Audi says it has over 20,000 reservations for e-tron electric SUVs

Audi announced that “more than 20,000 customers worldwide have already made advance reservations” for the e-tron, its new all-electric SUV – though most of them still have to wait a few months before delivery.

The German automaker confirmed the number during a delivery ceremony where Audi’s new CEO, Bram Schot, gave the keys of an e-tron to Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of Germany’s federal state of Baden-Württemberg, for a test drive.

Minister-President Kretschmann said about the vehicle:

“I am very pleased that the e-tron is now the first purely battery-electric Audi to go into series production and that I can now test drive it. This vehicle is an excellent example of sustainable mobility. The state government will continue to lead by example in low-emission mobility. There is great demand in the state administration for vehicles with alternative drive systems. We are support this technology also with the state’s electric mobility initiative, which was firmly established in the coalition agreement. The aim is to make the global transformation of the automotive industry a success in two respects: Success for the climate and health protection, as well as success for companies and employees. And every car that drives with low or even zero emissions helps to achieve the goals of the Strategy Dialogue of the Baden-Württemberg Automotive Industry.”

His government is also going to test two other e-tron SUVs as part of their fleet.

Many of those “more than 20,000 reservations” are in Norway, where it was confirmed last year that Audi already had 6,300 pre-orders for the e-tron.

Deliveries of Audi’s first electric vehicle built to be electric from the ground up were supposed to start last year, but it was delayed for months due to software issues.

Now the German automaker says that customer deliveries are planned in Europe for March while deliveries in North America should start during the second quarter.

The e-tron is equipped with a 95 kWh battery pack and gets over 200 miles of range. The premium SUV starts at $74,800 before incentives in the US.

Electrek’s Take

Those pre-order numbers are pretty good.

The news comes after Mercedes-Benz said that its first electric EQC SUV is already sold out for the year, but Audi is at least attaching a number to those pre-orders.

However, Audi also hasn’t confirmed any production capacity for the e-tron, but it claims that it is going to be a “large-scale production”, which is encouraging.

That said, the delay is a little worrying. I’m not sure what kind of software issues can hold up deliveries for months on a product that they said was going into production about 5 months ago.

We will keep you updated on the rollout of the e-tron in the coming weeks.