Our e-tron long-termer heads back to Audi HQ after a six-month spell on our fleet.

The e-tron crossed over with its replacement, the BMW iX3

P11D £61,120 BiK 2% RANGE 192 miles ON FLEET RANGE 170 miles ON FLEET 2.2mpkwh

Report 3:

We bid farewell to the big ‘leccy Audi, as the e-tron heads back to base after an enjoyable six months in the Fleet World family. Before it departed, it crossed over at Challen Towers with its replacement, the BMW iX3. Some interesting comparisons ensued, with a lot of debate within the family about which is the ‘better’ electric vehicle. 

The Audi has a lot going for it – that’s one advantage of sharing many elements of existing and popular ICE or hybrid models that have been around for a while. The interior is first class – as you might expect – and the build quality is also impressive. 

There were a few niggles, including some strange behaviour from one of the tyres. It occasionally lost pressure – causing the warning system to helpfully chime in – but it wasn’t losing air fast enough to be a slow puncture. And sometimes it would go for months without any issues.  

Talking of issues, another gremlin in the system was the infotainment unit, which once or twice decided to reset itself, but not actually come back to life until you left it for a while to get over its little strop! 

But, on the whole, the big e-tron did plenty to impress. It has the ability to transport five in comfort, is quick off the line when you need – or want – it to be and dynamically, it is an impressive piece of engineering. Also – having plenty of time to get used to living with an EV, the presence of a charging point on each side of the car made life much easier on several occasions.  

John Challen

The e-tron is comfortable, well equipped and spacious

Report 2:

A couple of long, easy journeys in the e-tron boosting its real-world mileage in recent months. It’s still a bit of a way off the claimed best, but we normally take them with a pinch of salt, anyway.

However, in reality – as a lot of EV drivers can no doubt attest – it’s rare to regularly need the full range of most battery powered cars. Long journeys – especially over the last few years – have been few and far between, which means charging is typically a weekly, not daily occurrence. Having said that it would be nice to have a little bit in reserve, just in case. For situations such as if an unexpected trip to a vets – as was the scenario recently) cropped up. A round trip from Sussex to Hampshire was doable in the e-tron, but it would’ve been better if I was better prepared – and fully charged – the night before. As it was, with a quarter of a ‘tank’, we got the job done and everything was fine.

I wouldn’t say our e-tron gives me range anxiety, but when I step into something that has more than 200 miles of range (maybe it’s the psychological ‘200’ threshold) I am left wanting a bit.

However, don’t let that take anything away from how accomplished the e-tron is. Most people would expect that from an Audi – in fact, when you settle into the driver’s seat, it’s all very familiar. Comfortable, well equipped and spacious – the e-tron offers plenty of positives. The performance is good, too, especially handy when doing those longer A-road or motorway journeys. Assuming you’ve got enough miles in the battery pack to afford to put your foot down, of course!

John Challen

Our new all-electric Audi e-tron long-termer

Report 1:

My last long-term test report was a farewell to our Audi Q7 plug-in hybrid – a car that left us fairly underwhelmed thanks to the compromises it asks you to make.

The same can’t be said of our new Audi long-termer – an all-electric e-tron. Designed from the ground up as an EV, it combines the space and all-wheel drive security of an SUV with zero tailpipe emissions driving.

Our test car is the entry-level 50 quattro model, which means 230kW of power, rather than 300 in the ‘55’ models. But power isn’t the be-all here – even in 50 trim it’s quick enough to get yourself up to speed with other traffic easily (impressive when you consider the e-tron’s kerb weight of nearly 2.5 tonnes!).

Trim-wise, Technik specification brings pretty much everything you’d expect as standard, such as climate control, leather seats and 20-inch alloy wheels, plus the lovely virtual cockpit.

There’s a lengthy options list to choose from, of which our car has been treated to metallic paint (£750), upgraded four-zone climate control (£825) and the combined ‘comfort’ and ‘sound’ packs at £1,895 which add advanced parking assistance, Bang and Olufsen stereo, reversing camera and heated front seats.

The only other item I wish had been ticked was the virtual wing mirrors (£1,250) which replace the bulky side mirrors with tiny pods on which cameras are mounted which stream live images to tiny screens in the doors – not essential, by any means, but an interesting bit of future technology.

It’s early days with the e-tron, but this already feels like an EV without compromises – it’s really roomy inside, every switch and screen is familiar to any other Audi model, while charging via my PodPoint home charger is simple (and the Audi app means you can check on progress remotely).

Julian Kirk