Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron vs Porsche Cayenne

The Porsche Cayenne costs £12,900 more than the Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron. For that premium it adds 68 miles more WLTP range, 240 kW faster peak rapid charging and 253 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Porsche Cayenne comes out ahead overall.

The Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron is £12,900 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £224 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron comes out roughly £12,980 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 242 miles for the Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron and 234 miles for the Porsche Cayenne - effectively matched, and both well below their WLTP figures because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV.

The Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 45 mm narrower than the Porsche Cayenne. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 465 mm of total clearance for the Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron and about 420 mm of total clearance for the Porsche Cayenne. The Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron also turns in a 0.5 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron and 84% for the Porsche Cayenne. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.