by Anthony Fongaro - Photos via Audi - 01/18/2022
Audi now has a bespoke SUV in its lineup. It’s called the Q4, and shares its batteries and architecture with the Volkswagen id.4. This is good because a bespoke SUV has more room and is created to be a built-from-the-ground-up EV. There’s fierce competition, but Audi is betting on having a regular SUV-looking EV, rather than the bloody Volkswagen. It is expensive at $66,000, which made me wonder a few things. Is this a good EV, a good SUV, and worth that money? Let’s find out.
This is a handsome SUV and doesn’t shout that it’s an EV. At the front, you’ll see a fake grille with a large Audi logo and sculpted headlights. This model had Pebble Gray paint and 20-inch wheels. Those wheels are a part of the S Line plus package. That package includes all-season tires, black exterior elements, and roof rails, brushed dark aluminum inlays, front sport seats, an S Line exterior, and a modified steering wheel. This gives the Q4 e-tron a very sporty look. Around the back, there is a full-width light bar along with the Audi logo and e-Tron on the bumper. As I said, it looks like a regular SUV.
Let’s jump inside the Q4 e-tron Prestige, beginning with the steering wheel and the controls. The Audi steering wheel has a button for the heated steering wheel and buttons for the virtual cockpit and your media. Speaking of which, Audi’s Virtual Cockpit gives you a lot of different information including a full-size map. There is a head-up display and it has something incredibly cool. That is augmented reality! When you are using the navigation system, it will display arrows when you need to turn. You also have Audi’s infotainment system which is a touch screen and pretty easy to use. This displays information about the battery along with different things for media and navigation.
Underneath are physical buttons for the heated seats and the HVAC controls, although the buttons for the HVAC themselves are not backlit. There is a lot of piano black trim, especially by the gear selector. Since this is a bespoke EV platform, there is a lot of space and Audi has utilized it quite well. There’s a floating center console that has the toggle for your transmission along with buttons for your Drive Select, cameras, and Audi’s odd swivel wheel volume control. Is not in the best place and I would like it to be a physical dial instead. The seats are nicely bolstered and finished black. Seven different ambient lighting settings look great within the interior. Also included is a very large panoramic roof that spans the entirety of the cabin.
The rear headroom is ok and there is a good amount of space. These seats are also heated. I especially like the location of the USB-c ports and wireless charging. What’s nice about the wireless charging areas is that there's a little clip for the wireless charger which keeps your phone in place. Sadly it does make the phone get hot material qualities are okay but don't seem up to par for a vehicle that is over $65,000. Also when I was driving, there was a rattle that neither myself nor my passenger could identify the location of.
Now let's get down to the battery. Audi calls the 77 kWh battery and dual motors a “50”. It produces 295 horsepower/220 kW and 339 lb-ft/460 Nm. This gets the Q4 e-tron to 0 to 60 in 5.3 seconds. It may not be the fastest SUV compared to its competitors, but you don't really need more power. What's interesting is that when you put the drive select into efficiency, it limits your top speed to 80 MPH. Not that anybody would go that fast of course. The drive modes include Efficiency, Comfort, Auto, Dynamic, and Individual.
This is an Audi but I thought it would be more comfortable. It looks like the tire made the ride rougher and you can feel and hear a bunch of bumps and imperfections. Highway driving is quite simple and I liked utilizing Audi's adaptive cruise control system. The best part was using augmented reality and a traffic light recognition system that accurately recognized when a traffic light was either red or green! It would also accurately countdown to when the light was going to church turn from red to green. I was thoroughly surprised and impressed! Efficiency is interesting because of how I had to drive. There were two different conditions. The first one was in snowy weather around 10 degrees Fahrenheit which meant that when the heat was turned on it was getting around 2.0-kWh and an estimated 180 miles on 80% battery. Driving in over above 40 degrees, I managed to get around 3.1 miles per kilowatt-hour. That means that this Q4 could do around 230 miles on a full charge.
What’s odd is that the Q4 doesn't have one-pedal driving, which I think all-electric vehicles need to have nowadays. Either that or at least have the option of having one-pedal driving. There are two different types of transmission settings you can do. The first one is drive and you can use the paddle shifters for a level of regenerative braking, or you can put it into B mode which is the maximum amount of reach yet. It doesn't give you too much regen but is smooth. For the most part, I enjoyed driving it, but that rattle was quite annoying. I don't believe this would be an issue for all Q4 models, but it's something to mention.
How about the options on this Prestige S Line trim level? The one thing that I didn't like was the adaptive headlights. They didn't adapt so well. There were many times when they would turn on when I didn't want them to turn on and they would turn off when there was almost nothing around me. There were also a few times when it would turn on when a vehicle was turning so it did devil the other driver. This top-of-the-line model gets every feature including Audi's digital cockpit, full safety suite, head-up display with augmented reality, all-around heated seats, and a large panoramic roof. The only thing it does have which I was surprised about is a 360-degree camera. Out of all of the trim levels, I would probably go for either the Premium Plus or Prestige 50 AWD. The only reason why is that the lower versions are rear-wheel-drive and don't work quite well in midwestern conditions.
Does it seem like a $66,000 vehicle? Yes and no? Quality seems a little short of what I expected but being an Audi electric vehicle, I’m not surprised by the price. Compared to its competitors from Volvo and Genesis, I would rate this at the middle of the pack. The Genesis GV60 is miles ahead of the Audi in terms of efficiency, power, and technology. Volvo XC40 Recharge and C40 Recharge have more power than the Audi, but they are much less efficient than the Q4. All in all, I think it would be a good first electric vehicle for a family. Around 300 horsepower in electric vehicles doesn't sound like a lot, but the Q4 feels strong enough. I'm sure that Audi is going to make more powerful versions of this but will come at a premium. Should you take a look at the Audi Q4? There are some flaws but if you can live without one-pedal driving, it’s a good EV SUV.
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