As someone who knows almost nothing about cars, I have an oddly paradoxical affinity for driving them.
I got my learner’s licence as soon as I possibly could: my 15th birthday. Exactly six months later I got my restricted licence, and I was driving to school in my sister’s old hand-me-down VW Polo. This was the closest I ever got to owning my own car, and in the dozen or so years since, my love for driving both through the narrow streets of the city and down the open roads of verdant countryside still remains.
Living close to the city centre, I’ve been getting along quite well without a car for the past few years, but I’ve missed driving regularly, so the thought of buying my own vehicle has tempted me just as regularly – but I always thought if I was to get a car, ideally it would be an electric vehicle (EV).
So imagine my enthusiasm when Audi approached me with an offer to review their e-tron 55 quattro, one of the company’s most iconic EV offerings, for a full fortnight. Not only would I have a car again for two weeks, but it would also be one of the best EV offerings on the market in Aotearoa. And so I set out to make the most of it.
The beginning: an introduction to Audi Connect
Upon climbing into the driver’s seat for the first time, I was given a crash course on the intuitive software features of the car. After downloading the myAudi app and entering my details (which only took about five minutes), all it took was a quick sync and the car was officially personalised to me.
This meant that my phone instantly connected upon entering the car, playing my music where it left off and seamlessly integrating phone calls through the audio system of the car. But this of course is standard in most modern cars today – what is truly impressive was the interface and usability of both the myAudi app and the display on the dashboard itself.
Upon opening the app, you’re greeted with an updated tally of the car’s battery percentage, or ‘charge level’, and the range in kilometres that this affords you. And upon scrolling down, soon you find out just how much the Audi Connect service works to turn the vehicle into a ‘connected car’.
You can explore vehicle data in real-time, like battery-efficiency of certain trips; you can then use this data to maximise your efficiency per trip. You can request service appointments on the app; you can lock and unlock it from anywhere, and preemptively turn on climate control before you get in (for those particularly warm or cool days). There’s a charge scheduling system, and several security features, like geofencing alerts and theft and location services.
And of course the app has several helpful push notifications, like speed reminders and alerts for when the battery is both low and when it’s finished charging. It really did feel like I wanted for nothing when using the app – for every convenience I could think of, there was an answer for it on myAudi.
The car – and the driving
The car itself was probably the most comfortable car experience I’ve had. All leather interior, and extremely spacious in every sense of the word – this is also the biggest car I’ve ever driven, not that there’s much competition. It very comfortably fits four adults, notwithstanding an enormous amount of boot room.
The climate control system, accessible on its own dedicated screen interface, was very easy to use and customise, as was the media centre and easy-access settings on the main interface.
But let’s talk about the nitty gritty – driving the car.
Despite having never driven an EV in my life before the e-tron, I had a preconceived notion that they were ‘skittish’ – that as soon as any minute modicum of pressure was exerted on the accelerator, I would be flying headlong into the street at 70 kilometres per hour. Thankfully, I had a lot more control over the car than I assumed I would: it felt like Audi was taking into account the fact that almost all of us have driven internal combustion engine (ICE) cars our entire lives, and adjusted the driving experience accordingly.
This isn’t to say that it didn’t drive like an EV. It did, but in positive ways: the smoothness of the acceleration was something I presume is simply impossible to replicate in an ICE car, and the responsiveness in both this regard as well as the braking felt great. Though it’s a big car, I never felt like it was so big that I wasn’t 100% in control of it – even winding through narrow Ponsonby and Grey Lynn streets, my confidence never wavered.
Parking was a dream too: there were so many cameras positioned around the e-tron that it felt like each time I parked, a new view of the outside of the car would show up on the interface to help me align the car. There was even an augmented reality (AR)-type display that shows the entirety of the car in relation to its surroundings on the main display, which was definitely the most intuitive and helpful feature when attempting an especially advanced manoeuvre.
I drove all over the Auckland region, in every direction of the compass, to the borders of both Northland and Waikato. Driving on the open road was especially gratifying, and was always the point where I felt surprised at how much the car made me feel its responsiveness and ceding of control.
Of course, like every first-time EV driver, I was concerned about the ‘charging’ aspect – but I didn’t need to be. With a maximum range of 441 kilometres, I could have easily driven much further afield without anxiety – however, New Zealand’s fast-charging network of EV battery chargers still leaves a lot to be desired, and if you were to attempt a trip to Wellington, for instance, you would need to wait at least an hour to charge up the battery on a 50kWh charger. If you manage to snag a 175kWh charger, though, you can cut down this wait time massively.
All in all, my two weeks driving the Audi e-tron was great, not only for the multitude of reasons listed above, but also (maybe even primarily) because I felt much better about driving an EV than I do about an ICE car. Knowing that I’m emitting zero emissions even on my big excursions to the depths of the Auckland region made me feel much better about driving – and the future of personal mobility in Aotearoa.
Note regarding images: International model shown for illustrative purposes only, and New Zealand specifications may vary.
