DRIVELIFE
2022 AUDI E-TRON S SPORTBACK ELECTRIC CAR REVIEW Written by DriveLife
It hasn't been long since I was behind the wheel of the mighty Audi RS e-Tron GT. An impressive car from a technological standpoint, with an impressive price tag too. However, I found that it was not an everyday practical car. This time I am in the new 2022 Audi e-Tron S Sportback, and I have a good feeling that it may tick off more boxes than the GT. When I started my review, I wanted to see what a similar internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle would cost. Looking at the body shape and specs of the e-Tron S Sportback, the closest was the Audi SQ8. Both are about the same size and spec level. Interestingly, the cost of the SQ8 is around $10k more than the e-Tron Sportback. This means that anyone looking at a vehicle of this size has a fully electric option without having to spend any more money.
WHAT’S IN THE 2022 AUDI E-TRON S SPORTBACK RANGE? The range available in New Zealand includes four variants of e-tron Sportback, starting with the e-tron 55 ($151,500) e-tron 55 Advanced ($159,900) e-tron 8 C A P R I C O R N I G N I T I O N M AY 2 0 2 2
Sportback 55 S line ($170,500) and the e-tron S Sportback ($189,900), which we are testing. Unlike the typical petrol models where there is a variety of engines for the different models, all of the e-tron Sportback variants have a very similar powertrain. They all have the same 95 kWh battery, and all have the same charging capacity of up to 11 kW AC and up to 150 kW DC. The e-tron 55, e-tron 55 advanced and e-tron Sportback 55 S line all have the same peak output boost of 300 kW and torque output boost of 664 Nm. This gives all of these models a 0-100 kmh time of 5.7 seconds and an electrical power consumption combined of 26.2 - 22.5 kWh/100 km. They all even have a similar range of up to 441 km, except for the S line which is up to 452 km.
The e-tron S Sportback is set up to be the high-performance model within the group, with a peak output boost of 370 kW and torque output boost of 973 Nm. This extra power gives it the ability to do 0-100 kmh in 4.5 seconds. The downside of this extra power and torque is that the e-tron S Sportback has less range than the other variants, only up to 378 km. This means that its electrical power consumption combined is 28.2 - 25.5 kWh/100 km. Overall if you break up the variants, there is not a huge difference between the whole range, with the S Sportback being the obvious performance model. Unless the high performance is something you can’t live without, you still get a very similar vehicle and could save up to $38,4000.
