Audi Q8 e-tron review: Audi’s electric SUV is as capable as the petrol model

Being an SUV from Audi, the Q8 e-tron already has a pretty good head start in life – the brand’s other models have always been strong sellers. The Q8 is as capable in electric form as it is as a petrol or diesel, with even smoother, punchier performance, even better refinement, and lower running costs. That said, by EV standards it’s not very efficient, which doesn’t just mean you’ll be charging it more regularly than some rivals, but it also means if you regularly use public fast chargers, it may not even be that much cheaper than filling a Q8 diesel’s tank.

The optional digital mirrors should be avoided entirely too – for the £1,750 Audi charges they make little practical difference to efficiency, and simply aren’t as easy to use as regular mirrors. Thankfully, the rest of the Q8 e-tron’s tech is better judged, and it remains a desirable car overall.

I put several hundred miles under the Q8 e-tron’s wheels over three days, driving from the midlands to Wales and then later to the New Forest, with several charging stops and in some pretty miserable weather – giving the Q8 a chance to show off its liveability and its security on rainy roads during the day and at night.

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Independent rating: 7/10

The Q8 e-tron gets some hefty battery pack sizes in either 50 quattro (89kWh) or 55 quattro (106kWh) guises. We tested the latter, which promises a range of up to 330 miles, for claimed efficiency of 3.1 miles per kilowatt hour. As is often the case, the reality proved a little lower during our winter test drive, with heating, lights, and poor weather dragging that down to more like 2.3mi/kWh, for a maximum real-world range of nearer 240 miles. Fast charging was at least painless, and Audi claims a 10-80% top-up, at up to 170kW, of 31 minutes.

The Q8 has the usual impenetrable Audi feel on the move – it’s stable on the motorway but confident and grippy in the corners too, even on wet roads. Very refined, too, if not quite up to the standard of a BMW iX, and the standard air suspension smooths away all but the worst road surfaces. A 0-62mph time of six seconds flat is competitive – and in day to day driving, it’s always good for quick bursts of smooth acceleration, for example to join a motorway. We’re less keen on the Q8’s ‘smart’ regenerative braking though, which means the car responds differently almost every time you back off the accelerator – not great for driver confidence.

Avoid, if you can, the Q8 e-tron’s digital door mirror option. They’re an enormous blot on an otherwise pretty clean copybook. They have several problems: the cameras are mounted where regular mirrors would usually be so you almost always glance at them first, the screens themselves are too low and are a bit of a daft shape, and the image quality isn’t especially crisp either.

That aside, the Q8 e-tron’s interior is to the same high standard of almost every other Audi. It’s well-built, comfortable, fairly easy on the eyes, and Audi’s infotainment technology (covered in more detail below) is straightforward to use. Front-seat space is excellent, and it’s not bad in the rear either, even in sloping-roofed Sportback form. Regular Q8 e-trons get 569 litres of boot space, and 528 litres in the Sportback. The space itself is big and square, so accommodates bulky luggage quite nicely, while there’s a small ‘frunk’ under the bonnet primarily for storing the charging cable bag.

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Digital mirrors aside – seriously, steer clear – the Q8 e-tron is otherwise packed with useful and usable technology. There are not one, not two, but three other screens in front of the driver too, the first being the ‘Digital Cockpit’ driver display, and then a pair on the centre console, a main 10.1-inch touchscreen through which you control most typical infotainment functions, and then a 8.6-inch touchscreen for the air conditioning below it.

The Digital Cockpit is large and clear, and configurable to your preference (you can put your navigation map there, for instance), so we’ve no qualms there. The two touchscreens work well too, with haptic feedback to let you know you’ve pressed a virtual button and big icons to touch, but while the lower air con display works well enough, you do need to divert your eyes quite far from the road to glance at it. The drive select ‘buttons’ and hazard lights are also inconveniently-located touch-sensitive buttons too.

A starting price of around £71,000 is about par for a car in this class – it’s within a few hundred pounds of a BMW iX, and about £4,000 cheaper than a Mercedes EQE SUV. In terms of efficiency the 281-mile Q8 e-tron 50 quattro loses out to the EQE’s claimed 375 miles but does beat the BMW’s official 262 miles. All these are brochure figures, of course, and given the larger battery 55 quattro’s official 330 miles translates to more like 240, you’ll be charging it more than you might expect. Home charging will still be inexpensive, but public fast charging costs can really stack up.

Insurance groups of 48-50 are also similar to rivals, but it suggests insuring the Q8 e-tron won’t be cheap. Tax will be more affordable, both for VED and the BIK paid by business users – both undercutting the petrol and diesel Q8s by a significant margin.

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A 170kW maximum charging rate means a 10-80 per cent top-up in around half an hour, or around 90 minutes at 50kW. A full charge on a home 7kW wall box is 18 hours.

The Q8 definitely looks better value at the £71,000 lower end than the £92,000 maximum, though you’ll need to find £10,000 for the bigger battery – some rivals are better value.

Like many rivals, Audi offers an eight year or 100,000-mile warranty on its batteries, which covers failures but also any drop in capacity below 70 per cent during that time.

I found the digital side mirrors fitted to our car maddening, and the Q8 e-tron isn’t as entertaining to drive or as novel inside as some rivals, but it’s still easy to appreciate as an all-round package, thanks to the usual Audi qualities of a smart cabin and great refinement. Its size and weight really hits efficiency though – 240 real-world miles on more than 100kWh of battery capacity is a long way off the best.