This week on EV Rider, we’re taking a spin in Audi’s Q4 Sportback 50 e-tron.
Styling is subjective but to my eye the Q4 Sportback is better looking than its corporate stablemate, the Volkswagen ID.4, which is built on the same platform.
The swept back glass and hatch area of the Q4 Sportback gives up a little utility as compared to its hatchback brother, but for the added visual pop it’s a good trade off.
Despite the Q4 being an EV, there’s no question it’s an Audi. It sticks to the family resemblance of its gas-powered siblings.
The all wheel drive Quattro 2022 Q4 e-tron Sportback 50 in this review uses two electric motors, one for each axle, making a total of 295 horsepower and 339 lb-ft of torque. That’s according to AutomotiveAddicts.com, which graciously loaned EV Rider the Q4 featured in this review.
Like other EVs, the Q4 offers a sport mode, but even in sport, I would describe it as just a bit slower as compared to its fastest competitors. For those of you that haven’t bought a car in a while and you’re coming from a gasoline car, I’m sure the Q4 is going to feel fast thanks to that instant torque.
The Quattro AWD drive version gets from 0-60 in 5.8 seconds, according to Automotive Addicts. While that’s relatively quick, similarly optioned competitors like the Genesis GV60, or Ford Mustang Mach-E get there in under 5 seconds.
Out on the road, the Q4 Sportback does a nice job soaking up the bumps, and as I would expect from an Audi, it feels nice and tight. I didn’t hear any creaks or rattles. The Q4 had just over 4,000 miles on it the day I drove it.
When it comes to handling, one thing that I’m not a huge fan of is the Q4’s braking. It’s not that the brakes are bad, but there’s more pedal travel than I’ve become accustomed to. The Q4 Sportback has discs up front and drum brakes in the rear.
Audi gives drivers several regenerative braking options with the Q4 Sportback One pedal driving is available along with the coasting feel that gasoline drivers are familiar with. When you’ve got the Q4 in its sport mode, you can use the steering wheel paddles to generate three different levels of regen, which sort of feels like downshifting when going into a turn or coming to a stop.
When it comes to highway driving, the Audi does have adaptive cruise control, and it does have lane keep assist. But what it doesn’t have is hands free steering on the interstate. So unlike Ford, GM and some others, you will need to keep your hand on the steering wheel on those longer drives.
You won’t find a 360-degree view since our car didn’t have front or side cameras. The turning radius on the Q4 is pretty tight for its size.
AutomotiveAddicts.com Publisher Malcolm Hogan has had significant driving time in both the Q4 Sportback and its corporate cousin, the VW ID.4. “So in having the same platform, I think the Q4 e-tron is more of a luxurious package. It does seem to handle a little bit better than the ID.4. It seems like it’s lighter on its feet. I don’t know if that’s attributed to having a different suspension setup on the Audi. You know, more on the luxury side, but still having a sports appeal, especially with the sport back design, you know having the slope rear-end,” Hogan said.
For most, that swoopy backend will work just fine.
Despite having the Sportback, I have plenty of headroom. I’m only 5-foot, 8-inches tall. Anyone under 5-foot, 11-inches will likely have enough headroom in the rear seats. If you’ve got rear seat passengers taller than that, you’re probably better off considering the Q4 Hatchback.
In terms of leg room, there’s plenty of space for all but the tallest passengers. Drivers will find plenty to like up front. Gauge clusters have always been a strong point in Audis and that’s the case here in the Q4.
For drivers that like a lot of information at a quick glance, especially navigation, Audi offers an immersive view that you can bring up with just the touch of a steering wheel button. While that makes the navigation front-and-center in the gauge cluster, other important readouts such as speed and remaining range remain.
Moving to the center stack, Audi mixes in physical buttons for climate control functions with a touchscreen handling most of the infotainment and other duties.
The Q4’s infotainment system leads off with what some would call a card or widgets display.
It’s not particularly fancy but it is responsive and gets the job done. It has all the critical elements such as HD and satellite radio. It also includes a feature missing from some competitors: wireless Android Auto and Apple Car Play.
Not needing to plug in a smartphone is an important feature since many of us are using Android Auto or Apple Car Play to do things like stream music or call up specific apps such as Plugshare or Waze.
For some reason when you go over to HD radio, while it will bring up a channel’s album art, it won’t bring up the display information from the artist. At first I thought perhaps it was the radio stations that I selected, but I went through all the radio stations in Jacksonville. And I got the same result. I could get album art where it was available, but I couldn’t get any information about the artist. At the end of the day the artist information came up for a few seconds and then disappeared again.
I looked in the owners manual. Supposedly you can force the display to show the song title and artist. You should be able to enable that by going into the more section. When I tried to do that,it said “selected system is currently unavailable.” I don’t know if it was a bug unique to this particular Audi. Perhaps an-over-the-air update or hard reboot would solve the issue.
Hogan says the Q4’s infotainment system is a step up from the Volkswagen ID 4’s.
“So the infotainment in the Audi is a lot better. You do have the tactile response and the pressing the touchscreen buttons. However, both systems do have their faults as far as being more of a distraction, taking your eye off of the road as far as your focus, you don’t know where your finger’s landing. It’s not any physical buttons up there on the touch screen, obviously, but you do have a set of physical climate control buttons that are useful. And of course the audio controls with the neat little slider for the volume knob.”
Another nice feature is Audi’s available head-up display that projects the usual information onto the windshield along with overlaying arrows for navigation and relevant information for adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping. One of the things that I appreciate about the Q4 as compared to some EVs is Audi decided to offer a traditional sunroof. So many of the EV’s these days are coming with a fixed glass roof that doesn’t open. Audi gives you the best of all worlds. The Q4 Sportback has a sunscreen for when the sun is really baking, along with a large glass roof that has a front section that opens.
A demonstation of the sunroof is in the video at the top of this post.
When it comes to storage, there’s no frunk as we see in many EVs, but it does have flip down rear seats and a false floor, adding to rear storage options.
When it’s time to refuel, Audi says the Q4 has a peak charging rate of 150 kW at CCS stations that can put out that much or more power. The Q4 Sportback’s estimated EPA range is 242 miles in a combination of interstate and urban driving.
As Hogan points out, the Q4 Sportback is in a very competitive segment: “As far as electric vehicles go, the Audi Q4 has its competition cut out for it. There’s many other offerings out there such as the Hyundai IONIQ 5. I know it’s not a luxury brand, but it does compete with this vehicle and I think Hyundai actually has a little edge as far as pricing goes. Something like this is a little over $60,000. So you’re spending quite a bit. You’re getting into that territory of more premium and luxury vehicles. I know Audi is still a premium brand, but it is what it is as far as the competition goes.”
At the time of this post’s publication a 2023 Q4 Sportback e-tron carried a base price of $58,200 and fully loaded price of $68,695.
Summing up the Q4 Sportback e-tron, I would say its best feature is its sharp styling. It’s a good looking sport utility vehicle with strong instrumentation and build quality.
While it may not be the class leader, it’s certainly a competent family mobile with a dash of sportiness thrown in. If you’ve found this edition of EV Rider useful, please give the video in this post a like and subscribe to the EV Rider YouTube channel so I can bring you more adventures in EV motoring.