Audi Q4 e-tron review

This is Audi’s smallest electric SUV, until it inevitably shoehorns a smaller one into the line-up. The Q4 e-tron sits between the Q3 and Q5 in Audi’s increasingly complex range of SUVs: 100mm longer than the former (and 40mm shorter than the latter), a smidge taller and wider, but with a smaller boot thanks to its pesky battery.

It’s also £10k more expensive thanks to its pesky battery, so Audi needs to put some effort in to make the Q4 e-tron feel a bit more special.

A sleeker Sportback version of the car with a more sloping roof and a jaunty hatchback is also available. It’s one of the modern automotive world’s more perplexing features – for a slight premium you can get mildly reduced practicality. Funny how that works.

Anyway, five years after it launched in 2021 Audi has now treated it to a facelift, complete with Marmite colour-matching grille, new LED lights front and rear, and – you guessed it – more screens in the cabin. It also gets improved battery efficiency, faster charging, and bi-directional capability.

Isn’t this just a more expensive VW ID.4?

That’s the other way to look at the Q4 e-tron. It shares its undercrackers with the rest of its Volkswagen family and it’s built on the MEB electric platform that has been deployed across the company. Essentially it is an Audi-skinned version of the ID.4 and Skoda’s Enyaq, and it’s even built on the same production line as the Volkswagen in Zwickau – they really are a close family. But Volkswagen’s electric smarts combined with Audi’s interior panache? Consider us interested.

Of course, those two aren't the only rivals – the BMW iX1, Mercedes GLA, and Volvo EX40 all wear similarly premium badges, while from Korea you've got the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5. The Renault Scenic is electric now and among the best in the sector too.

What are my powertrain options?

There are now three to choose from. The base car gets a 63kWh battery, 274-mile WLTP range and a 201bhp rear driven motor. Next up is a bigger 82kWh battery for 360 miles of range, mated to a slightly more powerful but similarly rear-driven 282bhp motor.

Top of the tree is the quattro, which gets the same 82kWh battery but with an extra front motor to give the Q4 e-tron four-wheel drive, boosting power to 335bhp but reducing the official range to 337 miles. Each powertrain can then be chosen in four trims – Sport, S Line, Black Edition and Vorsprung. 

Will I be stuck for ages charging? 

Nah. At launch maximum charging capability was 125kW, but post-facelift this has been increased to 185kW (as long as you’re in the AWD one, the others are slightly slower). Not as fast as some market rivals, but enough to get you back on the road fairly sharpish. It’ll take just under half an hour to get you from 10 per cent to 80 per cent charge.

So what sets the Q4 apart from the other VWG cars?

Perhaps not the car’s looks – the Q4 is fairly handsome and well proportioned, but from the side you’d be hard pressed to recognise it as an Audi. 

There are clear benefits to the disciplined platform sharing that the Volkswagen Group has introduced, with the downside being that it’s clearly tough sometimes for the different brands’ designers to carve out a unique identity. Still, they’ve done a marvellous job on the inside of the Q4 e-tron, with an angular interior that showcases the solid quality that we’ve come to expect from Ingolstadt. 

It’s just a shame that the majority of the interior buttons have been lobbed in the skip as part of the facelift. Still, the driving experience communicates a sense of solidity. The pedals are all well weighted and the steering is firm and accurate. Audi’s done a good job too of disguising the car’s heft, with a well damped ride that mostly smooths out the road’s imperfections.

You haven’t mentioned the touchscreen yet…

We don’t like to go on about these things for the sake of it, but with a company as relentlessly competent as the Volkswagen Group, it’s very surprising when it wanders as astray as it has with its latest generation of interior electrics.

Audi has managed to avoid the worst of VW’s electronic excesses, but post-facelift it gets more screenage than ever before (and the dedicated climate control is gone too), but the infotainment is still a touch laggy, the phone connection occasionally unreliable and the whole thing randomly prone to freezing. In this bright new age of over-the-air updates they can sort these things out over time, but such niggles are a measure of how reliable the company has always been.

Let me guess, the premium badge commands a premium price tag?

The Audi Q4 SUV e-tron with the 63kWh battery starts at £46,260, or if you want the bigger battery it’s £50,960. Got your eye on the all-wheel drive variant? That'll be £55,960 please.And yes, of its Skoda and VW platform sharers, this is comfortably the most expensive…

The Sportback versions ask for about £2k extra like-for-like. Click through to the Buying tab for the full lowdown.

Audi is pursuing a policy of relentless ordinariness with most of its electric cars – it sounds damning with faint praise, but it’s a genuinely interesting moment that the latest space age technology or controversially distinctive looks aren’t a focal point here.

The Q4 e-tron is a useful family SUV that just happens to be electric. It’s relentlessly capable and easy to live with as a car full stop. There’s enough range here too that you can forget about the driving and cut loose a little.

If you’re making the switch to electric it’s a great place to start, a deft blend of EV glamour and SUV practicality. But you could also say the same for the ID.4 and Enyaq, and spend any leftovers on a nice holiday instead...