What's the difference?
The Audi SQ8 has had a mid-life refresh but this upper large SUV still offers luxury with its powerful V8 engine that fans know and love, as well as the features you would expect in a top model.
It competes against the Mercedes-AMG GLE and Porsche Cayenne but we’re family testing the SQ8 to see how it handles domestic life.
Keep reading to see what we’ve discovered.
Things that have had a name change AFTER they’ve become famous…
Okay… there’s Kanye West’s switch to Ye, Twitter’s rebranding to X and now this – the Audi Q8 e-tron.
As the brand’s first production EV, it used to be known simply as Audi e-tron. But that was confusing, because – Porsche Taycan-based GT and RS sports sedans aside – every electrified vehicle that the company has made before and since wears e-tron as a suffix.
Beyond new badging, the Q8 e-tron also brings a facelift and improvements underneath, to better challenge the BMW iX, Jaguar I-Pace and Mercedes EQC and EQE large electric SUVs, among others.
How does the Ingolstadt EV fare? Let’s find out.
The Audi SQ8 isn’t your typical performance SUV. It’s more refined and less flashy. The tech can be more complicated than it needs to be and if you’re wanting that V8 soundscape, you won’t find it here.
However, the handling and on road experience are superb plus you can comfortably haul the family around and look good doing it.
The Audi Q8 e-tron ushers in welcome improvements to an already likeable and capable large luxury SUV.
But it is also feeling dated compared to newer and fresher rivals like the BMW iX, isn’t as good to drive as the best, offers disappointing range for the size of the new battery, and prices are creeping up for what is essentially a half-decade-old EV.
The name change isn’t enough. What the Q8 e-tron really needs is a massive leap in its Vorsprung durch Technik in a rapidly evolving electrified landscape.
Very good… but far from great.