- Doors and Seats
5 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
Perm Magnet, LI
- Engine Power
230kW, 540Nm
- Fuel
36h 0m chg, 347km range
- Manufacturer
4WD
- Transmission
Red'n Gear
- Warranty
3 Yr, Unltd KMs
- Ancap Safety
5/5 star (2019)
2019 Audi e-tron review – International first drive
Audi is serious about electric cars. Like many brands, it has invested an enormous amount of money in preparation for a battery-powered future. A future which starts with the new Audi e-tron SUV.
Joachim Doerr, Audi’s head of electric motor design, is a patient host to Australian media at the e-tron launch.
Explaining the finer details of the machine to jet-lagged reporters, Doerr reminds us of the brand’s intention for electric cars to represent one-in-three new Audi sales in 2025.
Right now, when electric cars represent less than one per cent of new car sales, it’s hard to believe him.
Even if Audi plans to invest $60 billion into its electric future.
And its parent company, VW, says the next generation of combustion engines will be its last.
- Rapid charging
- Composed dynamics
- Polished cabin
- Heavy
- Won't be cheap
- Somewhat anonymous styling
The e-tron takes a different approach to most electric vehicles.
Remarkable for being unremarkable, the Audi offers a degree of normalcy rarely found in its segment.
It looks and feels like a regular Audi, with handsome styling and a beautifully finished interior is home to logical controls, plenty of storage space and outstanding seats.
There is plenty of room in the front and back, where tiered seats offer rear passengers an impressive view of the road ahead.
Sitting still, the only sign this car represents something out of the ordinary are wing mirrors replaced by cameras feeding high-resolution screens neatly integrated within door trims. The space-age features look incredibly sharp but offer mixed results in the real world
Heated and ventilated seats massage the bod, while classy electronic displays for the dash, infotainment and climate controls look crisp and are more intuitive than most.
The rear cargo space accommodates a useful 660 litres of cargo, there are air vents and power outlets in the back, and Audi reckons the machine is good for towing up to 1.8 tonnes.
Power comes from a pair of electric motors (one each for the front and rear) good for 265kW and 664Nm peaks, or up to 300kW during brief periods of overboost.
Acceleration from rest to 100km/h takes either 6.6 or 5.7 seconds depending on whether the car is in the most dynamic of seven drive modes with overboost activated, lending acceptable performance which Audi says is repeatable in tough conditions.
While official driving statistics for the e-tron have not been finalised, Audi promises the car’s range will exceed 400 kilometres when it arrives in the second half of 2019 for $140,000 or so.
The 95kWh battery can be charged at a rate of up to 11kW through home charging points, which translates to 45 kilometres of range added for every hour plugged in.
Handily, the e-tron is home to powerful hardware capable of 150kW charging at fast-charging points where 280 kilometres of range can be received in just half an hour.
The brand put enormous effort into cooling its battery and electric motors - Doerr reckons the cooling package adds around 35 kilometres of range to the e-tron, while space-age mirrors lend 2.5km to its total, and similarly optional skinny alloy wheels with low rolling resistance tyres give you another 25 kays or so.
As ever, your driving style has more influence on consumption than other factors. Speed limits as high as 160km/h in Abu Dhabi aren’t particularly friendly to electric machines, which prefer to cruise at 90km/h or so.
At a steady 120km/h, some 66 per cent of energy consumption is used to overcome wind resistance. Audi aerodynamicists say reducing your speed from 120km/h to 110km/h on motorways adds 25 kilometres to the car’s total range.
Every kay over is a killer - at least when it comes to driving distance.
Safety is well accounted for in the SUV, which brings the full suite of driver aids found in the latest Audi A8 limousine. That means the car is capable of level three autonomous driving where permitted, allowing drivers to hand over full control to the car in precisely zero regions where this is currently legal.
For now, you have to drive the car yourself.
But the intrinsic Audi-ness carries through to a driving experience worthy of a premium brand with enthusiast appeal. Our time with the wagon revealed it does some things extremely well - wind noise is whisper-quiet even at licence-shattering speeds and braking is a particular highlight, with a smooth and linear pedal response matched by confidence-inspiring bite. While other cars feel a little coarse or grabby when using retardation to harvest electric energy, the Audi’s consistent and easily modulated performance is the best I’ve experienced.
Quattro driving dynamics carry through on slippery surfaces - if you disable stability control and overcome tenacious traction, the e-tron will happily reward you with a tail-out slide on gravel.
We sampled the e-tron in a range of environments including the imposing Jabel Hafeet mountain range.
Jutting out of the landscape like a lonely Toblerone left on a kitchen bench, the mountain offers an opportunity to assess the car’s hill-climbing abilities.
This 2.5-tonne unit has plenty of inertia to overcome. Straight-line performance is brisk if not electrifying, lacking the laugh-out-loud response of a high-end Tesla or the much lighter Jaguar I-Pace. But it feels well-resolved in the bends - planted, predictable and responsive to driver input.
Our test examples handled reasonably smooth roads on air suspension with ease, and a quick excursion into sandy territory revealed more than a token amount of cross-country ability underpinned by variable-height suspension.
The considerable weight of a 700-kilogram battery pack ultimately blunts the wagon's dynamic ability, particularly compared to the Audi Q8 and Porsche Cayenne which share core architecture.
In more ways than one, there’s a lot of weight behind the Audi e-tron.
It's a car to silence sceptics, one which will help make electric power a serious consideration for prestige buyers.
2019 Audi e-tron specifications:
Price: Approximately $140,000
On sale: Second half of 2019
Driveline: 125kW front and 140kW rear electric motors
Power: 265kW (300kW overboost)
Torque: 664Nm
Transmission: Direct drive, all-wheel-drive
Battery: 95kWh
Energy use: 22-25kWh/100km