Diesel’s last hurnrdah
It’s an SUV but it’s a coupe. It’s very rapid but it’s a mild-hybrid diesel. The SQ8 is an odd mix, but it kind of works. By Ben Oliver
Anyone else prefer the way their car looks with a roof box or bike rack fitted? After months of struggling with my SQ8’s exterior design, I suddenly got the hots for it when it came back from Audi with its original 22-inch wheels and summer rubber fitted, and Audi’s three-bike carrier attached to the optional roof rails.
The bike rack is easily the best I’ve used: simple and secure and with adjustment precise enough to trust with costly carbon bikes that really don’t like to be squeezed. But it also changed the car’s proportions, bolstering the slightly apologetic hatchback profile of the glasshouse and making it a better match for the more muscular lower body, especially that massive nose.
It might also have eased my philosophical problems with this car. I’ve struggled to understand why you’d choose this over a more practical Q7 or a quicker RS6. But with the rack fitted (taking the pressure off the compromised boot) I could see the SQ8 fitting into that ‘active lifestyle’ so beloved of the marketeers: maybe firing four people down the autobahn with its peerless pace and composure, before bouncing down some dirt track to their destination, where they’d unclip their mountain bikes and head up an Alp. Neither a standard Q7/Q8 nor an RS6 would handle both as well, and I really should be working in advertising.
I borrowed a Q7 plug-in hybrid while the SQ8 was away, and while its electric running felt a lot more socially acceptable than driving Europe’s most powerful passenger diesel, it also felt tall and wobbly by comparison. With the active anti-roll and rear-steer, Audi’s engineers have done an astonishing job in getting this 2.3-tonne SUV’s dynamics so close to those of the RS6. With its 48v electrical architecture, the SQ8 is a very mild hybrid, but it uses those volts to power the active anti-roll, among other things. You can sense where its priorities lie. Still, a fairly consistent 28.0mpg over the test was impressive given its weight and power, and will bother those who buy one not one bit.
If I had £108,000 to spend on a car, I don’t think it would go on one of these – not that Audi is aiming to sell many of these deliberately polarising cars. Whatever I have next might be of a more conventional, comprehensible ‘type’, and of greater credibility with car nerds. But it plainly won’t be able to match that titan of an engine, nor the massive standard spec that comes with this Vorsprung version of the SQ8, nor the cabin materials and quality that comfortably saw off the Bentley that shared my drive for two months. ‘Bargain’ was not among the verdicts I thought I’d deliver on this car.
Count the cost
Cost new £106,640 Part exchange £82,480 Cost per mile 21.4p Cost per mile including depreciation £4.71
Mini Electric Month 4
The story so far
Mini’s first proper EV. Tiny battery, speedy motor Fun to drive; quick Small range; pricey once you include the options
Logbook
Price
£24,900 (£30,900 as tested, after govt grant)
32.6kWh battery, single e-motor, 181bhp, 7.3sec 0-62mph, 93mph
3.9 miles per kWh (o cial), 3.9 miles per kWh (tested), 0g/km CO2 4.6p per mile
422
Performance Energy cost Miles this month miles E ciency Total