• Big battery models get 300-mile+ range
• Smallest battery still does a reasonable 200-miles
• 50 quattro model gets reduced range

What are the running costs?

Obviously, as all Q4 E-Tron models are fully electric, you don’t have to worry about emissions (other than those created when generating the electricity to charge the car up, of course) so as long as you’ve got the space and ability to charge at home, and you’re on a decently affordable electricity tariff, then the Q4 could be that rare thing – an Audi that costs buttons to run.

View detailed MPG and CO2 figures on the Audi Q4 E-Tron specs pages

In fact, according to Parkers’ own calculations, you can put as many as 10 miles under the Q4’s wheels for each Pound you spend, depending on the model you choose.

Range and charging

The smaller battery will charge at a maximum rate of 110kW, at a rapid DC charging point. That’ll charge you up to 80 per cent power in about 33 minutes. From a home charging point, you’ll get either 7.4kW or a maximum of 11kW charging speed, which is enough to top up the battery in about eight hours or so.

Official range for this 52kWh version is claimed at 209 miles on the WLTP cycle. Like with all electric cars, this will be substantially less in cold weather and if driven continuously at motorway speeds.

The larger battery can be charged at speeds of up to 125kW, assuming you can find a charging point that’s fast enough. That’ll top you up to 80 per cent in the same 33 minutes, but obviously you’re getting more energy and more range for your time spent charging, all things being equal.

The 77kWh battery has a 315-mile official range when paired with a single motor and rear-wheel drive, or 291 miles with Audi’s quattro all-wheel drive system. In our testing, the latter will probably only do around 210 miles.

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Servicing and maintenance

Audi offers a standard two-year factory warranty on all models, and that’s boosted in the UK to three years, with a maximum 60,000 miles. You can optionally pay extra to have that warranty extended, either to four years and 75,000 miles, or five years and 90,000 miles.

While that’s good, it’s nowhere near as good as rivals such as the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5. The Kia offers you a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty as standard, while the Hyundai comes with a five-year, unlimited mileage warranty. The Audi does get a separate battery warranty, which covers the battery pack for eight years, or 100,000 miles. 

Audi also offers a specific E-Tron service plan, which covers your regular servicing and maintenance costs for three years.

Reliability

• Early days for electric platform
• Audi scores highly in reliability surveys
• And dealers do well in customer service

Clearly, if you’re buying an expensive German car, you’ll be expecting it to be reliable. While it will take time to gather enough data to get a truly accurate picture of the Q4’s long-term reliability, the early signs are broadly encouraging. Electric cars are mechanically simpler, but more electronically complex, so you’re likely to experience better large-component reliability, but possibly get more in the way of niggling small issues.

So far, the Q4 has not been recalled for any issue, but the closely related Volkswagen ID.4 has been recalled for a steering problem. The two cars are made in the same factory, which is expanding its production numbers rapidly to try and meet increasing demand for EVs, so that may need watching in terms of overall build quality.

Audi has a good reliability rating, featuring in our most reliable cars article. Audi’s dealers are highly praised for their customer services in surveys too.