The roads of the Alta Valmarecchia see it pass quickly and silently, precise in bends and safe in straight lines, comfortable and spacious inside, yet agile in narrow streets.
The sometimes wet surface and the potholes of an area still damaged by the rains and landslides of almost a year ago do not intimidate the evolution of the Audi Q4 e-tron, a compact and fully electric SUV from the house of the four rings which has achieved a upper level on several floors.
A car that presents itself with more power, more autonomy and dynamism than the previous one, launched in 2021 and the threshold of access to the electric world of Ingolstadt (140 thousand Q4 e-trons will be sold worldwide in 2023).
And which opens up a 2024 where six new electric models are planned for Audi: the upgrade of the Q4 e-tron, also in the Sportback version, then the Q6 e-tron and Q6 e-tron Sportback and finally the A6 sportback and -tron, also in the Avant configuration.
Photo story Audi Q4 e-tron - Photo - Ansa.it
A program resulting from investments of 28 billion within three years, the strongest plan in its history.
By 2026, Audi's full electric range will include over 20 models.
Subsequently, exclusively new fully electric cars will be launched on the world market.
The test of the updated Q4 starts from the hills surrounded by olive groves above Castel San Pietro Terme (Bologna) and arrives at the seaside of Pesaro, the 2024 Italian capital of culture, crossing the Romagna and Marche Apennines, to put the SUVs to the test on mixed routes .
You drive a Sportback, more elongated and with a more aerodynamic "tail", with four-wheel drive.
To make things in order, among the different versions and performances: Audi Q4 and Audi Q4 Sportback 45 e-tron reach 286 HP and 545 Nm instead of 204 HP and 310 Nm of the previous ones and go from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds (-1.8 seconds);
Audi Q4 and Audi Q4 Sportback 45 e-tron quattro score 286 HP instead of 265 HP (+21), 0-100 km/h in 6.6 seconds (-0.3 seconds), while Audi Q4 and Audi Q4 Sportback 55 e -tron quattro have 340 HP instead of 299 HP (+41) and 0-100 km/h in 5.4 seconds (-0.8 seconds).
Autonomy grows, up to +19 km: the range of the Sportback 45 e-tron variant, the best performer in terms of mileage, thus reaches 559 kilometers (545 for the SUV).
The 45 e-tron quattro instead reaches up to 525 km for the SUV and 537 km for the Sportback;
the 55 e-tron scores up to 521 km (SUV), 534 km (Sportback).
The charging power is also greater: up to 175 kilometers of autonomy can be restored in 10 minutes.
The plug&charge function is standard on all versions: in compatible charging stations, cars are automatically authorized to insert the cable and start the operation without the need for a card or app.
The superior efficiency, thanks to the optimized thermal management, and the more generous autonomy thanks to the new cell chemistry, are accompanied by more direct steering and sportier suspensions.
You can appreciate it in the curves towards Perticara, a small village, a hamlet of Novafeltria, surmounted by a cliff and reachable via a narrow road on the ridge where the Audi manages despite its weight and size.
Optional, the Audi character sound, digitally generated through two external speakers located in the rear section of the car and another two in the rear door panels, to reproduce the sound of the engine roar.
But the impression is that you quickly get used to the silence and the muffled environment of the passenger compartment contributes to the comfort of travel.
You notice this when you return towards the coast to complete the route with a stretch on the motorway, where the Q4 demonstrates stability even at high speeds, which are sometimes too easy to reach by pressing on the pedal: the car doesn't seem to have any difficulty in accelerating .
Prices: the new Audi Q4 e-tron and Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron are available in Italian dealerships starting from 57,800 euros for the SUV version and from 59,800 euros for the Sportback variant.
Produced at the Audi plant in Brussels and the Volkswagen Group's multi-brand site in Zwickau, the electron-powered Audi C-SUVs belong to the Bev Audi family, the only full electric European premium range that is fully certified carbon neutral.
In addition to adopting sustainable components derived from recycling, they integrate the closed cycle of glass into the standard production process.
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