Audi’s most vital electric car has only just landed here, but a refresh isn’t far away.

UPDATES Audi New Zealand has signalled will apply in mid-2024 to the Q4 e-tron it has just put on sale here have been unveiled by the parent brand.

The refresh bringing more power, more range and faster recharging has already been acknowledged as coming to the Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5 and Skoda Enyaq, models with which the Audi shares its platform, batteries and motors. 

Management for Skoda and VW have said stock landing next year will also feature these changes; the Czech brand could be the first of the three, with an associated price lift indicated.

In the Audi, the 77kWh battery pack now gets faster DC high-speed charging, with up to 175kW charging possible for the four-wheel drive quattro models, while the rear-wheel drive version can cope with 135kW.  The current cars peak at 125kW.

The improvement means the cars can achieve a 10-80 percent charge in just 28 minutes, as opposed to 38 minutes at present. The battery continues to automatically chop the charge at 80 percent so as to ensure better longevity for its lithium-ion cells, though as now this can be altered manually.

The battery conditioning system now also includes post-charging cooling.

The Q4 is also getting new electric motors, which are more efficient and which have boosted the range on one charge so that the best-performing model - the slightly more aerodynamic Q4 Sportback 45 e-tron - now has a WLTP range of up to 562km, from 528km.

The new rear-wheel drive model, which presently represents s the Q4 e-tron 40, uses the latest permanently excited synchronous machine (PSM) electric motor, developing 210kW, up from 150kW in the outgoing version. Torque is thought to remain at 310Nm.

The 0-100kmh time falls to 6.7 seconds, so 0.1 s behind the quattro models.

The new motor gets a clever oil-based cooling system, which means that, according to Audi, "temperatures in the powertrain hardly rise at all.”

The top-spec Q4 e-tron quattro, which rebadges from ’50’ presently to ’55’, goes to 321kW, from 220kW at present, and will hit 100kmh in just 5.4 seconds. 

All versions retain the current cars’ top speed, limited to 180kmh.

Audi has reset the new steering feel and suspension tune, with tweaked dampers, the aim being to enhance the Q4’s already sharp driving experience. There's also the option of sports suspension, which sits the Q4 15mm closer to the road.

Fresh tech functions include an optional lane-change assistant which can do the steering for a driver under the right circumstances and a smarter radar-guided cruise control with lane-centring steering. The capacitive steering wheel does a smarter job of sensing when you're holding it without needing to put in any little corrections.

There's also a new 'character sound' hum that the Q4 emits at low speeds so that pedestrians can hear it coming, which Audi reckons: "deepens the emotional bond between the Audi driver and their vehicle." This new sound is generated at speeds below 25kmh.

Ability to accept online updates is not rendered the Q4 (or the VWs and Skoda) sold here, as it is in Europe. That facility is expected to go live in New Zealand next year, but cannot be retro-fitted to stock already here. 

It becomes more important with the refresh. One element is that the sat-nav system is tailored to automatically help a driver get faster charging. Input a destination, and assuming that a charge en route is needed, the system will route the driver via the best high-powered charging stations and will also pre-condition the battery as it is heading there so that everything's as quick and painless as possible.

The updates mean a move of factory for the Q4. The car is present built in Volkswagen's vast Zwickau factory, alongside the ID.4. The updated model is out of a Audi-specific plant in Brussels, Belgiu, where the make also builds the electric Q8 e-tron.

The move allows for greater production capacity. Audi also claims that the new factory is the world's first independently certified carbon-neutral high-volume production facility in the premium segment.