The 2023 Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron may look different at first glance. From its odd “Sportback” shape to its enclosed grille and bright LED lights, everything about it seems exciting and promises a new and different experience. Unfortunately, that promise is broken when you’re behind the wheel and driving the Q4.
To be fair to the Q4 E-Tron, there aren’t many Audi SUVs that are just as fun to drive. It’s not like the gas-powered Audi Q5 will make your heart beat faster. But at least you know you’ll do something extravagant and unique while in the Q5. It rides, turns, and moves in a way that lets you know you’re driving an Audi. But when I was going to the Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron, I felt like I had just driven a car.
In Audi’s defense, the Q4 E-Tron wasn’t quite a blank slate when it was made, so “non-descript” was the game’s name. Audi seemed to want it to drive like a regular car, even though it is an electric car from a brand with a long history.
Details of the 2023 Audi Q4 E-Tron Sportback
- The base price for the Prestige trim is $59,395 ($67,690).
- Powertrain: 82 kWh (76.6 kWh) lithium-ion battery, two permanently synchronized motors, single-speed transmission, and all-wheel drive.
- Torque: 295 hp
- Torque: 339 lb-ft
- There are five seats, and the curb weight is 4,883 pounds.
- Cargo volume: 54.4 cubic feet
- When it comes to 0-60 mph: 5.8 seconds
- When it comes to a top speed of 112 mph
- EPA fuel economy: 100 mpg city, 89 mpg highway, 95 mpg overall
- Claimed range: 241 miles
- The Audi Q4 E-Tron Sportback is a good luxury electric car, but it doesn’t do anything interesting.
basics
The Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron is a Volkswagen ID4 with a different name. This may sound like an exaggeration, but it is not. It uses the same all-electric MEB design as the ID.4 and has the same battery pack, drivetrain, and rear drum brakes. You read that correctly: Audi will still have rear drum brakes in 2023. This car’s heart is an electric Volkswagen, which looks more expensive and refined.
I’m not a massive fan of the new trend of making SUVs look like coupes and giving them cute names like “Sportback.” I think they usually look worse than the regular SUVs they’re built on, and the fact that they typically don’t have enough passenger or cargo space in the back makes them worse overall. But the Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron is a good-looking coupe-like SUV.
Its proportions are a bit odd, and its parts are pretty short, but it looks good and has some interesting design choices. It stands out in a sea of boring crossovers because of its aggressive rear fenders, sharp shoulder line, cute little rear spoiler, and duct tape grille. I still like how the regular Q4 E-Tron looks better than this Sportback model, but I like how different this model is.
But on the inside, that weirdness disappears entirely. When you open the door to the Q4 E-Tron, the interior looks like any other Audi. Looking closely, you’ll see that Q4 isn’t the same as Q3 or A3, but it comes from the same family of four rings. That’s not to say that Q4’s cabin is terrible. It’s well made. Everything feels sturdy and high quality, and most materials are excellent. It isn’t exciting to look at. And that was only a week later. Just think about how you will feel in a year or two.
Unlike the VW ID.4, the only way to get an Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron is with an all-wheel drive and two motors. It has two motors that make 295 horsepower and 339 lb-ft of torque together. They get their power from an 82-kWh (76.6-kWh useful) battery pack.
Audi says the Q4 E-Tron can go from 0 to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds, and that seems about right, but it never feels very excited to do that. Customers will never want power; it can easily pass slower traffic and take advantage of traffic breaks. Just don’t expect the show to be fascinating.
The Audi Q4 E-Tron Sportback is fun to drive.
I’m sorry that driving an Audi Q4 E-Tron Sportback isn’t nearly as fun as it looks. Most of it is painfully average, and one part is just terrible. The handling is the best thing about driving the Q4 E-Tron. It’s the right size and weight for a comfortable electric car and accurate enough to put the Audi EV on the road without much trouble.
The rest of Q4 isn’t as sharp, though. Its soft suspension makes for a nice ride, but it can’t keep up with its steering, which causes it to roll too much when suddenly changing directions.
At highway speeds, the same suspension also makes it feel a bit heavy. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t have the rock-solid control that Audis is known for at high speeds. Even an Audi A3 feels safer at speed than the Q4 E-Tron, which is scary considering how much bigger and more expensive the Q4 E-Tron is.
But the Q4 E-Tron’s brakes are by far its biggest problem. Those are some of the weakest brakes I’ve ever felt in a new car. The first half of the pedal’s length is too soft and doesn’t do much to slow down the bike. Then, it comes in slowly as you move your foot down the pedal.
With such a soft pedal, stopping feels risky until you retrain your brain to use it, and even then, it doesn’t give you much trust. Audi says that its regenerative braking is enough to make up for its rear brakes being drums, which is probably true in a technical sense, but it didn’t feel that way.
The good and bad
I’m not trying to say that everything about the Audi Q4 E-Tron is terrible. Audi’s smallest electric car has some good points. It has excellent technology inside, like an easy-to-use MMI screen with haptic feedback and a digital gauge screen that’s nice to look at, easy to understand, and lets you change many things.
As a trade-off for its mediocre handling, the Q4 rides well, making it an easy daily driver, and it’s roomier inside than its odd shape would lead you to believe.
There are a lot of lows, which is sad. The brakes mentioned above are not good enough for a luxury car in this price range. It also has no better features than the cheaper Volkswagen ID.4, and its color, interior, and trim choices are painfully dull.
Navarra Blue is the only color that isn’t all one shade. It’s a nice color, but it’s also one of the most popular Audi colors today. Even though it looks like it would be fun and exciting, the colors are pretty dull.
Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron: what it Has, what it can do, and What It’s up against
Pricing for the Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron Premium starts at $59,990, so it’s not cheap, but it does come with some excellent features. It has 20-inch wheels, LED headlights, a 10.25-inch digital display, and three-zone climate control. And a panoramic sunroof right out of the factory. As a Prestige model, it has an Audi Virtual Cockpit-enhanced digital display, a Sonos surround sound system, a beautiful virtual cockpit, and many other cool features: head-up display and Matrix LED headlights.
The main competitors of the Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron are the Tesla Model Y and Ford Mustang Mach-E. They both look sporty and are small electric motors. The Model Y Long Range starts at $56,380 and has a range of 330 miles, much faster than the Q4. It is said to go from 0 to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds. The cheapest Mustang Mach-E starts at $47,495, has the same range as the Q4 at 247 miles, and can reach 60 mph at the same speed, but only has rear-wheel drive. But you can get a Mustang with a long-range battery and all-wheel drive for about the same price as the Q4 (based on specs), and it’ll have more power and range.
But if I wanted the Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron, I’d have to stick to the specs of my test car. The Q4 E-Tron isn’t fun enough to drive without all the extras. Putting all the tech and luxury features on it makes it look like an Audi, which might be why you buy it. You may also like the Mazda CX-5 – 2023 preview.
Range, charge, and force
The Audi Q4 Sportback E-tron’s 241 miles of range is almost expected for an electric crossover that costs the same. Although I only owned the car briefly, I had no reason to wonder what Audi had to say about its range. I saw an efficiency of about 3 miles per kWh, which brings it close to its stated range of 241 miles, though that efficiency did drop slightly during testing.
Audi says it will take 9.5 hours on a 9.6kW home wall socket or 7.5 hours on an 11.5kW wall charger to charge the Q4 Sportback E-tron’s battery from empty to full. Using a general DC fast charger, the maximum charging speed is 150kW, and Audi says that at that speed, it can go from 5% to 80% in 36 minutes.
sustainability
The Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron is built at the VW Group’s factory in Zwickau, Germany, which only makes electric vehicles (EVs) such as the VW ID.3 and ID.4. Zwickau station tries to be as beneficial to the earth as possible by getting most of its power from hydroelectric power plants, wind parks, and solar parks. It also gets its power from natural gas plants instead of coal-fired ones and is built with the latest energy-saving materials.
value and judgment
The Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron isn’t cheap. It starts at around $60,000, which is a lot of money. It has some good options as standard, its range is excellent, and the cabin is a perfect place to spend some time, even if it looks dull. Is it worth the price? That depends on what you value most in a high-end electric vehicle. The Tesla Model Y is the car for you if you want an electric car more than anything else. But if you want a luxury SUV and don’t care much about the electric part, the Q4 might be a good option, but the Mustang Mach-E is also great.
But as a real car, the Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron could not help but let me down. It would seem that driving will be fun and exciting, but it is not at all. Its brakes aren’t great, its suspension is weak, and it doesn’t feel the stiffness Audi is known for. The Audi Q4 Sportback E-Tron looks like a good deal on paper, but when you drive it, you learn it’s a Volkswagen ID.4 in a sleek three-piece suit.
