How much space is there?

One of the best aspects of the Q4 is just how roomy it is inside. While there are some rivals (the Hyundai Ioniq 5 notably) that offer an even airier experience inside, the Q4’s cabin – in spite of the slightly gloomy aspect that comes with lots of Germanically-dark surfaces – really is very spacious.

In the back seat, thanks to the flat floor, there’s just about enough room to get three adults sitting side by side (although, as ever, the middle seat is on the narrow side). The extra panel of glass behind the rear door helps to stop things feeling too claustrophobic.

Up front, there’s excellent room for heads and legs, not to mention shoulders and elbows. That said, you feel that Audi could have made a little more of the Q4’s inherent roominess and opened out the front compartment just a little. Some of the design makes things feel just a touch hemmed-in at times.

Boot space and storage

Behind the Q4 E-Tron’s standard-fit electric tailgate, there’s a 520-litre boot, which is pretty generous. There’s a full metre of width between the rear suspension turrets, so when you’re trying to load bulky items, the Audi should swallow most things pretty easily.

The back seats split in a 60:40 ratio (top-spec Vorsprung models get a more versatile 40:20:40 split), but they don’t fold 100% flat. There’s a faint slope, which is not too bad but there is a gap between the back of the folded centre section and the edge of the boot floor, in which some items can get caught. When the seats are folded, there’s 1,490 litres of potential load space, which is good, but perhaps not spectacular.

For reference, the mechanically similar Skoda Enyaq offers a 585-litre boot, with 1,710 litres available if you fold the back seats. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has similar boot space to the Audi – 527 litres, or 1,587 litres with the back seats down – but backs those up with a 57-litre ‘frunk’ storage area under the nose, something that the Audi lacks entirely.

It’s also slightly annoying that Audi charges extra for a ‘function’ pack that includes seatback storage nets, a locking glovebox and a luggage net for the boot. It’s only a small cost, but surely such items should come as standard? The Function Pack is also the only way to get an adjustable boot floor, which eliminates a loading lip when you’re packing in heavy items.

Is it easy to park?

Visibility from the driver’s seat in the Q4 E-Tron is pretty good, although the windows are set a little high, which can make judging gaps to kerbs a little tricky (not great if you’ve shelled out for expensive alloys…). Rear parking sensors come as standard, but astonishingly given the Q4’s relatively expensive price point, there’s no standard reversing camera.

In fact, that’s part of either the ‘Comfort & Sound Pack’ or the ‘Assistance Package Advanced.’ Given the somewhat small rear screen, a reversing camera really is essential in a car like this, so it’s really odd that Audi doesn’t offer one as standard. Thankfully, the Q4 makes up a little for that in the parking stakes by having light, quick-geared steering and a fairly tight 10.2-metre turning circle. 

Safety

• Full five stars from Euro NCAP
• Pedestrian impact score a little low
• Emergency steering assistance as standard

The Audi Q4 E-Tron received a maximum five-star score from the independent crash test experts at Euro NCAP. It scored a very respectable 93% safety rating for adult occupant protection, but a slightly low 66% for vulnerable road user protection. According to NCAP’s report, that’s because the Q4 lacks both a pop-up bonnet (which protects a person’s head from impacting with hard points at the front of the car) or a standard-fit autonomous emergency braking system that stops the car when reversing. NCAP also pointed out that the forward emergency braking system had some difficulties in detecting potential collisions with cyclists.

The Q4 has front, side, head and centre airbags for the front-seat passengers as standard (that last one protects you from bashing into your passenger in the event of a side impact), but rear seat passengers only get a head airbag. Side chest and pelvis airbags for rear seat occupants are on the options list. There are Isofix child-seat points in the rear outer seats and the front passenger seat, as well as an airbag cut-off switch.

You can upgrade to the Safety Package Plus option, which comes with reverse emergency braking, a blind-spot monitor, rear cross traffic alert (which warns you if you’re about to back out into oncoming traffic, or indeed about to open your door into the path of a car or cyclist coming up from behind) and a pre-safe system that tightens up the seatbelts if it detects a likely collision from the front or rear.

You can go further, and spend more on the Assistance Package Advanced. That comes with adaptive cruise control, which uses radar and the front-facing camera to keep you a safe distance from the car in front. It also comes with an electronic speed limiter, lane-keeping steering and a system that can bring the car to a safe halt if it detects that the driver is unresponsive.