Audi Sq8 E-Tron vs Maserati Levante

What's the difference?

There’s not doubt large, luxury SUVs like the SQ8 have a lot to gain from electrification in terms of refinement, performance and running costs. The flip-side is the extra mass of the batteries and other electrical gear but, in this case at least, there might be a silver lining there in the way the hulking SUV manages to force the air suspension into agreeable submission.

For our money, the station-wagon variant is the one to buy. It’s cheaper to begin with and with its greater luggage capacity, it simply makes more sense. Which is not to say the Sportback version is compromised in luxury, safety or performance terms, but if practicality doesn’t figure highly in any purchasing decision involving an SUV, then we sense a great disturbance in the force.

Regardless of what’s powering the SQ8, the driving experience is vintage Audi and that’s a good thing, and even that massive kerb mass can’t blunt the sort of chassis dynamics and feedback we’ve come to expect from the brand.

Some buyers will possibly baulk at the projected range and the Audi’s appetite for electrons, but when lined up side-by-side with its major competition, the SQ8 is every chance to emerge as the one to buy. We’ll need a proper comparison for that, of course, but the Audi should be on any short-list of big, deluxe, electric SUVs.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with accommodation and meals provided.

Maseratis are built for a fairly specific niche buyer; someone with a lot of money, someone slightly older and certainly someone who likes the finer things in life and appreciates Italian style, quality and heritage.

They are not, typically, the kind of buyers who want to tear around race tracks like fiends in big, shouty SUVs. But apparently there is a niche within the niche of Maserati fans who do, and they are willing to invest big dollars in vehicles wearing the Trofeo badge, like this Levante.

It might seem a slightly strange creation, a track-mad SUV with a screaming Ferrari engine, but surprisingly, it really does work.

Stylistically, the big news is that the SQ8 is the second model to take up Audi’s latest exterior design language. That includes the two-dimensional Audi grille logo as well as a 'singleframe' (Audi’s own word) light bar that links the matrix headlights.

The SQ8 also gets Audi’s Sport Package as part of the price of admission, and that includes black roof rails and other touches.

Of more technical interest is the way the front of the car has been designed to aid air flow around the front wheels. Controllable flaps in the front fascia as well as underbody winglets keep the air flowing around the wheels without contributing to excess aerodynamic drag at speed.

In an engineering sense, the big news is the adoption of a three-motor layout. While some manufacturers are yet to see the value in this, having a motor on each of the rear wheels means there’s no longer a need for a rear differential.

While the other two Maseratis to get the Trofeo treatment - the Ghibli and Quattroporte sedans - are undeniably lovely, the Levante is not quite as pretty.

Admittedly, for an SUV, it looks very good, and the Trofeo touches - that big, nostrilled bonnet, the red gills on the sides, the carbon, the badges - really do lift its game to another level.

Overall, though, the Levante has just never felt beautiful enough to me to be a Maserati. These guys really do style well, as you'd expect from a premium Italian brand, but making an SUV sexy is beyond even them.

I'll grant you, it does look good from front on, but at the rear they just seem to have run out of ideas.

Credit is due for feeling properly special inside, however.

There’s absolutely no question Audi knows a thing or two about cabin layouts and ergonomics. Like other contemporary Audis, this one features the fully customisable Virtual Cockpit with a huge range of possible displays and layouts. And again, as usual, it all works seamlessly and efficiently.

The head-up display is amazingly clear and the twin touchscreens divide the car’s tasks logically. Yes, there’s a lot going on, but compare the way the Audi applies logic to the menu strategy to the scatter-gun approach of many others, and you can see that plenty of thought has gone into this stuff.

Also, it goes without saying, of course, that there are multiple charging points as well as plenty of connectivity with good wireless connections available. That includes wireless phone changing.

The front seats are sporty but not too firm, even if they do give you a bit of a squeeze thanks to high bolsters and lots of contouring. The rear seat is likewise firm initially and is really best for two backsides thanks to the sculpting of the rear bench.

That said, it will accept a centre passenger, but that seat will be the last one occupied. Rear legroom – important in a car like this - is good, there’s enough room for your feet under the front seats and headroom, even in the allegedly racier looking Sportback, is ample if not huge.

The panoramic sunroof means there’s plenty of light to counter the dark interior colours, and the only real surprise is the amount of hard plastic on the upper part of the door trims, just below the glass. Given the acres of much plusher trim farther down the door, this seems a bit odd.

The other comment we’d make is that the SUV body simply makes more sense in terms of load carrying (569 litres plays 528) and makes more of the SUV’s claim to practicality.

The Sportback is also a bit of an acquired taste and while it’s not the first SUV-coupe mash-up we’ve seen, to many eyes, the combination never looks right. Coupe on stilts? Surely, not for everyone.

On that subject of practicality, the SQ8 bucks the trend in EVs by being able to tow up to 1800kg with a braked trailer. The factory towing pack is a $2180 option.

If you've got to move five people in a genuine hurry, the Levante is a pleasant way to go about it.

There's plenty of head and shoulder room, the seats, while firm in the front, are pleasant to the touch and supportive and there's a 580-litre boot with an electric tailgate and split-folding seats.

The boot feels properly spacious, too, with a 12-volt power outlet and four tie-down points. You won't, however, find a spare wheel out there, so serious off-roading is out (although it probably was already if you look at those expensive wheels).

There are huge door pockets with room for bottles and two big cup holders in the front. The centre-console bin looks lovely, it's all carbon fibre, but is quite small.

There are also three USB points, one in the front and two in the rear, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.

I'm sorry, but $330,000 for an SUV, of any kind? Personally I can't see the value, but then personally, as we'll discuss below in the Design section, I can't see the attraction.

This is one of the most expensive SUVs money can buy, well above things like Range Rover Sport SVR ($239,187) or even Porsche Cayenne Turbo Coupe ($254,000), although a pricier Ferrari one is surely on the way.

You'd want a lot for that, and the way it drives and sounds, thanks to that Ferrari engine, accounts for quite a few dollars.

There's also an undeniably high-quality feel to everything you touch on the car, inside and out, and a vast quantity of carbon fibre everywhere as well.

Other highlights include the 21-inch machine polished wheels, an 8.4-inch touchscreen with Navigation and DAB radio, full matrix LED headlights, and incredible Pieno Fiore natural leather, “the best the world has ever seen”, as Maserati says.

The lovely if firm front seats are heated and ventilated, sporty and 12-way adjustable, with Trofeo logos stitched into the headrests. The rooflining is lovely Alcantara, the steering wheel is sporty and features carbon-fibre shift paddles, ad the stereo system is Harman Kardon Premium and has 14 speakers.

And even the rear seats are heated. It feels expensive, and it should. But still, $330K?

While many electric all-wheel-drive vehicles use a motor on each axle, the Audi electric 'Quattro' system here arguably goes one better with a total of three motors.

The front axle features the traditional single motor while the rear axle has two; effectively a motor on each rear wheel.

When they all chime in, they bestow the e-tron with a maximum of 370kW of power and an astonishing 973Nm of torque; more than enough to get the 2.6-tonne e-tron moving.

Enough, in fact to get the car from rest to 100km/h in a claimed 4.5 seconds and on to an electronically limited top speed of 210km/h.

A single-speed reduction transmission is fitted and drive is constantly sent to all four wheels via an electric version of Audi’s famed Quattro all-wheel-drive layout.

Suspension is by adaptive air springs and there’s adjustable (via the steering wheel paddles) regenerative braking.

This will be the last time Maserati gets a proper Ferrari engine like this a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 shouty monster, which is good for 433kW and 730Nm.

The future, as is the case everywhere, is going to be more electric and less noisy. For now, anyone who can should enjoy this V8 masterpiece, which drives all four wheels through Maserati's Q4 on-demand all-wheel drive system via a limited-slip rear differential and uses an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Its claimed 0 to 100km/h time is 3.9 seconds, which puts it in what used to be super-car territory, and is still very quick indeed, while top speed is an unimaginable 304km/h.

Moving this much weight at such velocities and for such distances requires a big battery. In fact, Audi claims the SQ8’s battery, at 114kWh is the biggest in the business.

But, again, it needs to be, especially with the claimed energy consumption of a hefty 28.8kWh per 100km for the SUV version and 28.0kWh per 100km for the slightly slipperier Sportback.

That gives a theoretical range of 417km for the SUV and 430 for the Sportback, both of which are numbers some potential buyers won’t consider sufficient.

But those same people should consider the fact that in a mix of winding country roads and some freeway running, we were able to beat those consumption claims, recording closer to 26 or 27kWh per 100km which, if nothing else, suggests the published range figures might be somewhat closer to reality than the EV (or any other segment of the car industry) market typically gets.

The standard charger runs at 11kW but on a 10-amp household socket, home charging will be limited to 7.2kW, although an optional 22kW charger ($6900) is also available from Audi.

The DC charging is the highlight, however, and the SQ8 can cope with charging speeds of up to 170kWh, meaning it can theoretically get from 10 per cent to 80 per cent charged in about 31 minutes on a commercial charging station with enough grunt.

The official claimed fuel economy for the Maserati Levante Trofeo is 13.5 litres per 100km, but good luck with that. 

A more realistic number would probably sit somewhere above 17 litres per 100km, and we would have easily exceeded 20 litres while driving it like lunatics around a track.

But you just paid $330K for an SUV, what do you care about fuel economy?

Almost a thousand Newton-metres (not to mention 370kW) infers some pretty serious performance and so it is.

When you press down on the throttle pedal, there’s an instant and somewhat furious response from the driveline. And just as the Audi’s touchscreens have been calibrated to respond on a human scale, so too have the major driving controls.

That said, while there’s more acceleration on tap than most drivers will ever have experienced, the SQ8 doesn’t move forward with quite the irresistible force the bald numbers might suggest.

And that’s purely down to the thing weighing the wrong side of 2.6 tonnes. Sure, Audi claims 4.5 seconds and that seems fairly believable, but it’s not quite as ballistic as some other current EVs.

Still, that’s hardly its mission in life, anyway. Top speed, in the interests of thermal management, has been limited to an entirely understandable – not to mention adequate - 210km/h.

But one thing all that kerb mass has (arguably) done is make the suspension work properly. Speaking purely personally, until I’d sampled the SQ8 over a variety of bitumen joins, potholes of all sizes and even clattering level-crossings, I was yet to drive a passenger car on air suspension that worked as well as the brochure claimed.

Historically, air suspension has been okay on smooth roads and even sometimes bigger lumps and bumps. But it usually fell short of expectations on small amplitude, high frequency stuff that made the suspension judder and stutter. Not this Audi.

Even on the 'Dynamic' setting, the ride never falls beyond plush although you will notice a little more stiffness being dialled into it by the computer.

The best advice is to leave it in the 'Comfort' setting where there’s still lots of roll and pitch control, yet an even higher degree of suppleness that fundamentally refuses to be beaten by a lack of post-Covid road maintenance. And this from a car that rides on 22-inch wheels and tyres.

Perhaps compressed air doesn’t scale in a linear manner, making the addition of a couple of tonnes of sprung mass a positive, rather than a negative.

The other thing Audi has done well to maintain is that almost indefinable corporate steering response.

It’s kind of muted this time around in terms of its ability to talk to you, but there’s still an over-arching Audi-ness to it with an instant pointiness without the frenetic feel often associated with a quick ratio and sticky tyres.

We got to drive all three Trofeo-fettled Maseratis on track at Sydney Motorsport Park, and before that on the road, where the Levante felt very pleasant, and pleasantly expensive at all times.

As you might expect, a vehicle with 433kW is difficult to fully appreciate on public roads, although there was the occasional and exciting change to give it a quick, loud blat between gears.

It only takes hearing that engine note, and feeling that torque surge, a few times to see why someone might fall in love with this car, or at least this engine.

Out on the track, the rear-driven Ghibli and Quattroporte, which share the Levante's engine, were surely the more fun and frenetic things to drive, but there were those who chose the Levante as their best of the three, even for circuit driving.

There's no doubt that its on-demand all-wheel-drive system, which is biased towards the rear but asks the front wheels for help when required, made it feel the most planted, and the safest, through fast and slow bends.

There's a definite sense that its engine is being asked to work the hardest, though, to push all that bulk through the air (although its brakes never seemed to fade, which is impressive with more than two tonnes of SUV to stop).

While the big, deafening V8 is willing and keen to rev all the way to 7000rpm (where it bangs on the redline waiting for your upshift, if you're driving in manual mode - I do like that), it started to make large sucking sounds towards the top of each gear, as if it was desperately trying to get more oxygen in.

It genuinely sounded different to the other two Trofeo cars, which is odd, but perhaps they just weren't as near their limits. That bulk also slowed it slightly in terms of top speed down the straight, but it still exceeded 220km/h with ease.

What should be said is that I was genuinely shocked at how good the Levante Trofeo was around a track. So much so I asked to have a second go, just to make sure I wasn't going mad.

Sure, it makes no sense to me personally, and I don't know why anyone needs an SUV that's good on a track, but if you do, I can recommend the Levante for sure.

That hugely enjoyable engine is just too much fun, although it's even better in a sedan like the Ghibli...

Maserati's safety offering on the Levante includes six airbags, a reversing camera and 360-degree overhead camera, parking sensors front and rear, adaptive cruise control and Blind Spot Detection, Forward Collision Warning Plus, Pedestrian Detection, Lane Keep Assist, Active Driver Assist and Traffic Sign Recognition.

There is no ANCAP rating for the Levante as it's not been crash tested here.

Audi’s factory warranty is a good, but no longer remarkable five-year/unlimited warranty on most of the SQ8.

The exception is the battery which is covered by a six-year/160,000km warranty. Audi will also come to your home and connect the standard 10-amp charger and there’s an Origin Energy green power offer that comes with it.

Charging is taken care of for the first six years with a Chargefox subscription as well as Audi Connect. You’ll also get six years of free roadside assistance and the first six years of standard servicing are also included.

The SQ8 also makes good on the EV promise of less maintenance with service intervals every two years or 30,000km, whichever comes first.

Maserati offers a three-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, but you can choose to buy 12-month or two-year warranty extensions, and even a sixth or seventh-year drive-train warranty extension.

When much, much cheaper Japanese and Korean cars are offering seven and even 10-year warranties, this is so far off the pace that such a fast vehicle should be embarrassed. And if you're buying something Italian, a better, longer warranty would seem like a must. I'd be negotiating at sale for them to throw the longer warranty offer in.

Maserati says servicing for the Ghibli has a "ball park costing of $2700.00 for the first three years of ownership" with a service schedule of every 20,000km or 12 months (whichever occurs first)

Also, "please note that the above is indicative only of the manufacturers basic routine service maintenance schedule and does not include any consumable items such as tyres, brakes etc or additional dealership charges such as environmental levies etc."