2024 Audi Q4 e-tron EV confirmed for Australia

The 2024 Audi Q4 e-tron is heading to Australia within months, adding an all-important mid-size luxury SUV into the sweet spot of the fast-growing EV market.

A key rival for the top-selling Tesla Model Y, the five-door, five-seater Audi Q4 e-tron will also start with a price tag below the $89,332 luxury car tax threshold, which gives buyers access to the federal government’s fringe benefits tax exemption (FBT) when funding it with a novated lease.

“It’s coming,” said Audi Australia director Jeff Mannering of the Q4 e-tron.

“It’s a done deal. It’s almost on the boats coming [to Australia].”

Mannering wouldn’t elaborate on exact timing for the Q4 e-tron’s arrival, other than reaffirming he’s keen to see it Down Under.

Best estimates suggest the Q4 could be in dealerships early in 2024.

Mannering said the new SUV would be priced competitively to ensure it sells in bigger numbers than the other two battery-electric vehicles in Audi showrooms, the e-tron (soon to be Q8 e-tron) and e-tron GT.

“It’s going to be more volume for us,” said Mannering, pointing to the sub-$90,000 electric vehicles as those snaffling the vast majority of EV volume – both in Australia and around the world.

“That’s the segment for electric cars … below that $89,000 is important,” he added, referencing the LCT threshold.

Below that limit the Q4 e-tron is available for an FBT exemption for those taking out a novated lease. It allows the car and its running costs to be financed from pre-tax income, potentially saving thousands of dollars each year.

“People are very attracted to rebates and what can I get for switching over to a BEV – I think that’s extremely important,” said Mannering. “That’s the thing that attracts consumers’ attention.”

He said sneaking in below the $89K mark was “one of the main messages” to Audi head office in Germany when negotiating for the Q4 e-tron for Australia.

“We’re fighting hard to make sure ours is subsidy relevant,” he said.

“We’ll be at the top end of that [sub-LCT] range, but we need to be under that [limit].”

In the UK, the Q4 e-tron sells from £50,610 drive-away for the Sport 40 e-tron that would likely be the entry-level variant here. That’s about 12.5 per cent more than the Tesla Model Y that dominates sales here and globally.

If there was a similar price differential in Australia then the Q4 e-tron would start at less than $80,000 drive-away.

While that may be a tad optimistic, a close-to-$80,000 price tag seems on the cards.

The Q4 e-tron shares its EV underpinning with the upcoming Volkswagen ID.4 and Skoda Enyaq.

It’s available in single-motor/rear-drive guise with a 77kWh battery providing between 480km and 517km of WLTP range. That model makes 150kW/310Nm and accelerates to 100km/h in a claimed 8.5 seconds.

The dual-motor Sport 50 e-tron quattro adds a front motor to make a combined 220kW/460Nm and scamper to 100km/h in 6.2 seconds. The WLTP range is up to 500km.

There is also a sleeker Sportback version of the Q4 e-tron that is also expected to be sold in Australia.

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