The 2024 Audi Q8 e-tron is a suave and sophisticated take on an electric luxury SUV.

The 2024 Audi Q8 e-tron and its tapered-rail compatriot, the Q8 e-tron Sportback, prove an electric SUV doesn't need over-the-top style or rocket-like acceleration to impress. If anything, the Q8 e-tron duo are remarkably subtle in their approach to design and even driving dynamics. This could win over car shoppers who are intrigued by an EV, but who are not interested in making a four-wheeled fashion statement everywhere they go.

As the replacement for the e-tron electric SUV with a new name, which first appeared for the 2019 model year, the Q8 e-tron’s most important improvement over its predecessor is its additional driving range. Depending on the chosen body style and trim, the new models vary from 459 to 476 kilometres per charge. That’s a lot more range compared to the miserly 360 kilometres and change the Audi e-tron previously offered.

We recently attended the 2024 Q8 e-tron first drive and tested it in Launch Edition trim on tight, twisty, and often very foggy coastal highways in central California to see how Audi’s newest electric SUV stacks up against rivals like the Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV, BMW iX, Jaguar I-Pace and Tesla Model X.