Audi Q3 Sportback      Year: 2026Fuel: Plug-in Petrol-electric HybridVerdict: A good hybrid system, but the Q3, with its cramped cabin and disappointing styling, isn’t the car to show it off. Audi has, to put things mildly, been having a rocky time of it lately. While it’s hardly doing badly – sales are still strong – the general consensus is that US tariffs and sliding sales in China are the disease that currently ails Audi.But I know different. Ditch the Wall Street Journal and ignore the quarterly results: Audi’s problem is that it has lost too much of its soul.You see, Audi’s rebirth in the 1980s, and its expansion into proper premium territory in the 1990s, came with a distinctive flavour. Compared with its rivals – haughty Mercedes, thrusting BMW – Audi seemed like the cerebral choice, thanks to delicately beautiful cars such as the original Audi 100 (and the stunning 100 Avant estate), the TT coupe and the first-generation A4. Mix in with that a streak of motorsport success (with the monster Quattro rally cars in the 1980s and the Le Mans successes in the 2000s) and Audi’s desirability was off the scale.I can, however, pinpoint exactly where it all went wrong. In the mid 2000s, Audi made two big mistakes. First off, it embraced fleet sales to a staggering degree, pumping out thousands and thousands of low-spec A4 diesel saloons to a hungry company car market. This multiplication of Audi’s on-street presence took a desirable brand and made it seem everyday. Then, in 2010, Audi showed off the delicious Quattro Coupe concept car, a modern-day homage to the classic rally weapon, and so obviously based on the then-current A5 Coupe that it surely couldn’t have taken much to get it into production. But Audi’s board baulked. The cash that could have brought the Quattro Coupe to the showroom was needed elsewhere, to develop successive versions of the compact Q3 SUV. Audi Q3 Sportback eHybrid You can’t fault the bottom-line considerations there. The Q3 went on to become Audi’s bestseller, but we don’t buy cars rationally, and hero models matter when it comes to brand image. Now we are here, standing in front of the new Q3 Sportback in e-Hybrid form, and you can see where the long road from discounted A4s and the dismissed Quattro Coupe has led. It has led to an Audi that no longer seems special enough. The Q3 Sportback uses that classic German car trick of making you pay slightly more for slightly less. This is more expensive, by a small margin, than a Q3 SUV model, but you get less steel and glass at the rear. At one time, that might have seemed daring, an SUV that thinks it’s a coupe. But now everyone’s at it, and so the Q3, softly handsome though it is at the front, just essays the same bloated hatchback shape as all the others. It’s not special, not even in the lovely Sage Green Metallic paint of our test car. Audi Q3 Sportback eHybrid The interior suffers too. Once, Audi was the unquestioned king of automotive interiors, but now the “digital skateboard” curve of its over-large screens just looks passé, and while there are some physical buttons (a volume knob, thankfully, and some shortcut switches), the screen, as ever, has to do too much. Audi Q3 Sportback eHybrid That said, Audi’s recently updated software is easier to use than it once was, which is good, although the annoying “there is queuing traffic ahead” disembodied voice is irritating and difficult to silence. There are upsides. The front seats of our S-Line-spec test car are exceptionally comfortable, and I personally love the little stubby column stalks, with that fabulously tactile rotary windscreen wiper control on the left. It feels fab to use, and combined with the obviously high levels of quality, shows that Audi can still do interiors, up to a point. What the Q3 can’t do is practicality. Growing families might like the fact that you get three Isofix points, but there’s a distinct lack of space in the back. Audi Q3 Sportback eHybrid Not only will tall rear-seat passengers struggle to fit, let alone get comfy, you’ll also struggle to fit large rear-facing child seats. Combine that with a boot truncated to a mere 375 litres by the e-Hybrid system’s battery and you’re left wondering who exactly proclaimed SUVs were a practical family choice. Audi Q3 Sportback eHybrid At least the e-Hybrid system is good. It combines a 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine with a 19kWh (net) battery and the option of 50kW fast-charging to deliver a claimed 118km and a real-world 90km of electric driving, and decent 6.1 litres per 100km fuel economy on longer hauls. Performance, thanks to 272hp, is very brisk, although if you plant your right foot on the way out of a corner, there’s a surprising tug of torque steer. Otherwise the handling and road-holding are pretty blameless, but the low-speed ride quality on the optional 20-inch alloys is poor. The thing is, you don’t have to. There’s nothing in the rule book that says you have to buy an SUV, and for the €69,452 that Audi is asking for this precise Q3 Sportback, options included, you can just stroll the few feet across the Audi showroom and plonk the same money on an Audi A5 Avant with the more powerful 299hp plug-in hybrid system. It’s no Quattro Concept, but the A5 Avant looks and feels more like a “proper” Audi, is vastly more entertaining to drive than the Q3, goes further on a charge of its battery, and is more economical on a long run. It’s by far the better choice, and proves that Audi still has some of its original heart intact. Lowdown: Audi Q3 Sportback e-hybrid Avant S-LinePower 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with 85kW motor and 19.7kWh lithium-ion battery producing 272hp and 400Nm of torque and powering the front wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission. CO2 emissions (annual motor tax) 40-50g/km (€140). Fuel consumption 1.7-2.2l/100km WLTP and 6.1L/100km Observed 0-100km/h 6.8 secs. Price €69,452 as tested, Q3 starts from €48,530 Our rating 2/5. Verdict A good hybrid system, but the Q3, with its cramped cabin and disappointing styling, isn’t the car to show it off.