![]() Glimpses of sandy white cliffs and the beaches below appear at points as the coast turns, while the ocean below has a surprisingly almost Caribbean-like turquoise hue (yes, we drove the white Q8 below but the photos were taken of a blue one). ![]() Up here, California 1 hugs the coast atop gently rolling headlands still amply green after the winter’s many atmospheric rivers. I heard things for the first time in tracks I’ve listened to countless times: birds chirping in Daisy the Great’s “Record Player” and water babbling at the end of Lord Huron’s “The Night We Met.” I could hear individual Dua Lipa’s singing with Elton John on their quasi-duet of “Cold Heart,’ and a lot more of Alanis singing backup for Dave Matthews on “Spoon.” I could swear the tambourine in the Beatles’ “Day in the Life” was literally in the car banging away against the dead pedal.Īs Bang and his friend Olufsen provided the soundtrack, California provided the visuals as I mercifully managed to shake RVs on occasion in favor of a minivan or Tahoe. The combination of silent car, soft-touch interior surfaces and whatever speaker magic B&O cooked up results in the closest thing you can get to a rolling recording studio. With that in mind and the Bundeswehr troop transport still waiting for the light to turn green, it was time to make sample of the Q8 E-Tron’s Bang & Olufsen sound system. That’s basically the same volume as an RS Q8 … parked. Or, if you prefer, my iPhone’s decibel meter app registered an average of 44 dB during a two-minute steady cruise at 60 mph. They also improve cabin noise, which Audi says is as quiet or quieter than the A8. Good thing it got those 59 extra miles, eh?īesides the upgraded battery, those extra miles also result from the redesigned exterior’s aerodynamic improvements that reduce drag by 6%. All told, I would return after a day of driving – mostly leisurely, but some bits more vigorous – with 61 miles left. AC home charging is either an equally so-so 9.6 kW or, with the optional second charger, a nutty 19.2 kW that should futureproof your car for whatever advanced home chargers are introduced ( my state-of-the-art Wallbox Pulsar tops out at the same 11.5 kW as many of today’s other EVs). It also charges quicker: a still so-so 170-kW max versus 150 at public fast chargers. That’s a substantial improvement over the outgoing SUV’s 226 miles thanks to a new, more efficiently designed battery pack good for 114 kilowatt-hours versus 95 kWh. The two Q8s are different vehicles, albeit with similar footprints and feature content.įor the purposes of a road trip like this one up the coast and back from Healdsburg in Sonoma wine country, the Q8 E-Tron is now good for 285 miles with its SUV body style, and 296 for its “Coupe” body style that to date has represented only about 10-15% of sales. That said, it is, in fact, a mid-cycle refresh of the previous E-Tron, and not a new electric version of the Audi Q8. Audi says this was to emphasize this particular vehicle’s status as a range-topping blah blah blah, but come on, it’s to make it a lot easier to differentiate it with the E-Tron GT, Q4 E-Tron and whatever other E-Trons are coming down the pipe in Audi’s electrified future. Q8 E-Tron would be the new name for the electric SUV formerly known as just E-Tron (you can dive deeper into the changes in our Q8 E-Tron and SQ8 E-Tron First Drive Review). Be behind the wheel of the Q8 E-Tron and you just might have the makings of one of the most pleasurable and memorable drives in recent memory – I know I did. ![]() Learn to accept that, and you’ll have a much better time. Its spectacular scenery rightfully draws a crowd, which means you’re stuck in that crowd. Such a pace is basically what you can expect your driving experience to entail while traversing the California 1 north of San Francisco.
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