For German premium brands, the transition to electric cars is not an opportunity. It’s a test. While the great houses of Munich, Stuttgart and Ingolstadt serenely dominated automobile luxury, the irruption of the Electricity fairy suddenly changed the rules of the game. Not only did their opulent models driven by noble thermal mechanics cease to embody the alpha and omega of the automotive avant-garde, but they saw the emergence of an unclassifiable competitor. Tesla, an American manufacturer with a disruptive economic model, which took great pleasure in slashing prices without warning and in proportions never seen before.
We can’t blame Audi for refusing the obstacle. In 2019, the brand launched its e-tron model (since renamed Q8 e-tron), a powerful all-electric SUV which does not lack pace, delivers powerful acceleration, but which is affected by a pachydermic mass (2.4 tonnes) and gargantuan consumption. The arrival of the Q4 e-tron, in 2021, should have reestablished the rights of the brand with the rings, but this was not the case. Rounder but less heavy (a little over 2 tonnes, all the same), this model, although very pleasant to drive, has not caused sales to take off (barely three thousand registrations in France in 2023).
At the end of 2023, Audi had to break a taboo. This brand, obsessed with the resale value of its cars, the cornerstone of its profitability, took action and granted its friendly customers a huge discount of almost 6,000 euros on the Q4 e-tron. With a base price placed just below 47,000 euros, it was able to benefit from the ecological bonus which then reached 5,000 euros. Audi has given form to this constrained and forced generosity. It was a series strictly limited to four hundred vehicles.
No more question of doing in the slender style of yesteryear
The operation is renewed in 2024, this time with seven hundred units of the Q4 e-tron offered at a discount. At the same time, this model has benefited from notable improvements, such as a range extended up to 562 kilometers and a more powerful engine, installed on the rear axle. Electric consumption falls easily below 19 kilowatt hours (kWh) per 100 kilometers, even on the highway.
This vision, which has become more pragmatic, looks like self-criticism. Regarding sales of electric models, Audi only comes in fifth position in the premium category in France, behind Tesla, BMW, Mercedes and Volvo. The road map of the brand’s new boss, Gernot Döllner, is immense: reduce the gap that has widened with its German rivals and recover in China as well as in the United States.
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