Audi has taken the covers off of the 2023 Audi Q8 e-tron. The SUV will make its way to India next year.
Official Statement
“With our corporate strategy ‘Vorsprung 2030’, we’ve set a fixed date for our withdrawal from combustion engines and clearly decided that Audi will be a fully electric brand within 11 years,” said Markus Duesmann, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG.
“The new Audi Q8 e-tron, with its improved efficiency and range and refined design, is another important component in our electric portfolio to get people excited about electromobility with emotional models that are suitable for everyday use.” Audi Board Member for Technical Development Oliver Hoffmann also focused on the customer benefits enhanced by these refinements. “In the new Q8 e-tron, we were able to significantly increase both battery capacity and charging performance. This allowed us to achieve an optimal balance between energy density and charging capacity, as well as to increase efficiency,” Hoffmann said. “On top of that, we improved the motors, progressive steering, and chassis control systems – and thus the dynamic driving characteristics that are typical of Audi in all versions of the Q8 e-tron.”
What’s New?
Firstly, the Q8 e-tron is essentially a rebranded version of the e-tron and the e-tron Sportback that is currently sold. With the Q8 tag, Audi is making it clear that this will be the flagship product among their electric SUVs and Crossovers. The Q8 e-tron gets a brand new design and interiors making it a new car altogether.
The Q8 e-tron gets a new trapezoidal grille finished in silver with a blacked-out 2D Audi four rings logo. The front bumper has been completely redesigned making the car look sportier. The headlamp cluster has very minor changes in its design What’s not changed is the rear design which looks more or less similar to the outgoing car. The B-pillar has new Audi lettering and if you look at it from the side, you will hardly notice any changes to the overall silhouette.
The Q8 e-tron gets reworked aerodynamics thanks to the new bumper design which has helped reduce the drag co-efficient from 0.26 to 0.24 for the Sportback variant and 0.28 to 0.27 for the regular variant.
What’s Not Changed
The interior of the Q8 e-tron is similar to the outgoing car. You will still get a feature-rich cabin all with a panoramic sunroof, and two-zone climate control with an option to upgrade to four-zone. The two hi-res displays continue to be on offer equipped with a virtual cockpit, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, Audi Connect, and all the bells and whistles. Buyers will also get to choose the kind of upholstery they would like in their car.
Drivetrain & Battery
The Q8 e-tron will come with three drivetrain options and two battery capacity options. The base Q8 50 e-tron gets a 89 kWh (95 kWh gross) battery pack while the higher Q8 55 e-tron and the SQ8 e-tron get a 106 kWh (114 kWh gross) pack. The former now supports a bigger battery charging capacity of up to 150 kW and the more powerful 55 and SQ8 support charging up to 170 kW. One can go from a 10% charge to up to 80% within 31 minutes of charging using these high-capacity chargers in standard conditions. This translates to a range of up to 420 km as per WLTP.
The 2023 e-tron will be launched by Feb’23 in the European markets. In India we will get the new e-tron a couple of months later. The base price for the Audi Q8 e-tron in Germany will be 74,400 euros.