The Luxury EV With The Lowest Customer Satisfaction Rating, According To Consumer Reports
According to Consumer Reports, the luxury electric vehicle with the lowest customer satisfaction rating is one that you might not expect. It’s an EV from one of the highest-rated European luxury brands, yet it has left consumers surprisingly disappointed. The manufacturer that has won this dubious “honor” is none other than Audi, for its Q8 E-Tron, which will be discontinued after the 2025 model year. Keep in mind, there are several production models in the Audi E-Tron lineup, and not all of them share the same rating.
The Audi Q8 E-Tron was severely downgraded for its reliability, coming out with a much lower rating than its direct competitors, the Lexus RZ and Genesis GV60. The Q8 E-Tron even scored significantly lower than two of its companion EVs from Audi, the Q6 E-Tron and the Q4 E-Tron. The worst areas of the scoring for the Audi Q8 E-Tron were for its powertrain and its overall reliability, both of which were the worst scores possible. In addition, it received average scores for its brakes, suspension/steering, and in-car electronics, while garnering the best possible scores for its build quality and climate system.
Older models of the Audi Q8 E-Tron seemed to fare worse, with the 2024 Q8 E-Tron having a terrible reliability score, which translated into an extremely low owner satisfaction score. The 2025 Q8 E-Tron improved on these ratings slightly, with a bump in its reliability that was not very much of an improvement. Owner satisfaction was as low as it was for the 2024 model, while the 2025 Q8 E-Tron actually got a very good road test score, reflecting the high quality of its driving experience.
What else should you know about the Audi Q8 E-Tron?
While the testing staff at CR generally liked the way that the Audi Q8 E-Tron handled, they rated it below other EVs like the BMW iX and the Jaguar I-Pace. Two body styles are available for the Q8 E-Tron: the traditional, boxy SUV style and the sloping-roof ‘Sportback’ style. Our review of the Q8 E-Tron found that this EV was both comfortable and sporting, while our styling review revealed that the Q8 E-Tron is one of the best-looking electric SUVs on the market.
This vehicle was introduced for the 2019 model year and was named the Audi E-Tron from 2019 through the 2023 model years. For 2024, it was given the Audi Q8 E-Tron name and continued with that name until it was dropped at the end of the 2025 model year. At the time, this conformed to Audi’s naming convention of giving its EVs even numbers while its ICE vehicles use odd numbers for identification. That naming strategy has since been abandoned.
The Audi Q8 E-Tron is an EV that has been around for what amounts to a long time in ‘EV years’. While it did beat its BMW and Mercedes-Benz competitors to market by several years, it now appears to be long past its sell-by date and has not aged well, if CR’s assessment is anything to go by. Electric vehicles have progressed far beyond where they were just six short years ago. Audi seems to agree that it’s time for the next generation of Audi EVs.
