Audi Q8 E-Tron Review 2025 | A luxurious electric SUV

What is the Audi Q8 E-Tron?

It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a mildly facelifted version of the Audi E-Tron, which originally went on sale in 2018. The original was Audi’s first fully electric vehicle, and in 2022, Audi decided that it needed both a glow-up and a rebranding to keep pace with newer alternatives. As such, it got new looks as well as a new name, not to mention a raft of updates beneath the skin. There’s also a sleeker coupe-roofed version of the car in the form of the Q8 E-Tron Sportback.

The facelift saw tweaks to the under-body aerodynamics and the rearmost of the two motors to improve efficiency. There were new batteries, too, which crammed more cells into the same space.

The net result was an increase in the official range figures, to 281 miles for the entry-level 50 version (290 miles for the Sportback), and to 330 miles of range for the 55 model (343 miles for the Sportback). The SQ8 E-Tron, meanwhile (formerly the E-Tron S), will do 284 miles on a charge (295 miles for the Sportback).

Faster on-board chargers also make sure the kilowatt hours (kWh) can be pumped into your E-Tron at a greater rate; even in the cars with a bigger battery capacity, a top-up from 10% to 80% will take just 31 minutes of charge time.

The Audi Q8 E-Tron soldiered on until February 2025, at which point it was taken off sale as a new car. Examples can still be had on the used car market, though.

How practical is it?

The Q8 E-Tron is still one of the roomiest electric SUVs out there. A Tesla Model X offers more space and more seats, but there’s just as much headroom and legroom as you get in a BMW iX, meaning space for a pair of tall adults to stretch out comfortably, and significantly more rear space than you get in a Mercedes EQC. That said, the BMW is better than the Audi for carrying three across the rear bench because it has an entirely flat floor (there’s a small hump in the Audi’s rear footwell) and a more comfortable middle seat.

The total volume of luggage space on offer is considerable, too: 569 litres in the regular car, dropping to 528 litres in the Sportback. Do be warned, though, that a big chunk of that space comes in the form of an under-floor compartment in the boot, so if you’re expecting one large, useful space, you might be disappointed. There’s an additional 62 litres of space under the bonnet, which is handy for storing you charging cable.

You can drop the rear seats to boost luggage capacity, and these fold in a versatile 40/20/40 split, the same as in the BMW iX and Jaguar I-Pace. That backrests lie at a slight angle, but go flatter than in the BMW or Jaguar, and there’s no step down to the boot floor, either. What’s more, the seats can be felled using handycatches in the boot.

The Q8 E-Tron’s interior has always been a little short on style, but in more recent years, it’s been shown up even more by stylish rivals, not just in its own class like the iX, but also lower down the social pecking order by cars like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6, which feel more special for a fraction of the price.

That said, the Audi’s cockpit is beautifully put together. There are some lovely, tactile materials on show (the steering wheel in particular) and the whole thing is laid out well: it’s just a shame it’s all so dour.

What’s it like to drive?

In the transition from E-Tron to Q8 E-Tron, the entry-level 50 model received a whack from the ‘more power’ stick, to the tune of 26bhp, kicking its output up 338bhp. The other two versions remained the same, with 402bhp for the 55 and 496bhp for the Audi SQ8 E-Tron.

As you can imagine, that means all of them get down the road pretty well, although don’t forget that the Q8 E-Tron’s not-inconsiderable 2.5-tonne-plus weight does take the edge off of outright performance. Even so, the 0-62mph benchmark is dispatched in six-seconds-dead in even the least powerful version; the SQ8, meanwhile, will get you there in just 4.5.

One thing to keep in mind with the SQ8, though, is that its three-motor setup – with one motor apiece for each rear wheel, and an on-demand motor on the front axle – is rather noisy. This is, in fact, a trait shared by all Q8 E-Trons, but it’s less noticeable in the standard, two-motor cars. In the SQ8, however, it verges on irritating, especially the rather piercing tone the whine takes on at around the 30mph mark.

In terms of its other road manners, Audi has aimed for a neutral, balanced feel to the way the Q8 E-Tron goes around corners, and it has succeeded. There’s a monumental amount of grip and traction on offer thanks to quattro four-wheel drive, which means you can tip it into a corner and plant the throttle, and watch incredulously as this huge SUV hooks up and goes, tracking the line you’ve chosen for it remarkably faithfully.

Trouble is, you feel almost completely removed from the process. There’s no steering feel to speak of, and little in the way of feedback through the seat of your trousers, either. What’s more, there’s so much weight to transfer that if you do try to turn in sharply, you can feel the Q8 lean over a touch and try to push its nose on ahead.

Mind you, this aloof ponderousness is the price you pay for the Q8 E-Tron’s relaxing nature when you aren’t trying to hurry it along. Out on the motorway it’s sublime; wind- and road noise are both dialled out extraordinarily well, while the standard adaptive air suspension glosses over bumps beautifully.

Around town, it is perhaps a touch less composed – the big wheels with their slender tyres allow a very subtle background vibration to permeate the cockpit – but this is still a particularly smooth and calm way to travel.

Technology, equipment and infotainment

The 10.1-inch central infotainment touchscreen works well, and beneath it there’s a second 8.6-inch screen that you use to control the heating and climate control. We’d prefer proper, physical buttons and dials instead, as a touchscreen forces you to take your eyes away from the road (and in this case, quite far away, given how far down you must look) for too long.

However, you can at least adjust the ventilation settings without having to find your way into a separate menu within the main touchscreen to do so, as you do in many modern cars.

Entry-level Sport trim comes with 20-inch alloy wheels, LED matrix headlight and LED taillights, dynamic front- and rear indicators, power folding and adjusting door mirrors with heating, powered tailgate, adaptive air suspension, heated front seats with power adjustment, leather upholstery, dual-zone climate control, 10-speaker sound system, native navigation, wireless phone charging, cruise control, and a reversing camera.

S line trim adds 21-inch alloys, Sport adaptive air suspension, S line bumbers, privacy glass, and front sports seats. Black Edition cars get a different style of 21-inch wheel and some darkened exterior styling elements. Range-topping Vorsprung cars are tooled-up with 22-inch wheels, front super-sports seats, virtual door mirrors (cameras, in other words), illuminated exterior elements, power door closure, panoramic roof, four-zone climate control, and a head-up display.

The Audi SQ8 comes in two more lavishly equipped trim levels. The Black Edition has 21-inch alloys, an SQ8-specific body kit, black brake calipers, super-sports front seats, four-zone climate, Bang & Olufsen premium sound, and a head-up display. Vorsprung gets 22-inch wheels, exterior ambient lighting, heated front-and rear seats, virtual door mirrors, panoramic roof, power door closure, heated steering wheel, rear window sunblinds and extended leather interior trim.

Audi Q8 E-Tron running costs

It will come as precisely zero surprise that the Audi Q8 E-Tron was a very expensive car when new, being as it is was that flagship of the German premium manufacturer’s electric car range. When it went on sale, prices started at around £68,000 for the 50 E-Tron in Sport trim. The upgrade to S line trim cost another £5,000, the Black Edition was another £2,350 on top, while specifying the range-topping Vorsprung would cost you another £14,650 on top of that. Yikes.

Prices for the 55 E-Tron started at around £78,000, and each step up the trim ladder cost the same premium as before. If you wanted the SQ8, you were looking at around £98,000 for the Black Edition, and £115,000 for the Vorsprung. If you wanted the Sportback rather than the regular SUV, the upgrade commanded a £2,500 premium across the board.

The Q8 E-Tron is no longer available as a new car, but it might be worth your while seeking one out on the used market. Entry-level cars from 2023 with fewer that 25,000 miles on the clock can be had for around £30,000, which is less than half the as-new price: thank the shonky residual values of EVs - particularly high-end luxury ones - for that.

The entry-level 50 E-Tron has a battery with an 89kWh usable capacity, which when charging on a 7kW home wallbox, will cost around £25 for a full charge, assuming that your domestic electricity is billed at the UK’s national average price. That charge will take around 14 hours. A full charge of the 106kWh equivalent in the 55 E-Tron and the SQ8 will cost around £30, and take more like 16 hours. However, charge your car overnight on a domestic electricity tariff that allows vastly discounted off-peak charging, and you’ll pay less than half those figures, maybe even as little as a third..

By contrast, you can probably treble those original figures wehn using a DC public rapid charger, because the power than comes out of those is very expensive indeed. The smaller battery has a maximum charging speed of 150kW, while that rises to 170kW for the larger battery, meaning that in each case, a 10% to 80% charge will take around half an hour.

Audi Q8 E-Tron reliability

You might think that forking out the extra it costs to buy a car from a premium marque would give you a better chance of your car being reliable, but that’s not necessarily the case. In the brand standings of the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, Audi placed joint 22nd of 30 carmakers considered, alongside arch-rival Mercedes. Both were ahead of Jaguar in 27th place, but a long was behind BMW in 6th place.

Technically, the Q8 E-Tron didn’t feature in the study, but the older Audi E-Tron did, and it’s effectively the same car. And the E-Tron didn’t exactly dazzle, finishing 12th out of 16 models considered in the Electric SUV class. That’s two places ahead of the BMW iX, but one place behind the Jaguar I-Pace, and a mile behind the Tesla Model Y, which topped the class.

Like all Audis, the Q8 E-Tron comes with a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty, which is the bare minimum you should expect from any manufacturer, and is put to shame by the warranty offerings of an increasing number of brands, many of them budget ones. The battery is covered by a warranty of eight-years or 100,000 miles, meanwhile, which again, is merely par-for-the course.