Here's Everything We Know About the Fully-electric Audi Q4 e-tron

author: Manish Kharinta   

Following the cancellation of both the North American International Auto Show and the Geneva International Motor Show this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world's automakers were forced to find other ways to debut their new models.

The Geneva International Motor Show in particular, is one of the most electric vehicle friendly platforms and it's used by many prominent car brands each year to showcase their upcoming offerings.

As a result of the pandemic, many automakers have postponed their showcases to exercise social distancing protocols, whereas others like German automaker Audi have turned to online events to unveil their new products.

After a prototype of Volkswagen's highly anticipated ID.4 electric crossover was recently spotted testing in China without any camouflage, the company's luxury subsidiary Audi announced that it will unveil its own version of the EV during an online event on July 7th.

Trailer Break Down

Audi's upcoming electric crossover will be called the "Q4 Sportback e-tron" and the company released a short trailer confirming the new EV and its world premiere.

According to Audi, the Q4 Sportback e-tron is a concept vehicle that makes it Audi's second Q4 e-tron concept. However, the vehicle featured in the trailer looks much like a production-ready prototype. 

Audi also offered brief glimpses of the Q4 Sportback's styling in the trailer, which might be close to the final design for the production model. In the short trailer, the car seems to be sporting Audi's matrix LED headlights and the front grille also looks similar to those found on other e-tron models. 

In addition, the side mirrors shown in the video look much bigger and more conventional than the ones we saw on the earlier concept. The overall build of the car looks quite upscale and premium, as one would expect from Audi.

The Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron will be unveiled on July 7th.

Expected Specifications

We know for a fact that the Q4 Sportback e-tron will be based on Volkswagen Group's MEB electric vehicle architecture, which it will share with the Skoda Enyaq and VW ID.4. 

We expect that as far as overall dimensions are concerned, the Q4 Sportback e-tron will sit between the smaller Audi Q3 and larger Q5 SUVs. So far, there are no indications that suggest that Audi will deviate from its initial plans for the crossover's performance.

Q4 Sportback e-tron will likely get a dual motor setup with one electric motor on each axle, providing the latest member of Audi's Q family with its Quattro AWD capability. We expect that Audi will offer an 82 kWh battery pack in the production version of the Sportback e-tron crossover. This battery pack also powered the original Q4 e-tron concept and it is capable of delivering 280 miles of range, according to Audi.

If the drivetrain and the power-to-weight ratio of the crossover remain unchanged, then the Q4 Sportback e-tron should be able to accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in just over 6 seconds, with an electronically limited top speed of 112 mph. 

Audi's all-new EV will also get 125-kW fast charging capability which will allow owners to recharge their completely depleted battery packs to 80% capacity in around 30 minutes.

We expect the prices for the 2021 Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron will start at around $45,000, making its a strong rival to other fully-electric SUVs soon hitting the market, including the Nissan Ariya, Volvo XC40, Mustang Mach-E, and BMW iX3. 

However Audi's biggest competitor in the segment will probably be the Model Y crossover from Tesla, the company that dominates the EV segment.

Manish Kharinta

Manish Kharinta is a automotive writer based in the Los Angeles area. He has worked for automotive industry websites TheSmokingClutch.com, CarDekho.com and CarBikeindia.com. His experience ranges from covering auto shows, to car reviews and breaking automotive news. Manish aims to bring forth his unique perspective on automotive design and technological innovations in the automotive industry.