Audi makes no bones about calling the S08 E-tron its EV flagship, and when you approach it for the first time, everything about its appearance backs that up.It is big, imposing and very well made, has a magnificent paint job and greets the world with the sort of large and aggressive fizzog , that upmarket German cars generally use to advertise their pre-eminence.
At 2650kg, it's heavy, but that was pretty much inevitable given that it has one of the world's biggest EV batteries strapped to its underside. In that context, a claimed range of 276 miles sounds unimpressive.If the SQ8 E-tron isn't especially roomy or good at cruising long distances, what is it for? This in essence is what I started wondering on the first day of my acquaintance with the big beast.
So from the first, at virtually any speed, you notice an alertness and an energy in the way it turns that entirely belies its weight, if not its size. Clever configuration feeds torque instantly to the outside rear wheel in tight or fast corners to enhance the positivity of any energetic manoeuvre. It all leads you to press on - and pressing on has no penalty in noise: the SQ8 E-tron is very quiet mechanically and the road noise that can sometimes annoy in fat-tyred big Germans really isn't a problem.