Electric Audi E-Tron Sportback arrives – an E-Tron with a few tweaks and an A7 roofline

The electric Audi E-Tron Sportback arrives as Audi’s second electric car, essentially an Audi E-Tron with a roofline from the A7 and delivering 287 miles of range.

It’s more than a year since we got a first look at the Audi E-Tron Sportback, but now it’s arrived in Los Angeles as Audi’s second electric offering.

In all the ways that matter, the E-Tron Sportback is a regular Audi E-Tron with a new roofline borrowed from the Audi A7, but featuring a few tweaks we’ll see rolled out to its more prosaic sibling too.

Just like the regular E-Tron, the E-Tron Sportback comes in two flavours, with the 50 Quattro getting a 71kWh battery and 216 miles of range (although it looks like the base model won’t be offered in the UK), and the 55 Quattro a 95kWh battery and 278 miles of range. In the Quattro 55 and you’ll get up to 402bhp to play with, enough to get to 62mph in 5.7 seconds and on to 124mph.

Audi has also managed to squeeze extra range out of the E-Tron Sportback with a variety of tweaks including a lower drag coefficient, higher usable battery capacity, decoupling motor, new cooling pump and stronger brake regeneration. All of which, apart from the improved aerodynamics, will be rolled out in the regular E-Tron.

Inside the E-Tron Sportback is pretty much identical to the E-Tron, although the coupe roofline means a bit less headroom in the back and a lower capacity in the boot. But that’s the price you pay for ‘Style’.

The Audi E-Tron Sportback will go on sale in 2020, and don’t be surprised if the initial offerings of 50 and 55 models is joined by an E-Tron Sportback S at some point with a chunk more power.