2022 Audi e-Tron S

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 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.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

When I first saw the new Audi e-tron S Sportback, I thought it was a Q8 or SQ8. What I liked about it is that the e-tron S Sportback looked just like a normal vehicle, without any try hard, “look at me — I’m an electric vehicle” design to it. It was also nice to have a bit of colour. Plasma Blue Metallic was a welcome change, as most of the Audis in the lot were white, silver or black.

The only thing that I do not like about its appearance is the front grille. Whatever greyish plastic they have made it out of made it look very cheap and it doesn’t sit well with the rest of the vehicle’s styling.

THE INTERIOR

Inside, the new e-tron S Sportback feels like a very high-end and futuristic vehicle. It is elegantly designed with a luxury feel, with leather and alloy trim wrapping around the centre console and the three digital displays. One thing it did suffer from, which we still see a lot of, is the piano black finish around screens and controls, which can be really bad for showing dust and fingerprints. From the driver’s seat, you really do feel like you're in a cockpit with all of the controls and screens wrapping around you. The newly designed drive selector was great too: sleek and subtle, but very functional. All of the seats are embroidered with cross diamond stitching which really adds a refined feel to them. Each seat also has the Audi S logo stitched in below the headrest. The two front seats are fully electric and heated, with lumbar support and memory function. It felt like I spent no time at all getting situated in this e-tron, and setting the memory was simple.

The rear seats are just as nice as the front, not as adjustable, but the finish and shape made them comfortable — even for tall people. I found that it was no trouble at all being just over 2 m tall, there was plenty of room around the knees and I didn’t find the sloping roof an issue or cramped.

The two central media displays are both touchscreens, or as I came to describe them, push screens. Unlike the touchscreens we are all used to, Audi has added a tactile button pushing function to theirs. So if you touch a button or icon on the screen it does nothing; you need to push it to activate it. Bit weird and not what I was expecting, but I guess you would get used to it. Apart from that, the rest of the MMI system is super easy to use. Swipe left and right for menu and options, and all are displayed with nice graphics and instructions. It’s easy to find what you want.

The second display under the main one controls the aircon, heated and cooled seats, and a range of other comfort options. I like how they have used these systems to control what used to be a sea of plastic buttons across the dash. It also removes the issues of multiple blank buttons around the cabin.

With some of the other Audis or cars in this price bracket, there can be very few places to put anything you might have in your pockets or your phone. I remember there being nowhere to put anything in the 2020 Audi RS6 I reviewed. Thankfully this is not the case in the e-tron S Sportback, as right behind the cool t-bar-like drive selector there is a great big open storage space which has an upright slot for your phone/wireless charging and a cubby for drinks bottles and bits and pieces. It was a good space, nice and deep, but I didn't like the phone charger set-up. It’s upright, with the wireless charger on the side, so to get your phone in it, you needed to use a clip that pushed on the screen of your phone to keep it in place. Not so keen on that, to be honest, as it may damage or leave marks on your phone’s screen.

The boot space is very good, especially for a sloped-back vehicle. Due to the height of the vehicle, the boot is deep below the rear hatch, which gives you 615 litres of space when the rear seats are up. The spare wheel is in a compartment below the boot, and on either side of the boot you have cargo spaces with net fronts for smaller items. They’re very good for shopping, when needing to store more fragile items like wine.

The floor of the boot also has 4 anchor points which can be used to tie cargo down or be used with the provided cargo net. The rear parcel tray is split in two, with half of it attached to the door and the other half in the car. Rear seats are also split 40/20/40 which leaves you with a lot of configuration as opposed to the 60/40 setup. With the seats down, the boot space opens up to 1,655 litres. The frunk or foot (front boot) is not as spacious, and I overlooked it the first time I lifted the bonnet as it has another cover over it, which is kind of similar looking to a normal engine cover. Once you lift this, there is a space just big enough to hold all the charging equipment, cables and plug-in wall charger. But that's it. It’s hard to say if this is a waste of useable space, as the rear boot is great for space already.

THE DRIVE

The Audi e-tron S Sportback is rather nice to drive. The initial feeling when pulling away from the dealership was that the car is very planted and power delivery is smooth and controllable. For most of my time in the S Sportback I never thought of it as an EV, just an SUV. I really liked this about it, as it was not trying to focus on the powertrain but more on the usability of the vehicle.

As this was the Audi S model, it needed to feel like the other S models but with a cheeky, sporty side to its character. The S was not just stitched on the headrest of the front seats, it was deep in the bones of its chassis. When you want to get up and go, the S Sportback has no problem doing so. It’s tight and firm in the corners too, giving the driver the confidence to place the vehicle right at the sweet spot of back-country roads. Inside, the cabin was nice and quiet on most roads, with a slight hint of the EV motor running in the background. The e-tron S Sportback felt like any other S model, with the right balance of sporty performance and luxury refinement.

Steering wheel controls are simple, much like the other Audi models. On the left, you have a scroll wheel for menus, a View button to change the driver display layout, and left and right controls for changing stations or menus. On the right, you have the volume, phone and voice controls.

Behind the wheel, you have a small stalk that has all of the cruise control settings, which are super easy to use. The only two controls that seem out of place are the paddles: on the left a minus paddle and on the right a plus paddle. No, they are not for gears; they control the EV brake regeneration system, which allows you to coast freely or have two different levels of brake regen engaged.

Visibility is pretty good all around. The A-pillar is a bit on the beefy side, so you have to double-check if there is a car hiding behind it at some roundabouts. The view out the rear window is good even though it’s sloped and narrow.

The driver's display is clean and easy to use. Unlike some of the new EV displays, it’s not cluttered with too much info. There is a power use gauge in place of an rpm metre and speedo. In between this, you have a custom area that can show an array of different things, from range, media, phone and navigation. I generally had it displaying range, which made it clear to see what power was remaining in the batteries. The HUD was a nice addition to this display, again being clean and simple, mainly displaying the speed on the front screen.

There is an array of drive modes as with all Audi models, where you can select Performance, Normal, Eco, etc. Unlike with most ICE vehicles where there is a

noticeable difference between these drive modes, being more sluggish in Eco and instant Power and Sport, I didn’t find there was much difference between them in the S Sportback and left it in Normal most of the time. Perhaps this was to do with my driving style or just the fact that there was so much torque available. The major difference is in Performance mode where the gloves came off and the power was just there to be used and abused.

The best bit of driver tech is the parking camera, which is a full 360-degree 3D view of the vehicle and its surroundings. I found this very handy as the review car had 22-inch rims fitted, and the camera system allowed some peace of mind when parallel parking the car against a curb. A stressful situation in any nice car, but more so when the car is not yours.

The energy economy seemed to be pretty good on the e-tron S Sportback. Over the course of the two weeks I had the vehicle, I managed to cover over 700 km. During this time I only required two fast charger topups, topping up from 20% to 50% and from 40% to 80%. I tried to use the mobile athome charger. It was kind of pointless unless you were leaving the car for the weekend to charge. From 30% it said it would be over 50 hours to recharge to 100%. I feel this is not the fault of the car but a problem we will see more of due to the size of the batteries in these vehicles. They are getting bigger and bigger, and our standard plugs don’t push enough juice to feed them quickly enough. Fast Charging is the way, but do we have that ability at home? I guess you can look into wall-mounted chargers, but they might need to be single or 3 phases to get it charged in a decent time.

Audi had an offer until the 31st of March 2022, where they put forward $1,750 incl GST for the installation of a home fast charger if your house is suitable. This was done in conjunction with HRV, their athome charging-installation partners. They may have other deals but right now, it looks like you're covering the costs of home installation after March 2022 .

As the only fast charger in my area is at Pak & Save, I spent a bit of time there both nights waiting for a top-up as the plug-in at home was too slow. So this is something to consider when purchasing these cars and how you charge them at home.

The usage data appeared to be very hard to dig out of the Audi, unlike other EV vehicles. So I can’t say what I got, just that the manufacturer-advertised rates are 25.6 - 28.1kWh/100km. If my maths are correct and we assume the average price per kW is $0.30, then it’s between $7.68 and $8.43 per 100 km. Going back to what would be an equivalent model, the Audi SQ8, the fuel consumption is advertised at 12.9L/100km, which works out to be around $43.86 per 100 km based on the current average price of 98ron fuel.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time in the e-tron S Sportback; it’s a sporty, everyday usable and practical family vehicle. To add to this that it’s fully electric and it’s cheaper than the equivalent ICE model (the SQ8) 2022 AUDI E-TRON S SPORTBACK

DRIVER TECH 10

ECONOMY 8

HANDLING 8

INFOTAINMENT 9

INTERIOR 10

PERFORMANCE 8

RIDE

8

SAFETY 9

STYLING

VALUE

8

8

— that means it’s now a serious option for people to consider when thinking about a vehicle of this level or cost.

The only real issues I had with this vehicle were the style of the front grille and the battery size. The battery has a reliance on fast charging. If you have an e-tron S Sportback, you will find out that you need a fast charger in your home or at work so that you can top it up anytime you’re not using the vehicle. I tried the plug-in wall charger at work, but it said it would take 36 hours. Several hours later it had only got me 5% more range, which meant I spent a bit of time at our local supermarket fast charging it. Audi are offering support for this, but this it was currently a limited offer up to the 31st of March 2022.

I have been a big fan of Audi for a long time, but the e-tron GT RS didn’t do it for me. Impressive flagship, but could I live with it? No. The Audi e-tron S Sportback is a totally different kettle of fish. Could I live with the Audi e-tron S Sportback every day? Yes, and I think I would enjoy it too.