Audi confirms all-electric e-tron Quattro SUV ‘starting price of €80,000’ ($99,000)

A few months before bringing the all-electric vehicle to market, Audi has finally broken the silence about the price of the e-tron quattro.

The SUV will start at 80,000 euros (~$99,000 USD) in Germany – with international availability and pricing coming later.

Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi, made the announcement during his speech at the company’s Annual Press Conference today:

“The price of the e-tron has been fixed as of today: It is available in Germany starting at 80,000 euros. The Audi e-tron** stands here as a representative of many more electric cars that we will present to you in the coming years. The Audi e-tron Sportback** will follow in 2019.”

Audi has previously been saying that the e-tron quattro is between the Audi Q5 and Audi Q7 in terms of size and those vehicles have starting MSRPs of $41,000 and $49,000.

The e-tron quattro is now coming out at a way higher price before accounting for incentives and gas savings.

The German automaker says that the e-tron quattro has “310 miles of range” on a 95 kWh battery pack, but Audi usually uses NEDC ratings for electric vehicle range. Therefore, real-world range or the EPA estimate should be closer to ~275 miles.

The all-electric SUV is also equipped with 3 electric motors for a total output of 320 kW and it is capable of DC fast-charging up to 150 kW.

The car is set to enter production at Audi’s carbon-neutral plant in Brussels in the next few months in order for deliveries to start in the European market at “the end of 2018.”

Electrek’s Take

It’s again going to be a tough sell for Audi to convert gas-powered car drivers to electric with the vehicle on the lot against its much cheaper gas-powered SUVs.

But I think it will be popular where gas-powered are taxed higher, like in Norway where Audi already has over 3,000 reservations for the vehicle, and where there are major EV incentives.

Even though the SUV is much smaller than the Model X and more of a competitor to the gas-powered SUVs and the new Jaguar I-Pace, it will likely be compared to Tesla’s Model X, like nearly all new EV coming out.

Here’s a size comparison:

As for pricing, Audi didn’t confirm that the €80,000 includes VAT, but if it does, it will be less expensive than the Model X in Germany where Tesla’s SUV starts at €91,250 after VAT (€76,525 before VAT), which would make sense for a smaller vehicle.

In short, I think it’s not positioned too badly in terms of price, but I would like to start seeing legacy automakers price their all-electric vehicles closer to their gas-powered ones when they are in the same segments. I’m not asking for the world here, but instead of 50% difference, something closer to 25-30% would make more sense before accounting for gas savings.