2022 Audi Q4 E-tron Sportback Long-Term Review Car News

The trunk is larger, at 535 liters versus 520 liters, which surprised me to learn, as I would naturally expect the sleeker model to be smaller. This was confirmed by the usable space when I loaded it; there is nothing between the pair. The style rather than the substance? Not here, and therein lies the appeal of the Sportback version.

Rear-passenger headroom shrinks a bit (as does boot space when the rear seats are folded down, dropping from 30 liters to 1460), and it feels less airy there by a hair’s amount.

I remember feeling a little “meh” towards the visuals of the Q4 Sportback when it was first presented. It might be familiarity, but I now find it to be quite a nice car to look at. I like the big wheels and the proportions, and to me it looks better resolved than its Skoda Enyaq iV Coupe and Volkswagen ID 5 sibling.

At the front of the cabin, nothing distinguishes the duo either. You get the same two digital displays: one for the driver, rich in information and configurability, and a larger touchscreen for the infotainment.

You may recall that Audi’s MMI system kept crashing and glitchy in our previous Q4, to the point that our planned swap in this Sportback was brought forward.

On this latest build, it’s been generally very good so far, except for one instance where the speedometer stopped working on a short trip. Turning it on and off again cured it, but it’s a bit annoying when something like this fails you. I was lucky that the GPS-calculated speedo built into the Waze sat nav app via Apple CarPlay gave me an indication of how fast I was traveling (not too fast, thankfully). I hope this problem will not come back.

That aside, the software that runs the car seems a bit more precise and transparent in this Q4 Sportback. Officially, there is no distinction between the two cars in this area, but I think our latest being a later build than our very first Q4 helped chase away some gremlins.

I won’t argue that there is any real dynamically perceptible difference between the pair, because there isn’t. But that’s not a bad thing: you get predictable handling even if it doesn’t imply, a smooth ride and, best of all, a supremely refined electric drivetrain that’s as fast as you’d ever want.