After spending 500 miles behind the wheel of the new Audi Q8 e-tron, we’ve pulled together a list of our favourite features and must-have optional extras
Earlier this year, we took the all-new Audi Q8 e-tron on a 500-mile journey across the UK from Wales to Kent. Why? Well, we wanted to use an epic UK road-trip to learn as much as we could about Audi’s flagship all-electric SUV in the real world.
And what better inspiration could we take than a coast-to-coast route from the sandy dunes of Ynyslas’ Beach in Wales to Britain’s only ‘desert’ in Dungeness, evoking Audi’s participation in the epic Dakar Rally endurance race with its innovative electrified Audi RS Q e-tron?
Mixing lots of motorway miles with undulating British A-roads, uneven B-roads and narrow city streets – while also tackling some seriously dramatic British spring weather along the way – our epic cross-UK journey was the perfect test for the multi-talented Audi Q8 e-tron.
You can watch the highlights of our trip below. But, as our epic road-trip came to an end, our next challenge began – picking the eight standout details on our personal Audi Q8 e-tron that we enjoyed most on our journey.
Learn more about the all-new Audi Q8 e-tron here
1 Virtual door mirrors
If ever a road-trip was designed to offer the ultimate test of a radical new piece of technology, then our dunes-to-desert journey in the Audi Q8 e-tron was it. Wherever we were on our journey, the wealth of different roads, driving environments and weather that we faced proved the perfect validation of the virtues of Audi’s virtual door mirrors.
Whether at first light or after dark the virtual mirrors were in a league of their own when it came to providing pin-sharp images that remained unobscured by rain, condensation and dew on the high-definition in-car OLED displays – giving us a vital extra dimension of confidence-inspiring visibility, even as the conditions changed from sun to rain and back.
The virtual door mirrors then showed a uniquely different side to their character on the urban roads of Bristol and Brighton – broadening and deepening our perspective of the environment around our car and helping us confidently thread our way through the wealth of hazards that are a natural part of city driving.
When indicating to change lanes or turn corners, the ‘intersection view’ reduces the blind spot by widening the field of view on the side that you’re indicating, which proved perfect for spotting passing cars and cyclists. The ‘kerb view’ also proved incredibly useful, panning down and letting us zoom in on the image – making it even easier to place the car when parking or pulling out of troublesome junctions.
2 City Assist Pack
Also sitting at the top of our list of eight standout features on our Audi Q8 e-tron is the City Assist Pack. As our car was specced in ‘Vorsprung’ trim, all of the optional packs – including the ‘City Assist Pack’ – were included as standard.
We were particularly thankful for the City Assist Pack as we left the motorway and headed towards the bright lights and bustling streets of Brighton. It offers a wealth of sensors and driver assists that Audi describes as ‘your sixth sense on the road’ – with a particular focus on urban driving.
The exit warning system and cross-traffic assist aids were particular highlights in an environment with regularly obstructed rearward visibility. As cyclists, pedestrians, and other vehicles approach from behind, the Audi Q8 e-tron uses both visual and audible prompts to warn you not to open any of the doors or continue your reversing manoeuvre. It can even tap the brakes to deter you from continuing your move if you miss the warning prompts.
3 Tour Pack
In the same way that the City Assist Pack is designed to make urban driving easier, the Audi Q8 e-tron’s Tour Pack is designed to offer an extra set of confidence-inspiring eyes when driving on the open road.Adaptive cruise assist with active lane assist help keep you stay at a constant speed and a safe distance from the car in front, while also helping you stay in your lane. The predictive efficiency assist takes things to another level – using predictive route data to provide an even more energy and range-efficient driving style.
Equally, the ‘Tour Pack’ isn’t designed solely for long-distance motorway travel. The Adaptive Cruise Assist proved especially effective on country roads where average speed limit zones and filter lights were more frequent than any of us had anticipated. Turn Assist was particularly helpful in rural towns and villages when turning across traffic into a junction, helping to spot oncoming vehicles and providing a clear warning if any were approaching.
4 Panoramic glass sunroof
When it comes to making long journeys feel effortlessly relaxing, the Audi Q8 e-tron’s electric-powered panoramic glass roof – part of the optional ‘Technology Pack Pro’ or in the case of our Vorsprung spec Audi Q8 e-tron a standard feature – feels invaluable.
Spanning half of the Audi Q8 e-tron’s roofline, it’s mightily impressive. Even when the sun was hiding away, it helped the interior of the car feel incredibly light and airy – all the way from the front row to the rear. When we could open it up, it offered just the right amount of wind-in-the-hair motoring.
5 Matrix LED headlights
Audi has long pushed the parameters of vehicle lighting technology, and the upgraded Matrix LED headlights on our Audi Q8 e-tron are the culmination of that development. Much like the virtual door mirrors, Matrix LED headlights are one of those features that we never knew we needed and – once experienced – it’s hard to go back to using normal headlights.
Time and again on the blackest of nights we marvelled at the far-reaching power and pinpoint precision of the Matrix LED beams – which illuminated the darkest Welsh A-roads and the coastal roads of Kent with unrelenting efficiency, while also helping eliminate eye strain at the end of each after-dark leg.
The glare-free adaptive high beam is also exceptionally responsive – masking out a gap in the beam for other road users with incredible precision and accuracy while still offering us the benefits of high beam for other parts of the road. And it’s all done automatically without us needing to lift a finger or take our eye off the road.
6 Multi-Colour Interior Ambient Lighting Pack
Part of the optional ‘Tech Pack’ and ‘Extended Tech Pack’, you can think of the Multi Colour Interior Ambient Lighting as your fully customisable ‘Audi atmosphere’ – offering 30 different colour choices, multiple contour and surface colour combinations for a fully personalised and illuminated interior cabin.
It may sound overwhelming, but it’s as simple to operate as a family slideshow, and exponentially more impactful. Paired with the optional acoustic side windows, it created a zen-like cocoon from the unpredictable elements outside – visually warming up the interior on colder mornings and helpfully making the inside of the Audi Q8 e-tron feel cooler and more relaxing on sun-washed afternoons.
7 Acoustic glazing side windows
Unlike the ambient lighting, the Audi Q8 e-tron’s optional acoustic glazing side windows are a feature that needs to be heard rather than seen: but, trust us when we say it’ll be as much a showstopper as the backlit Audi emblem. A £550 optional extra, they’re are another detail you didn’t know you needed until you’ve experiences them – taking what is already one of the most refined premium SUVs on the market to new heights. Quiet doesn’t even cut it.
On one of this year’s most blustery days in Brighton, it almost entirely shut out the noise from outside. It’s also equally refined on motorways, cutting out the burr of the passing air.
The point is, if you spend your time crossing the country for work or play, or simply appreciate the uninterrupted, fuller sound of your favourite tunes (or podcasts), we would make sure the ‘double glazed’ acoustic side windows option box is ticked.
8 Double sided charging port // Charging cable frunk zip bag
Details make the difference, and the Audi Q8 e-tron’s double-sided charging port and the conveniently packaged charging cable – which comes in its own zip bag in the ‘frunk’ front storage area – are unquestionably some of the most useful.
Whereas most all-electric cars have a single charging port (either somewhere at the front or rear), the Audi Q8 e-tron double’s up on its charging ports to offer two ways to top-up – letting you charge on either side, whichever way you’re parked. We found this especially convenient where public chargers would have tethered CCS cables on the left or the right of the charging unit.
Finally, for your own personal set of charging cables, Audi provides a water-resistant cable bag designed specifically for the space in the Audi Q8 e-tron’s frunk. A simple but elegant solution keeping your boot free of cables while remaining conveniently within reach.
Find out more about the all-new Audi Q8 e-tron and its technology here
* Vehicle driver assistance and safety systems are not a substitute for attentive driving. Drivers retain full responsibility for providing the necessary inputs for safe control of the vehicle. System descriptions are provided for information purposes only. System limitations and operational requirements apply. See manual for details.
