Both the Q8 e-tron Sportback and GLE have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Q8 e-tron Sportback has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The GLE’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The Audi Q8 e-tron Sportback has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The GLE doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.
The Q8 e-tron Sportback’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the GLE.
Both the Q8 e-tron Sportback and the GLE have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and available around view monitors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Audi Q8 e-tron Sportback is safer than the Mercedes GLE:
|
Q8 e-tron Sportback |
GLE |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Chest Movement |
.7 inches |
.7 inches |
Abdominal Force |
117 lbs. |
151 lbs. |
Hip Force |
236 lbs. |
287 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Hip Force |
579 lbs. |
677 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
8 inches |
12 inches |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Side impacts caused 23% of all road fatalities in 2018, down from 29% in 2003, when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced its side barrier test. In order to continue improving vehicle safety, the IIHS has started using a more severe side impact test: 37 MPH (up from 31 MPH), with a 4180-pound barrier (up from 3300 pounds). The results of this newly developed test demonstrates that the Audi Q8 e-tron Sportback is safer than the GLE:
|
Q8 e-tron Sportback |
GLE |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Structure |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Neck Tension |
156 lbs. |
201 lbs. |
Torso |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Shoulder Deflection |
.63 in |
.87 in |
Shoulder Force |
134 lbs. |
156 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
1.14 in |
1.34 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
6 MPH |
6 MPH |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Pelvis Force |
669 lbs. |
1026 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Passenger Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
64 |
232 |
Neck Tension |
67 lbs. |
89 lbs. |
Torso |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Torso Max Deflection |
.63 in |
.67 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
4 MPH |
7 MPH |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Pelvis Force |
602 lbs. |
1116 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Q8 e-tron Sportback, with its five-star roll-over rating, is 6.3% less likely to roll over than the GLE, which received a four-star rating.