Audi’s luxury electric SUV is well worth wait for lengthy delivery

ONE gripe and one gripe only. Two vertical green lines that converge towards the top are projected on to the windscreen just below my eye-line. They are part of the head up display Driver Assist tech and monitor my lane keeping abilities. Heading to Henley from Marlow on the twisty bends the system gets intrusive, constantly flashing red and vibrating the steering wheel leaving you looking for ways to turn the whole thing off.

Everything else about this all-electric luxury SUV is lovely. I’ve always been a fan of Audi. From the game changing four-wheel drive Quattro of the Eighties to the broad range of today.

Innovation and benchmark build quality are all Audi hallmarks and very much in evidence with this top-of-the-range Q4 e-tron Quattro. Launched in 2021 to an immediate waiting list, current delivery times are about 12 months.

At circa £63,000 a dip into the options list will get you to within kissing distance of £70,000. So what do you get for your money and patience?

The Q4 is a boxy mid size SUV with a large cheese grater shiny grill hosting the four interlocking rings of the logo and a single full width light bar at the back. These strikingly modern styling elements first appeared on a concept car in 2019 and have made it into production.

Paint finishes have a depth and lustre that exude quality while the doors have a weight that would be familiar to a safe cracker.

Inside the quality continues across all materials making everything a tactile delight. There is plenty of what Dylan Thomas called Bible black though so you may want to add a panoramic sunroof to alleviate the gloom. The piano black surfaces look fabulous when box fresh but introduce children and their drinks and snacks and it could soon change.

The controls are very easy to live with. A central highly responsive touch panel for navigation and other options is intuitive with delightful haptic feedback while below there are some welcome old-fashioned buttons for climate control. The head up display is amazing when navigating and projects floating chevrons for left and right. It will also handily highlight all the charging points on your route as well.

I’ve always been happy in Audi seats as the backrest angle is infinitely adjustable via a rotary wheel meaning you can get it just right. Behind you, everything else that you would expect is there — seating for three in the back, split seats for loading and a low lip on the electric tailgate. In the boot there are lashings of tie down points and hooks.

Driving? After selecting Drive via a nifty small pebble shaped slider the general handling is never stressed for how this car will mostly be driven. Two motors, and four-wheel drive leave you firmly planted to the road and you can smoothly zoom to 60mph in just over six seconds.

The 20-inch wheels combined with Audi’s ‘S-Line’ spec usually means regular trips to the osteopath but Comfort mode delivers exactly that. The regeneration, how the car tops up electricity when not accelerating, is powerful but not strong enough to pull the car to a complete stop without using the brakes so one-pedal driving is not possible.

A quirk rather than a gripe is that the regeneration is either on or off, changed in the settings screen, rather than it being adjustable via paddles behind the wheel.

A fast charger, there is one behind the vets on the Reading Road in Henley that will get you from 10 to 80 per cent capacity in about 30 minutes. Fully topped up you’ll have an estimated range of about 290 miles.

This is a warm the cockles of your heart zero emissions SUV that will do its competent best over many miles and years into the distance. The kids can pile in after school and you will glow knowing you have done your bit to protect the polar bears pictured in their books.

We Brits do love a queue and the line for the Audi Q4 e-tron stretches into the distance to circa June 2024. After a week together I can see why.