95% of the time you can wait and buy a car cheaper. Most depreciating assets are like that.

Maybe people are not happy with the range. One has to get use to driving around with 1/4 tank (coming from an ICE vehicle).

 

The cars I see for sale are dealer demo end of the year closeouts. Only one noticed for sale by private sale bc of low range.

 

Bill is right; many are demo cars where they didn't want to use as "loaner" cars for many Audi dealerships at this time.

 

2020s arriving as well.

 

Has anyone been able to get an E-Tron loaner from their dealer when visiting service? I'm wondering how many loaners there could be out there. My local dealer is a pretty high volume dealer but they do not have an E-Tron in the service loaner fleet.

 

We are in the Tampa area, asked for and received an e-tron loaner while our Q5 was in for service last summer.

 

Its going to get worse as more electric SUV's come out. Audi could turn it around with better E-Tron's if they want.

Anyone seen the Q4 E-Tron Concept?

 

I got my etron end of November and have taken it in for various prep, etc, a couple of times. Got a different e-tron loaner each time.

 

I first ordered my etron in September, 2018. Took delivery in June, 2019. I drive a lot for work and have a decent commute. In just over 8 months, I’ve amassed 18k miles on mine. I live in a small harbor town on Lake Michigan in Port Washington, WI. The range with the car has peaked at 245mi and on the coldest day this winter, (when temps were -1*f) that range dropped to 150. With current temperatures at about 30-40*, I get about 180mi and that number will climb as we push into Spring.

I’m very happy with the car. The handling is superb. The regenerative braking is nice, the power in boost mode is exceptional for a 6,000lb car and have raced past many other luxury cars w ease.

Most people see a full tank of gas and a range of 400+ miles. Yet they drive just 20-40 mi a day. As long as electrify America keeps installing chargers, and builds the network, and you have a charger in your garage, what’s the trouble?

Sure, I’ve spent 30 minutes at an EA charger once every couple months based on my day, but think of the hours I’ve saved not spending 5-10 minutes at the gas station every 4-5 days!

 

If I were only going to drive around town, I would give my E-Tron a 10 out of 10. Problem is, I would like to drive from Austin to Santa Fe to visit my sister, a 727 mile trip. Can’t do it, unless I have a Tesla model S.

 

WhiteRocket, you wrote:

"If I were only going to drive around town, I would give my E-Tron a 10 out of 10. Problem is, I would like to drive from Austin to Santa Fe to visit my sister, a 727 mile trip. Can’t do it, unless I have a Tesla model S."

So you could not map out a route to get you from point A to point B?

 

I just walked away from mine and replaced it with a Porsche Panamera.
For me, it was a combination of the range and the charging network. Electrify America is completely undependable. Never got anything close to a full-speed charge. But the worst part was that the EA charging stations aren't maintained. Good news: I NEVER had to wait for a charger. Bad news: I never was at a station where someone else was charging at the same time. Worse news: Had too many experiences where the charger said "available" but none of them turned out to be operational.
The EA folks on the help line do their best but this is clearly not a successful business, so I assume it will only get worse.
The etron is a failure and the Taycan will be a black eye as well.
I've learned an expensive lesson. If you want all electric, but Tesla.

 

The US market was a strange choice to start shipping in first rather than Europe. In the UK we’re getting very high install rate of chargers and the number of cars on the road hasn’t reached saturation on them yet. We’re a smaller country so the implication of being say 50mi range left and looking for a charger is not the same as being in the middle of Nevada.

 

Yes, that makes sense.

 

I've been to the dealer twice and they bragged about having 'practically new e-trons' with 'only' 2000 miles for ~$4k off. Well they were registered so the tax credit is gone. I wonder how many cars are dealer registered, then flipped. Maybe I'm off base...

 

 

I’d be happy to send you the paperwork from my trade. I’ll remove my name and the VIN but you can use it to get them to give you a realistic deal.

 

Good question. Something I've been thinking about as I bought a recently abandoned e-tron after the original owner barely drove it ~2,300 miles in 7 months. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the car itself. Excellent Audi engineering, build quality, comfort, tech features, etc. And thanks to solid pricing in the used market, it was a great value.

It's not perfect, there are always minor gripes with any vehicle. But hardly anything that would result in somebody taking a bath by terminating a lease early or loss in depreciation. As others have noted, it's gotta be the range and charging network. In particular, if somebody had higher expectations or requirements than what the e-tron could deliver.

For me, who will rarely take long road trips (especially now), and charge at home, it's a non-issue. At some point, I'll venture beyond its range and will try out the charging network for myself. Hopefully, things will continue improving.

 

Good question. Something I've been thinking about as I bought a recently abandoned e-tron after the original owner barely drove it ~2,300 miles in 7 months. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the car itself. Excellent Audi engineering, build quality, comfort, tech features, etc. And thanks to solid pricing in the used market, it was a great value.

It's not perfect, there are always minor gripes with any vehicle. But hardly anything that would result in somebody taking a bath by terminating a lease early or loss in depreciation. As others have noted, it's gotta be the range and charging network. In particular, if somebody had higher expectations or requirements than what the e-tron could deliver.

For me, who will rarely take long road trips (especially now), and charge at home, it's a non-issue. At some point, I'll venture beyond its range and will try out the charging network for myself. Hopefully, things will continue improving.
[/QU

 

That’s the attitude I had when I bought my etron new—that the network would improve-but it hasn’t. It’s gotten worse. No new chargers have been made available on either main interstate highway that I frequent (I-95 and I-64) in twelve months! And many chargers that have been in service are flaky and undependable. The etron is basically a $75,000 scooter. Great for local travel within 40 miles of home, but worthless beyond that range

 

Yeah, I hear ya. In my case, I didn't buy the e-tron with the expectation that it would improve. Hence why I bought it used, as it would make it financially far less impactful to have to trade-in ~2-3 years, if I do find myself traveling more, and the network not acceptable.

Exactly how I had hoped Tesla would improve build quality and service over the years so I could buy an EV that does have a better range and charging network. Only to find that even now, 7 years later, they still only care about quantity vs quality. Great EV tech, but as a vehicle, they aren't there for me.

Hence my decision to trade that EV tech for a vehicle that isn't plagued with panel fitment, paint issues, wind/road-noise, squeaks/rattles, and poor customer service. We'll see how the industry looks in a few years. With more and more EVs showing up, perhaps demand will force changes on both sides.

 

EA just finished their next round of build outs. Did anyone participate, it ended in July. Here is there current plan: Our Zero Emission Vehicle investment plan | Electrify America

And here was their request for locations: Submit a comment or recommendation | Electrify America

 

The 21" wheels aren't helping. Same story with other EVs: large wheels look great but work against efficiency. Can you trade for the 19" aeros?

 

Now that I've had more long-range seat time driving the E-Tron, I will say it has met my expectations in terms of EV range. I can safely travel a good ~80 miles in each direction without even needing a 3rd party charging station. And that's with the heavy (and awesome) 21" wheel disadvantage. That alone will meet over 90% of my driving needs for the next 3-4 years. Charging at home is pretty great.

For the other 10% there is a 150Kw+ EA charging station along any route I plan to take, plus several (slower) back-up options from other vendors. Granted, longer trips need more planning, stick to major highways, etc. But I knew that going in. The EA charging network in the south US (TX) appears to be newer and far more reliable. I haven't had any issues.

It's also worth noting EA has already stated that they've been replacing and upgrading a bunch of poor performing stations along the US east coast. As some owners recently found out the hard way.

Once again, it's not a perfect situation. But considering we are early adopters, from my experience, it's not bad.

Regardless, I won't make excuses for Audi/VW. They absolutely do need to improve the range of their vehicles. And the charging network needs to improve faster than they are today. I fully expect my next EV (Audi, or not) in a few years to have well over ~300+ miles of real-world range. As I would like to return to venturing off the primary routes and not needing such frequent stops.

 

I think I read earlier that dealer demo cars were being sold with low miles, at least under 10K. Our dealer had about 4 E-TRONs as loaners and I had to manage them. They to were sold with less than 10k Miles. As far as cars being sold quickly from actual buyers, all the complaints I read above seem to be the true indicators.
-Lower than expected real world range
-Amount of minor issues involving returning to dealer. Sunroof leaks, MMI issues, windshield leaks.
-Along with above, the amount of TSBs and recalls. Sitting on my desk I have at least 4 currently running recalls, 57H3, 90M9, 91X4, and 93G1
-And probably the big one, the reliability of the battery system. The earliest E-Trons we had were down for months as we awaited parts from Germany and replacement battery units.
-Charging network infrastructure not as robust as we would like.
-Personally had issues with a charger at work wanting to do the secure handshake thingy and it would keep cutting out which was annoying.
-Very heavy

 

Bought the etron as it fits perfectly with my life style being an old retired bum. Very rarely go over 100 miles in a day. But did take first road trip last week from Phoenix to Flagstaff. About 120 miles, but it is up all the way. From 1000 ft to 7000 ft. So it did use more juice that normal. But went to the Walmart in Flagstaff and it appeared that all the chargers were working. And one was actually in use. It was for a Volvo SUV, the lady sitting there while it charged had it for a week. Then went to Williams, AZ to play tourist. Went to the Electrify America at a LaQuinta. All chargers were working. And one charger was occupied by a Jag. And the home going from 7000 to 1000 ft. It was fun watching the mileage indicator going up as I went down some very long 6% hills. So the etron works for me.

 

Yes, the E Tron is a Coasting Beast!

 

it’s amazing what 7,000 lbs on wheels can do while going downhill ... 😅

 

Looking at the insideevs.com sales figures for 2019 (admittedly estimates), there were 1,829 e trons sold. Doing a quick survey of used car sales sites (autotrader.com, cars.com, etc) there were 249 used e trons for sale. Only one had more than 10k miles. The rest were under 5k with several under 100 miles. So, almost 14% of new car sales have wound up on the resale market. While the Jaguar I Pace only sold 752 for the year, only 8% were on the resale market.

Wish I had waited and bought used. Could have had the same car with only 294 miles on it for $68,995. Lesson learned.

Thoughts?

Audi actually sold a little over 3800 etrons in 2019 and the sold over 4800 etrons last year in the USA. Most of 2020 etrons were the 2019 model, so I would say there has to be at least 6000 2019 etrons out there. Having 249 used models for sale tells me there are a lot of happy owners out there.

 

We just got rid of our 2021 eTron Sportback Prestige today for a 2023 BMW iX 50. We were hoping to stick with Audi EVs but they are late to the party. The eTron is just too small for us and the range sucks and nothing that Audi has coming out soon is much better. Also, the resale value at least in my area is terrible. We took a hit trading it in but at least we got the $7500 tax credit when we bought it.

 

If you trade a car in within the first few years you are gonna take a hit, no matter what brand. Some lose 20% in the first year! After about 4-5 years it slows. Looking at trade in values vs Private party sales the etron looks like its about average for the brand.



"Cars lose the most value in the first year, and depreciation continues for about five years. A car can lose up to 20% of its value in the first year, and over the first five years fall to around 40% from the original price. That means it loses about 15% of the value each year after the first year."

 

Yes, I realize all of that. I was just shocked at how quickly and how much the used car market has dropped over the last 2 years. When I bought the eTron new, the used ones weren't much cheaper so they were holding their value very well as pretty much all used cars were. I had Audi dealers calling me trying to sell me used 2021 eTrons with like 10K or more miles for $80-85K. My eTron was the Prestige and had all the bells and whistles that could be ordered on it and it was around $92K. So with the $7500 tax credit it made no sense to buy a used one.

KBB has the values way off for eTrons. I was receiving offers from the dealership to basically swap out my 2021 for a 2023 eTron. They were offering up to $5000 off the 2023 and had estimated that I'd get $6154 from trading in my 2021. They estimated the trade in value at $61,242 and it only had about 13K miles on it. So with all this and an interest rate of 6.99% my monthly payment was going to go up by $214! Now, if the 2023 was a little bit larger, had more power, and a lot more range I may have considered it. The 2023 is essentially the same car though. The 2024 Q8 eTron looks promising with the Sportback having an estimated range of 300 miles but it's essential the same car.

 

Without reading everyone's replies, my 2 cents since owning our 22 etron is purely the fact that range sucks. My 22 etron advertises 222 miles max range. What they dont tell you until after you buy it whether the salesman told you or your owners manual is dont always charge it to 100%. Only charge to 80%. If you are going on longer trips then charge to 100%. Well $#!+ now I only average 150-160 miles at 80% and that depends if its warm/hot outside. When it was cold, i was averaging 129-139 miles. Another good example, yesterday i had charged my etron to 100% due to a longer trip. In the morning when i unhooked the charger i was at a range of 202 miles. Thats the highest est range I've gotten since I've owned this suv. My first destination according to the GPS was 32 miles away. On the freeway 98% flat i reached my first destination with a remaining range of 152 miles left. Not using a/c or heater and driving in efficiency mode. I drive speed limit and i dont have a heavy foot especially with my wife, child, and elderly mother in the car. I was really disappointed that I ended up using 50 miles of range on a 32 mile trip. This happens a lot and not the only time. Because there were many other places we had to go to yesterday i ended up having to find someplace to charge before heading home as i was at 65 miles left of charge after we went and did all we wanted to do. Honestly, to me, this etron suv is not worth the money we spent. The tech is great (when its working) but even that is hit or miss from what I've read on the forums and groups posts. Many ppl are abandoning the etrons and going to tesla and other ev cars. I dont like teslas but i dont hate them either. Friends of mine have them and they are great range wise because of their regen capability. As soon as you let off the gas it starts to regen which is great both on freeway and city. With our etrons, regen happens only when brake is applied or you hit the left paddle. But seriously when are you going to slow down or hit the brakes on an open freeway with no traffic? With teslas, you are more often going to let off the gas many times to lower your speed or maintain speed etc. Friends tell me their range lasts pretty well even on the freeways.

Another reason....Audi's resale value drops like a rock. That's surprising to me especially considering its a popular luxury brand.

 

Without reading everyone's replies, my 2 cents since owning our 22 etron is purely the fact that range sucks. My 22 etron advertises 222 miles max range. What they dont tell you until after you buy it whether the salesman told you or your owners manual is dont always charge it to 100%. Only charge to 80%. If you are going on longer trips then charge to 100%. Well $#!+ now I only average 150-160 miles at 80% and that depends if its warm/hot outside. When it was cold, i was averaging 129-139 miles. Another good example, yesterday i had charged my etron to 100% due to a longer trip. In the morning when i unhooked the charger i was at a range of 202 miles. Thats the highest est range I've gotten since I've owned this suv. My first destination according to the GPS was 32 miles away. On the freeway 98% flat i reached my first destination with a remaining range of 152 miles left. Not using a/c or heater and driving in efficiency mode. I drive speed limit and i dont have a heavy foot especially with my wife, child, and elderly mother in the car. I was really disappointed that I ended up using 50 miles of range on a 32 mile trip. This happens a lot and not the only time. Because there were many other places we had to go to yesterday i ended up having to find someplace to charge before heading home as i was at 65 miles left of charge after we went and did all we wanted to do. Honestly, to me, this etron suv is not worth the money we spent. The tech is great (when its working) but even that is hit or miss from what I've read on the forums and groups posts. Many ppl are abandoning the etrons and going to tesla and other ev cars. I dont like teslas but i dont hate them either. Friends of mine have them and they are great range wise because of their regen capability. As soon as you let off the gas it starts to regen which is great both on freeway and city. With our etrons, regen happens only when brake is applied or you hit the left paddle. But seriously when are you going to slow down or hit the brakes on an open freeway with no traffic? With teslas, you are more often going to let off the gas many times to lower your speed or maintain speed etc. Friends tell me their range lasts pretty well even on the freeways.

Another reason....Audi's resale value drops like a rock. That's surprising to me especially considering its a popular luxury brand.

Just to clear up one issue: Coasting is the most efficient way to move a car. With any regen you throw 25 to 30 percent of the kinetic energy away, lost as heat. So, if a car--such as Tesla--cannot coast, that is a NEGATIVE.

Regarding your 32 mi trip. ALL EV's, including Teslas, when you start out driving will initially "melt" away miles for 20 or 30 minute as the cabin warms/cools and as the battery warms to optimal operating temperature. You should charge your car on a Timer set for your departure time and include cabin conditioning as part of that charging cycle. (If on a timer, the energy used to condition the cabin is replenished to the battery from the wall) . That way you leave with a full, conditioned battery and cabin. I bet your 50 mi would have been MUCH closer to the 32.