The Audi Q4 e-tron is a battery electric compact luxury

crossover SUV A crossover, crossover SUV, or crossover utility vehicle (CUV) is a type of automobile with an increased ride height that is built on unibody chassis construction shared with passenger cars, as opposed to traditional sport utility vehicles ( ...

produced by

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

. It is based on Volkswagen Group's electric MEB platform and is the fourth fully-electric model in the Audi e-tron series after the Audi Q8 e-tron (formerly Audi e-tron), e-tron GT and Q2L e-tron. Production began in March 2021, with the production version being unveiled in April 2021. The Q4 e-tron is also notable for being the first Audi to be produced in Zwickau since the pre-war era of the company; the town being the original founding location of both the historic Audi company and its predecessor -

Horch Horch () was a German car manufacturer, which traced its roots to several companies founded in the late 19th and early 20th century by August Horch. It is one of the predecessors of the present day Audi company, which itself resulted from the ...

- before they were merged into

Auto Union Auto Union AG was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony. It is the immediate predecessor of Audi as it is known today. As well as acting as an umbrella firm for ...

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

Overview

The Q4 e-tron was first shown as a near-series concept vehicle at

Geneva Motor Show The Geneva International Motor Show was an annual auto show held in March in the Swiss city of Geneva. The show was hosted at the Palexpo, a convention centre located next to the Geneva Cointrin International Airport. The Salon was organised b ...

in 2019. Positioned in what Audi calls the "heart of the market", the compact SUV segment, its length of is slightly shorter than that of the

Audi Q5 The Audi Q5 is a series of compact luxury crossover SUVs produced by the German luxury car manufacturer Audi from 2008. The original first-generation (''Typ 8R'') model was the third member of the ''B8'' family to be released after the Audi ...

, although Audi claims that the Q4 e-tron offers comparable interior space. With , the front overhangs are relatively short, allowing for a

wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...

of while maintaining more compact overall dimensions. Much of the exterior design such as the spoilers in front of the front wheel arches, the rear

spoiler Spoiler or Spoilers may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Spoiler (media), something that reveals significant plot elements * The Spoiler, DC Comics superheroine Stephanie Brown Film and television * ''Spoiler'' (film), 1998 American ...

or the bars below the headlights was introduced with vehicle aerodynamics in mind. The Q4 e-tron achieves a drag coefficient of 0.26 in the Sportback version, which is worsened to 0.28 for the regular roofline model. Wheel sizes between 19 and 21 inch are offered. Optional features include an

augmented reality head-up display Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

and an infotainment screen, which can be controlled via voice commands. The boot (trunk) holds 520 L of space, which is extended to 1,490 L when folding down the second row seats (40:20:40 split) whereas the Sportback versions obtain 535/1,460 L. File:Audi Q4 e-tron 50 Quattro IMG 6067.jpg, Rear view File:Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron 1X7A0300.jpg, Front view (Sportback) File:Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron 50 Quattro IMG 5536.jpg, Rear view (Sportback) File:Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron IAA 2021 1X7A0127.jpg, Interior File:Audi Q4 e-tron concept Genf 2019 1Y7A5441.jpg, Audi Q4 e-tron concept

Markets

Europe

The market launch in Europe is to begin in June 2021, with prices in Germany starting from €41,900 for the base Q4 35 e-tron. The 40 trim is priced beginning from €47,500 and the Q4 50 e-tron quattro from €52,900. In July 2021, Audi began offering a less powerful all-wheel drive version, the 45 e-tron quattro. Sportback models will arrive in late summer and be priced around €2,000 higher. Two dedicated "Edition" models are available at launch in all drive variants for €6,195 more respectively, offering a blue or grey paint as well as additional exterior changes.

North America

The Q4 e-tron is set to arrive in the US in late 2021 for the 2022

model year The model year (sometimes abbreviated as MY) is a method of describing the version of a product which has been produced over multiple years. The model year may or may not be the same as the calendar year in which the product was manufactured. ...

, with prices beginning from under $45,000. In the US, the entry model will be the Q4 40 e-tron - as such exclusively models using the larger 77 kWh battery pack will be offered in the American market. The EPA estimated range for the dual motor Q4 50 to be with a combined highway/city rating of 95

MPGe Miles per gallon gasoline equivalent (MPGe or MPGge) is a measure of the average distance traveled per unit of energy consumed. MPGe is used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to compare energy consumption of alternative ...

China

For the Chinese market, the Q4 e-tron will be assembled at the

FAW-Volkswagen FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. is a joint venture between FAW Group and Volkswagen Group which manufactures Audi and Volkswagen marque passenger cars for sale in China. It was founded on 6 February 1991. FAW-VW is headquartered in the s ...

plant in

Foshan Foshan (, ; Chinese: 佛山) is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. The entire prefecture covers and had a population of 9,498,863 as of the 2020 census. The city is part of the western side of the Pearl River Delta m ...

. The Q4 e-tron Sportback had started production at the Foshan factory in November 2023.

Specifications

Powertrain

Rear wheel drive (RWD) models make use of a water-cooled brushless permanently excited synchronous motor positioned along the rear axle, producing up to of power and of torque and rotates at a speed of up to 16,000

rpm Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

. The motor is coupled to a 1-speed transmission with a fixed gear ratio of 13:1 and typically operates with "substantially greater than 90 percent" efficiency. The motor, transmission, and

power electronics Power electronics is the application of electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. The first high-power electronic devices were made using mercury-arc valves. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconduct ...

( DC/AC converter) together form a compact drive unit that weighs around . For the all-wheel drive ''quattro'' model, a further

asynchronous motor An induction motor or asynchronous motor is an AC electric motor in which the electric current in the rotor that produces torque is obtained by electromagnetic induction from the magnetic field of the stator winding. An induction motor theref ...

is positioned at the front axle, providing an additional up to of power at a speed of 14,000 rpm when required. In most situations, the front motor is not activated in order to increase overall efficiency. Its 1-speed gear is fixed at a ratio of 10:1 while the rear motor in AWD models operates at a ratio of 11.5:1. During braking, the rear-wheel drive models can recuperate energy up to forces of 0.15 g and up to 0.3 g in the all-wheel drive models, which equates to up to of power. When driving, the vehicle by default is set to coast, with recuperation up to 0.15 g being optional. The motors

rotor ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. To get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII-era syst ...

and

stator The stator is the stationary part of a rotary system, found in electric generators, electric motors, sirens, mud motors, or biological rotors (such as bacterial flagella or ATP synthase). Energy flows through a stator to or from the rotat ...

are produced at the Volkswagen Group Components plant in

Salzgitter Salzgitter (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Soltgitter'') is an independent city#Germany, independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig. Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitte ...

and are assembled in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

, where the 1-speed transmission is built as well. For the Chinese market, the electric drive components are produced in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

Battery

The battery consists of a liquid-cooled

Lithium-Ion A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible Intercalation (chemistry), intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically Electrical conductor, conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are c ...

battery pack A battery pack is a set of any number of (preferably) identical Battery (electricity), batteries or individual battery cells. They may be configured in a series, parallel or a mixture of both to deliver the desired voltage and current. The term ' ...

which houses either 10 or 12 modules containing the individual battery cells in an aluminium casing. The smaller battery holds an energy content of 55/52 kWh, while the larger pack comes in at 82/77 kWh and weights of and , respectively. Whereas the battery system is assembled at Volkswagen Group plants, the Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC) battery cells are obtained from suppliers such as

LG Energy Solution LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES; ) is a battery company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. LGES is one of the largest battery makers in the world alongside CATL, Panasonic, SK Innovation, and Samsung SDI. History LG Chem Energy Solution Busi ...

and

CATL Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) is a Chinese battery manufacturer and technology company founded in 2011 that specializes in the manufacturing of lithium-ion battery, lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy st ...

. For the Zwickau plant, battery cells pre-assembled into modules at LGs

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

plant are delivered by train to be assembled into batteries in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

. If charged at a public DC fast charger at a rate of under ideal conditions, Audi claims that the 82/77 kWh battery pack can charge from 5 to 80 percent in 38 minutes. Audi Q4 e-tron

Suspension

The Q4 e-tron uses a MacPherson front and five-link rear suspension.

Towing

The RWD models can tow up to and the AWD up to braked with an optional trailer hitch.

Safety

Reviews and reception

In December 2022, ''

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

'' named the Audi Q4 e-tron as a great alternative to the Model Y from Tesla for consumers upset with

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

Sustainability

According to Audi, it is using exclusively "eco-electricity" during production of the Q4 e-tron for Europe and the US in Zwickau, and demands the same from its suppliers. Audi also claims that what it considers "unavoidable" emissions during production are mitigated through purchasing

carbon offset Carbon offsetting is a carbon trading mechanism that enables entities to compensate for offset greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that reduce, avoid, or remove emissions elsewhere. When an entity invests in a carbon offsetting ...

s and, based on this, markets the Q4 e-tron as a "

net zero Global net-zero emissions is reached when greenhouse gas emissions and removals due to human activities are in balance. It is often called simply net zero. ''Emissions'' can refer to all greenhouse gases or only carbon dioxide (). Reaching net ze ...

carbon emissions" vehicle when handed to European and American customers. The "Dinamica" microfibre and "Puls" fabric interior options consist of 45 and 50 percent recycled materials, respectively.

References

External links

Official website
(United Kingdom) {{Audi vehicles timeline (North America) Q4 e-tron Production electric cars Luxury crossover sport utility vehicles Compact sport utility vehicles Rear-wheel-drive vehicles All-wheel-drive vehicles Euro NCAP large off-road Cars introduced in 2021 2020s cars