Audi’s Sublime E-Tron is an Electric Conundrum
Audi’s e-tron is a most impressive car in its own right. But is its insufficient propulsion source compatible enough?
Besides this one’s Star Wars mirrors and yellow on chrome e-tron badges, you’d never guess that this Audi e-tron is a battery-electric car. We like that. You fit into the crowd, rather than stand out as an electric car eccentric.
Slots Between the Q5 and Q7 in Spec & Size
At first sight, it may appear to be a plug-in Q5, but the 193-inch-long e-tron actually slots neatly between the Q5 and Q7. Yet it borrows its front grille feel and LED taillight bar from the A7. Despite weighing over 5,700 pounds, it doesn’t look massive. Them lardy batteries, you know? Ride height is 2.5 inches adjustable to endow it with mild degree of electric off-road ability, and eases access, too.
E-tron’s superb Audi-built cabin brings a high-tech SUV edge. It abounds in beautifully stitched leather, quality polished plastic and sublime metal trim. Its fully digital cockpit nicked from the A6, 7 and 8 compliments Audi’s Virtual Cockpit digital instrumentation behind a conventional flat-bottomed multifunction steering wheel. Driver and passenger pews are broadly adjustable and there’s loads of head and legroom across the rear bench. It will even satisfy three people for short trips.
Being just a five-seater maximizes interior space and e-tron has some cool storage solutions. A vast and maybe too versatile center console gobbled things up so well we struggled to find them after. We also missed the extra feeling of room BMW achieves in iX by just leaving that gap open. Horses for courses, we suppose. A shortish wheelbase compared to, say a Jaguar I-Pace, does not impinge much. There’s plenty room for four adults in there and visibility out is decent.
Haptic Virtual Buttons. What’s the Point?
The twin haptic feedback full-HD 10.1-inch upper and 8.6-inch lower displays take some getting used to. They will never be as easy to operate as good old physical knobs and buttons. The haptic thing still requires you to prod the virtual screen buttons. What’s the point, really? No, we’ll never stop complaining, even if Audi’s system has logical menus and tells you what’s selected. It could be a bit more intuitive though.
It has Bluetooth, wireless charging, CarPlay and Auto too. The system packs a DAB radio, but alas, no AM where our favorite station hides. And The USBs are C only, so you may need new accessory cables too. Add a handy 360-degree parking camera and Audi’s MMI Navigation Plus. Not sure why you need onboard navigation when your mobile phone’s app does the job just as well. Or better.
Our test car even had Audi’s Star Wars optional virtual wing monitors (not available in the U.S. at the moment). Sure, they’re sexy and look fantastic, inside, and out. We however only have one word of advice for this gimmick. Avoid it at all costs. Way inferior to good old reflective mirrors, that beauty is skin deep. Placed too low in the car, the monitors are unsorted and poorly developed. It’s impossible to fathom distance through them and they’re useless for backing up. They do not belong in production.
E-tron 55 has a Big Boot and Will Even Tow a Trailer
The e-tron 55 has a very big 28.5 cu ft trunk that opens up to 56 cu ft with the rear bench backrest down to trump the Q5 by over 200 litres. There’s even a little load space under the bonnet, which is better to ignore because that’s where you store all the different charging cables and kit. Perhaps surprisingly, the e-tron offers a 4-ton maximum braked towing ability. That’s a quantity most of its electric rivals don’t even quote.
Moving under the hood, or wherever its electric power bits are distributed, e-tron is propelled by Audi’s electric bi-motor quattro all-wheel drive. E-tron benefits all the torque, power and performance you expect from an electric car. Fed by a 95-kilowatt-hour battery that delivers a useable 86.5 kWh at a rated 224 Wh/km, or the equivalent of 87 mpg of the noxious fuel a combustion engine will consume, EPA driving range is rated at 222 miles. Which proved a realistic.
Response is immediate, albeit gentler than the e-tron GT we also drove recently, thanks softer gas pedal calibration. Its 402 HP and 490 lb.- ft instant torque ‘on boost’ still makes acceleration dramatic off the line and straight-line performance impressive. There’s more than enough punch for most motorists. The e-tron launches like a bullet, overtakes effortlessly, and gets most things done by the time a conventional rival’s auto gearboxes would even have woken up.
