LOL. That was one of the first observations I made when I got my e tron SUV in Nov 2019. "Why would I push the lever forward in order to go backwards?" Actually, I think it is intended to mimic the behavior of the stick shift in an Audi " Semi-Manual" Tip S Multi Tronic Transmission vehicle. In Manual mode, to go in Reverse, you push it forward. To start Drive (moving forward), you pull the stick towards you to put the car in First Gear (+ and -). Not sure why...I never got very comfortable with the Multi Tronic sysatm.

 

I think it is intended to mimic the behavior of the stick shift in an Audi " Semi-Manual" Tip S Multi Tronic Transmission vehicle.

It mimics automatic transmission shifter in most cars, which have reverse ahead of neutral and drive behind neutral - the traditional PRNDL layout.

 

Indeed, incensed beeping from the MMI, scores of terrified pensioners in Waitrose car park when I rock up. So far they haven't scratched the paintwork as they tumble across the bonnet (that's 'hood' for the American markets).

 

I agree that it does feel like a strange design feature. After the first few thousand miles it just became instinctive though.

I bet there was a lot of debate within the Audi design team before they agreed on this one.

 

IIRC, all my Audis have operated this way. It would be very strange for me to drive one that worked the opposite way.

 

Whilst it makes sense, it would be bizzare to the be the opposite way.

Even the first gen leafs almost a decade back worked in the same manner as per automatic levers

 

Yes I know. That is obviously why they did it that way. I have been driving manual and automatic cars for the last 50 years or so and also an E-Golf which had a stick similar to an automatic.
Nevertheless that little lever of the E-Tron leaves me with the impression it should be the other way round. Looks like the engineers at AUDI did not want to rock the boat (probably had a focus group meeting). But for me it is rather the consequence of "we have always done it that way".

Well, just inconsequential banter. It is probably no. 37 on the list of my suggested improvements

 

I tend to agree...if you are going to "rewrite" the CAR, everything up for grabs. Of course Audi worked so hard to make the etron NOT look any different from any SUV on the road, that I'm sure they were afraid flipping the gears around would scare away any Audi fan.

 

I think the easiest explanation is, if you look at the console below the lever, the R for reverse on the console is towards the front of the car and the D/S for drive is towards the rear of the car. So you are actually moving the lever towards the R on the console to go in reverse and pulling it to the D/S to drive forward.

 

I think the easiest explanation is, if you look at the console below the lever, the R for reverse on the console is towards the front of the car and the D/S for drive is towards the rear of the car. So you are actually moving the lever towards the R on the console to go in reverse and pulling it to the D/S to drive forward.

The placing of the R and D on the console shows what the lever does (and it clearly is an important reminder!) but the actual question being laboured in this thread is why does pushing the lever forward make the car go backward and vice versa.
Edited to say that, actually, this may well be the best explanation yet!

 

Because that’s the standard in pretty much every car with an automatic transmission and floor or console mounted shift lever.

 

This is kinda like scrolling a text document or a web browser page using a touch pad. The original way of doing it (on Mac OS, anyway) was when you moved your finger up, the page scrolled down. Then the iPhone came out, which reversed that, since you were literally touching the item, so it moved the direction you moved it. Now in the Mac OS the default scrolling is this more natural, intuitive motion, which can still be unchecked in the preferences and you can go back to the original, "unnatural" way of scrolling.

What some of you are saying here is you'd rather have the shift lever work in a more natural way, like your touchpad and smartphone. However, Audi is doing the shifting the original way it has always been laid out in vehicles.

Personally, it took me about a day to learn, mainly because the shifter is so different, and I don't even give it a second thought now.

 

I just think it's mildly annoying that you can't select regenerative braking as a default and need to push the lever twice every time you set off.

Personally, I'd like to disable the standard drive mode entirely.

 

You can select manual mode which will keep the regen braking at level 0, level 1, or level 2, where you last left it. I use automatic mode, because I prefer to activate regen braking with the left paddle shifter when I want it, but I prefer to coast most of the time when I take my foot off the accelerator. If you prefer regen braking when you take your foot of the accelerator, then use manual mode and set regen braking to level 1 or level 2, then regen braking will be the default.