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By Jonathan Crouch

Audi's SQ8 e-tron sets the standard for handling when it comes to large EVs. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 57

For ultimate EV performance, it's no longer sufficient for a brand to merely give its electric vehicle a drive motor on the front axle to add to the one at the back. As Audi's two SQ8 e-tron models show, ideally you'd want three motors. The result is more power, more grip and better handling: it's all good.

Backgroundword count: 169

You probably won't have heard of Audi's e-tron S, a large luxury high performance version of the brand's e-tron electric model. The S version arrived in 2020 with a bit of tech the EV sector hadn't previously seen. Offered in SUV and sleeker Sportback firms, the e-tron S was the market's first EVs to use three electric drive motors, one on the front axle and two at the rear. The result, predictably, was explosive performance. Even more significantly, having two motors on the rear axle allowed Audi to further reinvent the EV version of its quattro four wheel drive system, drive at speed able to switch not only from front to rear but between each of the back wheels. So grip and traction were never in doubt. Audi reckoned this system set a fresh standard for the way a big EV could handle and they weren't wrong. But customer take-up was slow. So the Ingolstadt brand has revitalised this model and given it a new name, the SQ8 e-tron.

Driving Experienceword count: 365

It's been over forty years since Audi redefined performance driving with its quattro all wheel drive system. With this SQ8 e-tron model, you could argue that the brand has redefined it once again - for a very different era, this being (currently) the EV market's only electric vehicle to use three drive motors. The larger electric motor that on a conventional Q8 e-tron sits at the rear has here been moved to the front, freeing up space for twin smaller motors to sit on the back axle, allowing torque vectoring and fully variable torque distribution between the rear wheels for what should be considerably enhanced cornering agility. The difference here is that you get real confidence through tighter, twistier turns, thanks to the electronic torque vectoring system's ability to individually control the amount of drive fed to each individual rear wheel with pinpoint accuracy, based on the grip and load active on either side of the car as you drive through each corner. It's sort of like a mechanical limited slip differential, except that here, there's nothing but software linking the two rear motors - and they respond up to 25% quicker. While all this is going on, wheel selective torque control on the front axle uses the discs and pads to gently brake the inside front wheel as you turn, further helping to rotate the car into the turn as the rear tyres edge towards their limit. The only disappointment, as with the more ordinary Q8 e-tron models, lies with the relative lack of steering feel, a familiar Audi issue, though the variable-ratio 'Progressive' rack is certainly accurate. If only though, it gave you the same confidence as the drive system, what a car this would be. Extra motive power in this SQ8 e-tron model means a higher output of course - up to 435PS with 808Nm of torque; or, with the 'S' mode engaged for overtaking, 503PS, with a thumping 973Nm of torque. Enough to simply hurl this Audi at the horizon; 62mph from rest is recorded at 4.5s, but it feels quicker than that because the pulling power is so instant, tailing off only as you edge close to the 130mph maximum.

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