• Can be cheap per mile in fuel costs
• Quite expensive to buy used
• Then again, low car tax

How much is it going to cost to run?

In theory E-Tron Sportback running costs should be very low – providing you charge it on one of those split electricity tariffs with cheap overnight kilowatts, a full tank should cost less than a family trip to the cinema.

Helping matters is a very powerful braking regeneration system that provides the sole method of slowing down in 90% of driving situations. That should reduce the cost of mechanical brake pad and disc wear, too.

A heat pump also uses wasted warmth from the battery to boost the performance of the air conditioning, and is responsible for improving the car’s range by up to 10%.

Range and charging

Audi says you can expect around 240 miles between charges in the Sportback, slightly more than the SUV because of its slippery profile. But in reality, because of its poor efficiency, we never saw more than 170 miles between charges.

Few owners are going to let the battery run out and then fully charge it, more likely you’ll hover somewhere between 50-80% with regular top ups at the office or at home – which means even fewer miles without tethering it to a wallbox or public chargepoint. For reference a 7kW wall box needs about 14 hours to fully charge a 55 Quattro, or 10.5 hours for the 50 Quattro version. That means most drivers will be able to get more than enough range overnight.

Finally there’s the option of rapid DC charging when out and about – by far and away the most expensive way to top up the battery, but also the quickest. Expect a 0-80% fill in the Sportback 55 Quattro to take as little as 30 minutes at a 150kW charger. Assuming you can find a charger…

Servicing and maintenance

The E-Tron Sportback came with a three year warranty, and the balance of that should be valid, while buying approved used will add in a layer of reassurance. The battery pack also comes with its own specfic eight year, 100,000 mile warranty.

Reliability

• Separate battery warranty
• One recall for SUV model
• Still a bit of a hard call to make

The E-Tron Sportback was covered by a three year warranty from new, while the battery gets its own special eight year, 100,000 mile warranty, and that’s transferrable to subsequent owners.

Audi’s reliability record isn’t great, but the E-Tron is doing better than its Q5 and Q7 counterparts. It’s had one safety recall since its 2019 launch and this related to water entering the battery pack, potentially causing a short circuit and risk of fire. If you buy a used model, make sure to check all the necessary work has been done prior to buying.