AUDI Q4 e-tron

AUDI Q4 e-tron This is Audi’s new small electric SUV. It sits between the Q3 and Q5 in Audi’s increasingly complex range of SUVs – 10cm longer than the Q3 (4cm shorter than the Q5), a smidge taller and wider, but with a smaller boot, thanks to its pesky batteries. There are four basic starting models to choose from – the 35, 40, 45 and 50-badged models. The 35 e-tron comes with a 52kWh battery, 340 km WLTP range and a 170ps motor. The 40 e-tron gets a 77kWh battery, 541 km WLTP range and a 204ps motor. The 45 and 50 e-tron quattro have the same battery set-up as the 40 but with an extra front motor to give the car four-wheel drive, boosting available power to 265ps (and 300ps for the 50) but reducing the official range to 490 km (485 km for the 50). Rapid charging comes as standard on the Q4 e-tron, so if you’re in a rush, the batteries charge up to 100kW DC with the 52kWh option and up to 125kW with the 77kWh version. The latter will get you from 5 per cent charge to 80 per cent in 38 minutes, adding 130 km of range in 10 minutes of charging. Just enough time to grab a coffee and steel yourself for the next part of your journey.

Audi has never quite been able to decide whether it’s supposed to build racy cars or smooth and refined ones. It usually manages the balance quite well, and electric powertrains offer the ideal opportunity to blend those traits, thanks to the instant slug of torque that e-motors offer. So the Q4 e-tron offers a smooth ride – it’s well damped, but can get occasionally fussy as you drive over small ridges and other bumps, delivering a short sharp shock into the cabin – but it can hustle too, staying flat and clinging grimly on thanks to the low down weight of the batteries. The Q4 e-tron is not a classic driver’s car – certainly more at home cruising than attacking B-roads – but the steering is firmly weighted and accurate, lightening up the further up the drive select modes you get towards Comfort. The cabin is very quiet on the move, even the wipers are silent when it rains, and outside noise has been impressively muted. The problem with that level of noise reduction is that it shines a spotlight on squeaks and grunts from the rest of the car over bumps or round corners, but this Audi is properly screwed together. It’s silent enough to be awkward, so remember your conversational cue cards. The interior of the Q4 e-tron is predictably high quality, and even base-spec Sport models get a decent kit list with three-zone aircon, heated front sport seats and a fancy multifunction steering wheel. On the latter, the Austin Allegro is sat weeping in its grave at the injustice of it all – the likes of Audi introduce a square steering wheel and suddenly it’s cool. In fact, Audi has managed a solid job of keeping the Q4 e-tron’s insides on brand while simultaneously giving them the sort of angular, glossy look we’ve come to hope for from these machines of the future.

It’s a pared back interior, mind. The gear selector is a tiny button that you push forwards or backwards to make your choice, flanked by the start button, an iPod-style controller for the infotainment, Audi Drive selector at the back and a button to turn the ESP off. Otherwise, that’s your lot. There’s a reasonable amount of storage, but covered cubbies are limited to the glovebox or a deep central bin under the armrest. If, say, you wanted somewhere to hide your swipe cards for four or five different charging networks you’d struggle. The boot floor is set quite high, but there’s a decent sized compartment underneath the floor in which you can squirrel away your cables and detritus. Overall the boot is a good size, offering a chunk more space than electric rivals such as the Volvo XC40 and Mercedes EQA. We can’t avoid talking screens here, and the Audi offers a 10.1-inch touchscreen display in the middle and a 10.25-inch virtual instrument panel behind the steering wheel. The Volkswagen Group has gone a little astray with its electronics, and the Q4 e-tron does suffer here, but less so than in other cars we’ve driven. We criticize these things because the company clearly takes such pride in the details – the control stalks on the steering column are perfectly sculpted for a fingertip flick, and the carmaker long ago pioneered cheeky little details like holding down the unlock button on your fob to open all the windows. The imperfections here only serve to highlight how consistently high performing Volkswagen’s output has been for a long time.