Audi E-Tron 50 – it’s a cheaper E-Tron electric SUV

Audi is delivering a cheaper version of the e-tron – the Audi e-tron 50 – with a smaller battery pack, less power and a shorter range. It will be cheaper. Probably.

It’s six months since the Audi e-tron went on sale, officially as the e-tron 55, as Audi joined the Jaguar i-Pace and Mercedes EQC in the fight for the wallets of better-off EV lovers.

We’re not entirely sure Audi has enough batteries on tap to deliver the number of e-trons they had planned, but that’s not stopping them announcing a new e-tron – the Audi e-tron 50 – with less power, a smaller battery bank, shorter range, and we assume, a lower price point.

The new e-tron 50 – which will be on sale in the UK in 2020 – comes with a 71kWh battery pack which, say Audi, is good for 186 miles on a full charge. That’s compared to the e-tron 55’s 96kWh battery and 241-mile range.

The new e-tron 50 still gets a motor at the front and a motor at the back for electric quattro all-wheel drive – although it’s mainly RWD – but here the motors deliver 308bhp – not the up to 402bhp of the 55 – which is enough for a 0-62mph sprint in 7.0 seconds. The 55 can do it in 5.7 seconds.

Audi say the new e-tron 50 can charge at up to 120kW, quick enough to add 80 per cent charge in around half an hour.

Clearly the new Audi e-tron 50 will be cheaper than the e-tron 55, but all Audi is saying at the moment is that it will be offered at “a new price point“.