AUDI 04 E-TRON

Has Audi's electric SUV lived up to its right-sized' billing? Eleven months on, here's our verdict

 The Q4 E-tron is supposed to be Audi's electric car breakthrough moment, helping the firm step beyond the early adopter' phase and into the mass market. With a range in excess of 300 miles and a 'right-sized' family package, plus Audi's vast dealer network and enduring badge appeal behind it, the Q4 E-tron was tipped to be second only to the A3 in Audi UK's sales this year, such was the view of it as a banker for success.

At the end of July, however, it sat ninth in Audi UK's 2022 sales rankings, behind the larger E-tron and between the A5 and A6. The chip shortage (that again...) has prevented it reaching its full potential, which, Audi says, is very much still there due to significant pent-up demand.

Three different Q4 E-trons of two different bodystyles nonetheless passed through our hands over the past 11 months, so we've been able to get a good sense of what those waiting Q4 buyers can expect when the chips are no longer down.

Mostly, they will find a car that’s easy to get along with and live with, and one of the better premium family car options on the market, electric or otherwise. Yet it comes with one major flaw that plagued in various ways all three cars we experienced, all of which we’ll come to.

The good first. The Q4 is indeed nicely sized and feels like quite a compact car rather than anything too wide and cumbersome, yet it retains plenty of space inside. It’s easy to manoeuvre and is quiet, comfortable and refined, with plentiful power and torque. It rides nicely and handles and steers precisely, if all rather somewhat inoffensively rather than engagingly.