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With the Belgium production facility now closed, Australia Australia only has a handful of new Q8 e-tron models left in stock.
Electric Cars
Audi has nearly exhausted supply of its first mass-market electric car in Australia, the Q8 e-tron (formerly known as the e-tron), as production has shuttered from its Belgium plant.
Speaking to Drive at the launch of the Q6 e-tron, Audi Australia director Jeff Mannering confirmed only 29 new examples of the Q8 e-tron were left in the country at the time of interview.
“Once that’s done, we’ll see what happens next in that bigger segment,” Mannering said.
Audi is yet to confirm a successor to the Q8 e-tron, but has stated it will offer an all-electric model in all major SUV segments – namely small, medium and large.
With the Q4 e-tron and Q6 e-tron models now available in showrooms in the mid-size SUV field, it leaves space for a Q3-sized model and the replacement for the Q8 e-tron to fill out Audi’s line-up.
The plant shutdown comes amid Volkswagen Group financial turmoil – in part due to the influx of affordable China-sourced electric vehicles (EVs) coming to markets around the world – with as many as three German factories also threatened with closures.
This means if a Q8 e-tron successor emerges, it would need to be built and sourced for Australia from another factory.
However, Mannering emphasised whatever emerges in that segment for Audi in the future would need to make sense in terms of positioning.
“If it was $500,000? We probably wouldn’t have that segment of car,” Mannering said.
“But that’s part of the everyday job for our product team and for me to make sure we get it [right], otherwise it's pointless having that car if it doesn’t fit.”
Last year in Australia, 619 examples of the Q8 were sold in Australia, of which 174 were in the all-electric e-tron variant.
The Q8 e-tron has competed against the BMW iX and Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV electric models, the former finding 556 new homes last year and the latter notching a 136-unit tally.
For reference, the Q8 e-tron has started at $153,984 before on-road costs for the entry-level 55 quattro, extending to $179,984 for the performance-honed SQ8 Sportback e-tron.
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Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.
