery range for the money, while 125kW fast-charging ability as standard on bigger-batteried cars makes long-range usability all the easier to contemplate.
The Q4 E-tron becomes Audi’s electric sibling for the Volkswagen ID 4 and Skoda Enyaq, taking the VW’s Group’s MEB specialised electric car platform as its mechanical basis and slotting into the wider Audi showroom range just where you’d expect it to: as a mid-sized crossover SUV sized between the Audi Q3 and Audi Q5. Audi’s key claim for the car is that it has outstanding interior packaging, though: passenger space that makes it feel much more like a full-sized SUV on the inside, despite measuring less than 4.6m in length on the outside, thanks to that space-efficient architecture.
The other notable departure here is to do with mechanical layout. While the range-topping E-tron 50 version of the Q4 will have two drive motors and independently controlled quattro four-wheel drive, the lower E-tron 35 and mid-range E-tron 40 become the first Audi mainstream production models in modern history with rear-wheel drive (not counting the rear-driven versions of the R8 supercar).
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Greg Kable reviewed this exact car for autocar last week, and it reads entirely differently, and much more positively. It's really quite confusing, autocar editors, to have two reviews of the same model published within 7 days of each other, using the same images, with such different comments.
@xxxx I did say model tested but even at basic price still no four wheel drive ,they should stop putting these so called packs that they add if you wanted say electric seats and nothing else thats all you should pay for,wanted to buy a skoda Kodiaq but put off with the extra packs and no 4/4 to dear.I think when customers want to buy a car no mater what make we should speck to what we want not them trying every trick in the book for more money thats ok if you have deep pockets .One dealer tried to sell me an electric car rear wheel only wont get up my drive in the winter and I am not paying wall socket stop the £2500 and give us free fitted wall socket maybe more EVs will be sold.
@x1x3 forget the press pack options, it's 45k