Audi e-tron

i said i would post back here from time to time with updates, i have done nearly 2,000 km now and also just completed my first long trip.

The trip was a 370km spin from Dublin to Sneem in Kerry via mallow. Check on ABRP and the guidance was to stop at ionity cashel and charge to near full. i was a little worried about what to do when i got to parknasilla but when i called the hotel they said they would have outdoor plugs that i could use, and it turns out ESB have an AC point in sneem village as well.

First thing to note is that as a family car the etron excels, the boot space is really great, over 600litres and a very large amount under the boot floor aswell once you remove the polysterene spacer where a spare wheel could go. i got a weeks worth of grocery shopping, a laptop back and a few other bits under there, and in the main boot itself i got too massive suitcases and a buggy, scooter and a few other smaller bags, it really excelled.



onto the trip it self, we had 4 in the car and a packed boot, it was 190k give or take to cashel and i left home with a full battery, when i got there it indicated circa 40k range left. So first lesson, the e-tron is very inefficient, even more so at motorway speeds with extra weight! There was also some wind and rain that day (last sat 22 Aug)

In cashel the Ionity chargers were working well and 3 of the 4 stalls were free (i-pace as charging when i got there) the cable location isnt ideal for an etron as you need to pull right up to the unit and keep in right to the left of your parking space as the DC port is on the drivers side, after a little back and forth i got there, the cables are short and pretty rigid, id worry a little about my wife doing it on her own. once plugged in it was fine, used my audi charging sub, 31c a kwh, charged at 118 kw/h for when i was looking at it (etron 50 maxes at 120 v 150 for the 55) and charged the car to full in around 38 min (the e-tron maintains a pretty high charging rate from 80-100, i think circa 50 kw/h). We took the kids into mcdonalds and the car was charged completely 5 minutes before we were done.

Next part of the journey was another circa 200k but with less motorway, and when we got there i was showing 60k of range left so efficiency improved at lower than motorway speeds. We plugged into a granny charger when we got there which was handy, only charged at 2.1kw per hour but the first few days we werent driving too far so allowed me to get it back up near full and keep it topped up for the trip home.

Trip home was the same but in reverse, again no issues with ionity at all, working well and fast speeds.

with two small kids i would have needed a half way break of at least 45min anyway so the journey didnt take any longer in an EV.

i would definitely be much more confident about longer trips now, just need to make a plan and a back up plan, to be fair we do about 10k km annually and most of it is local so its only a consideration a half dozen times in the year.

Some stats:

Trip to Kerry 22 Aug
Distance Driven 370km
Speeds 71km/h
Consumption 26.3 KWH/100km

Trip to dublin 29 Aug
Distance Driven 365km
Speeds 80km/h
Consumption 25.4 KWH/100km

Total consumption over 1,860 KM so far 26.2KWH/100km which gives an expected range of 250k which is a little less than i thought! But in summary no regrets so far, as a family car it really suits us.

Few mods i have done recently as well, i bought an IRO dash cam that fits into the housing that holds the rearview mirror, very discrete, also got some 4 ring puddle lights.

ELM327 wrote: »

Did you get the Ionity discount included? How does that work?

You get a one year free sub to the Audi service which gives IONITY at 31c, after that it’s 17 a month so I won’t be continuing it!

zg3409 wrote: »

Just beware in winter the range will drop, particularly when outside temperatures drop below 5 Celsius. It can also drop a bit on nights with clear sky's like last night, where battery gets cold. Try to preheat car for long winter trips to warm battery. Cold air is also denser and more likely wind and rain in winter. Drop your speed to stretch the range, it can actually be quicker to do so, as you can often charge up later down the road, or not at all.

40km range left is risky. Often all the Ionity in cashel are blocked by petrol cars at peak times, and Ionity chargers are often not reliable. They actually repositioned those chargers to make the cable reach further but as you say they are still tight. Many people park offset which might block next spot.

The on site esb is very busy and often blocked too. I would charge with 100km left just in case next charger does not work out.

Try to pick a hotel with a charger next time. What hotel in sneem let you granny charge? Do they have outdoor sockets?

Well I was in cashel at 12.30 on both Saturdays not sure if that’s peak or off peak but it worked out ok. There is also an esb charger on site . But I take your point.

As regards hotel it’s what the kids need rather than charging needs! But again it worked perfectly and I could charge any time I wanted instead of having to battle someone else for the use of a dedicated charger , and yes they had outdoor sockets and with the e cars ac point in sneem as a back up if any issues.

jusmeig wrote: »

Where do you see these prices btw, on the site it is still 70k+

Take 10k off the website prices they are pre incentives

So I’ve gone full tart but they are oem parts at least !




I had tried a set of Ali express ones but oem are much higher quality

AidenL wrote: »

Any updates?

How are you getting in with range etc?

I’m wondering about buying a demo 55, some seem sensibly priced, and also thinking of waiting to see the Sportback when it arrives.

Great no regrets but range isn’t that much of an issue for us we do maybe 200k a week apart from the odd long trip!

Sport back wouldn’t suit me as I need the more paractical boot shape in the normal version plus I’m not really into cross over suv coupes personally but as they go the sport back is nice !

Maybe ambergold might have an update as he went from a model s to a 50 so would be good perspective.

AidenL wrote: »

I know what you mean, I hated the X4, X6 etc, cant see the point of a SUV with reduced load space. But as you say, the Audi version looks good to my eyes.

To be fair, my wife’s mileage wouldn’t be any higher than yours, but we are in Donegal, and I was playing around with Abetterrouteplanner to see how we would get on with charges on our usual visits to in-laws in Celbridge, city centre, Dundrum, and it looks like 2 charges vs one on the 50 vs 55, so was wondering would a demo 55 vs new 50:just give that little extra ability.

For the round trip I presume ? Where in Donegal are you coming from?

KCross wrote: »

This guy seems to have gotten a lemon

Didnt realise the 2nd charge port was optional. That is disappointing.

The other issues though are Tesla like.... camera based mirrors not usable, water ingress and shoddy paint work. I suspect the phantom faults are due to water in the electrics. I'm surprised Audi havent stepped up to the mark.

Did he just get a bad car and these issues have been resolved since this launch edition?

European cars get two charging ports it seems to be a us thing and his comment on the paint was on all audis can’t say I’ve ever had an issue with any of the 4 I’ve owned personally ?

Also don’t have the gimmick mirrors ! They are an option and not a good one !