Audi E-tron Sportback 55 quattro S Line 2020 UK review

What is it?

For ‘Sportback’, read four-door coup?, or any other phrase that means more rakish looks at the expense of a 45-litre reduction in boot space.

This, then, is the lengthily titled Audi E-tron 55 quattro Sportback. Sportback aside, the rest of the name has ‘quattro’ for four-wheel drive, ‘E-tron’ for being free from internal combustion, ‘55’ for having 402bhp and a 95kWh battery, and ‘Audi’, which means a classy interior. What's it like?

Inside, a tiny reduction in rear head room aside, the Sportback is pure Audi at its plushest. I’d rather the ventilation controls weren’t touchscreen but at least the feedback is haptic and the buttons big. And the large upper screen, while also touchy, is logical.

Fit, finish and feel are otherwise seriously good. It’s ?80k, after all. The driving position is semi-tall, easy to slip in and out of at a crossover sort of height. The E-tron doesn’t sit on a bespoke electric platform, so open the bonnet – which requires a pull on an old-fashioned, near-your-feet bonnet release – and while it’s a sensible enough place to keep charge cables, there’s no room for anything else. There’s nothing radical in feel, then. The combusted-Audi familiarity is broken instead by the silence.

This is a really quiet car, even by some EV standards, with impressive road and wind noise isolation, of the sort that can have even experienced drivers checking the speedometer. (Is reduced noise why, I wonder, you see so many luxury EVs doing about a million miles an hour on the motorway?) Should I buy one?

On standard air springs, the E-tron has been allowed to breathe and float more than, say, a Jaguar I-Pace or Tesla Model X so rides comfortably, even on 21in wheels.

Категория: Краш-тесты