Audi E-Tron official EPA-rated electric range announced

Audi has officially released the EPA-rated range for its E-Tron SUV, and the results are less than stellar. On a full charge, the Audi E-Tron will be able to go 204 miles. There are no longer-range versions available at launch, either.

This places the E-Tron behind pretty much everything else in the segment in total range. The Jaguar I-Pace is rated at 234 miles. A Tesla Model X is rated at 295 miles. And Mercedes has yet to announce the range for the EQC SUV.

To quote Audi, the official press release says that the E-Tron "is designed for daily usability," and "built for everyday use." Using a public 150 kW charger will net you 54 miles of range in 10 minutes, and up to 163 miles in 30 minutes. Audi offers a long eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty for the E-Tron battery, which is another reason why the Germans took a conservative approach.

Audi uses a 95 kWh battery pack with the E-Tron, but doesn't allow the pack to charge beyond 88% capacity – or 83.6 kWh of usable capacity. While Audi says it's prioritizing longevity over absolute range, 83.6 kWh is a large battery capacity, coming close to the size of its competitors. For comparison, Jaguar uses a 90 kWh battery pack and Tesla uses a 100 kWh battery pack. We don't have weight for the E-Tron yet, but as of now, it's the least efficient of the trio. Broken down by miles/kWh, the Model X will go 2.95 miles/kWh; I-Pace will go 2.60 miles/kWh and the E-Tron 2.44 miles/kWh. That doesn't necessarily reflect the vehicle's battery technology, but the car's efficiency as a whole. We'll be able to take even more factors into account when Audi decides to release all the specs.

The E-Tron is considerably larger than the trio of electric cars from Kia and Hyundai, (Niro EV, Soul EV and Kona Electric), but the Korean crossovers beat it in range by a wide margin. We drove the E-Tron around the United Arab Emirates and guessed then that it would be rated somewhere between 200 and 220 miles. Clearly, that guess wasn't far off, and we still thoroughly enjoyed driving the vehicle. Audi has plans to start shipping the E-Tron to U.S. reservation holders in May this year. It's expected to arrive in showrooms around the same time, where Audi says it "will be available for demonstrations." Pricing starts at $75,795 including a $995 destination charge and before applying the $7,500 federal tax rebate.