7 Thoughts About the 2024 Audi Q8 e-tron Sportback
Author:
Sean Tucker.
Quick Facts:
- The Audi Q8 e-tron is Audi’s electric flagship – a showcase of every luxury and technology one of Germany’s finest automakers can build. The Sportback is a sleeker, SUV-coupe-style version
- Every Q8 e-tron is all-wheel drive (AWD). In everyday driving, it has 355 horsepower, but a boost mode called “Dynamic” can push that to 402
- Sportback prices start at $78,995 (including the $1,195 delivery fee) and stretch to just under $97,000
High-end SUVs from luxury automakers are, arguably, the most capable vehicles in the world. They coddle you in opulent surroundings. They offer AWD to handle any driving conditions safely. They have the power of sports cars and the space of large SUVs. There is little they can’t do. The Audi Q8 e-tron is all of that, electric. Audi gives buyers two body styles: a conventional SUV and a sleeker Sportback model that trades away some of its ample storage space for a sportier look.
I spent a week driving the 2024 Audi Q8 Sportback and took the big electric vehicle (EV) on a 3-state road trip well past its maximum range. My tester was the Launch Edition – the most well-equipped trim of Audi’s most well-equipped electric car, with charging points on each side (a genius development in automotive history). It wore a color Audi calls “Daytona Gray Pearl.” I’m infamous in the Autotrader newsroom for my hatred of gray cars. So, I resent admitting this: I found the color’s depth beautiful. The interior was Flint Gray with stylish orange piping. Audi says that, so equipped, it should have an EPA-certified range of 296 miles. I never got close to that, as you’ll read below.
1. It Doesn’t Drive Like a Car With 402 HP. It Drives Like a Car With Access to 402 HP
When you hear that a car makes 402 hp, you expect it to feel like a sports car. That’s doubly true with an EV. Electric motors can produce 100% of their torque from idle. In a drag race between an EV and a gas-powered car of equivalent power, the EV will usually put the gas car in its rearview mirror almost instantly. Weirdly, the Audi didn’t feel like a 400-plus-hp car. It didn’t even accelerate like an EV. Audi says it makes 355 hp in Efficiency mode for day-to-day driving and 402 in Dynamic mode. Even that doesn’t feel accurate. Running your errands around town, it feels like a much less powerful car. But, in Dynamic mode, all the vigor and thrust are there.
This description might sound like a complaint, but it isn’t. The Q8 e-tron Sportback feels like a heavyweight boxer in a tuxedo, enjoying a relaxing night out. The muscle isn’t obvious, but don’t goad it to punch you. That posture fits the aura of a high-end luxury car well. A nearly 6-figure super-luxe machine should be sedate yet powerful if provoked. You don’t buy this car if you’re aiming for brash. You buy it for its quiet confidence.
2. It’s a Serene Highway Cruiser
I took the Q8 e-tron from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., into the rural outskirts of Akron, Ohio, and back to meet friends in the path of totality of a solar eclipse. The trip takes you up and over the low spine of the Appalachians, on 4- and 6-lane highways, and then down rural roads, first paved, then gravel (but thanks to recent weather, mostly mud). The big Audi never once felt out of place. It’s a born highway cruiser. With all the driver assists engaged, the 16-speaker Bang & Olufsen premium sound system showing off its highs and lows, and the massaging seats working their magic, hour three of a highway cruise is a breeze.
3. Quattro Is Still Good in the EV Era
The last portion of our road trip was on wet gravel backroads filled with potholes filled with water. Those roads were as much mud as gravel. The big Audi weighs almost 5,800 pounds – more than most iterations of the Ford F-150. Even with all that weight on slippery surfaces, I never felt it slip once. Audi has always done AWD exceptionally well. In the era of purely gas-powered cars, it built its reputation on its rally-race-winning Quattro AWD system. AWD is easier in the EV age. Engineers put an electric motor on each axle and get mechanically straightforward AWD. Software programming is involved in giving a big car like this flawless grip. Most cars would have at least broken traction once or twice. Not this one.
4. 296 miles? I never got over 241
EV range is inexact. If you have much EV experience, you know that. But Audi still has some explaining to do. The company claims an EPA-reported range of 296 miles in the Launch Edition of the Q8 e-tron Sportback they loaned me, though the larger 22-inch wheels on the Launch Edition should cut that a bit. I never got close. I don’t mean that, in practical terms, driving up small mountains in the rain with all the climate control and entertainment functions draining the battery, I never got close.
I mean that when I plugged it in and charged it to 100% (which I had to do more than once), it stopped refilling the battery somewhere in the 230s most of the time. Most EV manufacturers often tell you not to charge the battery above 80% to preserve battery life. Most of us will never come close to using a quarter of an EV’s range in day-to-day driving. So, if you buy this car, the range will rarely be a problem. But when planning a road trip, you do want a vehicle that comes close to its advertised capabilities. Oddly, this one’s onboard calculator usually keeps it 50 miles lower than advertised.
My most successful charging session reached 241 – 81% of the claimed figure. This problem is not unique to Audi. Every EV I’ve ever tested regularly falls short of manufacturer range claims. Everything from temperature to driving style affects how much range the onboard computer expects to get out of a charge. This is a particular problem for press cars, engineers tell me, since dozens of different people drive them. If Autotrader writers had Audi budgets, it wouldn’t keep me from buying the Q8 e-tron. I rarely drive that far between charges. But, before EVs can replace most gas-powered cars, they must reliably hit their range targets. This one never got within sight of it. Weird. As I’ve argued before, the auto industry needs a better way to talk about range because of this phenomenon.
5. Charging Ports on Both Sides Is Genius
The charging system, however, has one feature I’ll praise to anyone. My tester had ports on both front fenders. This duality, I should note, is a $1,850 option. With many EVs, you must pull up to a charger from a certain angle to ensure the cord will reach your port. Sometimes, you find yourself blocked from using a charger because of how nearby cars have parked. Audi has virtually eliminated that problem by letting you plug in on either side. Every EV should have this.
6. The Auto Headlights Are Impressive… and Sometimes Silly
A little Inside Baseball from the car critic world – Europeans get better headlights. Until recently, U.S. federal law required car headlights to have both a low beam setting for illuminating the area close to the car and a high beam setting for illuminating an area farther away. The law specified that the two couldn’t be active simultaneously. Europeans long had adaptive headlights that automatically detect pedestrians, bicyclists, and other cars. They switch individual pixels on and off to reshape the light beam around oncoming traffic. That gives the driver a constant, well-illuminated view of the road but avoids dazzling others. A 2021 Biden administration infrastructure law made them legal in the U.S. That opened up a universe of headlight art, and Audi was one of the first automakers to take advantage of it. The company had Euro-style adaptive headlights ready to go as soon as the law passed.
The Q8 e-tron’s headlights neatly dance around oncoming traffic to illuminate the road and not blind oncoming traffic. But they also dance for your entertainment. On startup, they play a sequence like a laser show, projecting several geometric patterns, then the Audi logo, and the name “e-tron” on the wall before you. They do a similar act on shutdown. Is it necessary? Of course not. But when spending nearly six figures on a car, you welcome a little frivolity and something that makes you feel special. The headlight display is goofy. But I enjoyed it. Buy the launch edition, and puddle lights projected down when the doors open remind you that you bought the launch edition. I’m not sure why that’s worth it. But it sort of is.
7. Audi Builds This SUV in a Carbon Neutral Factory
Some of you won’t care. Others will find it deeply impressive that humanity today can build something as resource-intensive as a super-luxury SUV in a carbon-neutral way. I count myself in the second group, even if this is out of budget for me.
The Wrap
There aren’t many cars as opulent, indulgent, and… well… 2024, as an ultraluxe SUV with massaging heated-and-cooled seats, sports car horsepower, and a high-end audio system that uses electricity for propulsion and is built in a carbon-neutral factory. Is the Audi Q8 e-tron Sportback ideal? No. No car with a 296-mile claim and a 230-ish-mile truth could be. And the enthusiast in me would rather it show its muscle a bit more often. But the ethos of this car is restrained luxury, poise on any surface, and strength it doesn’t need to show. There’s a place for that. I enjoyed my time in the Q8 e-tron Sportback. And the eclipse was otherworldly for a moment. Related:
2024 Audi Q8 e-tron: Choosing the Right Trim.
