MOT Risk Index.co.uk

Audi e-tron — MOT statistics 2024

The Audi e-tron failed 10.17% of 13,450 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 79.2 (100 = expected for its age profile). This car fails its MOT about 21% less often than expected for its age.

MOT risk index 79.2, 95% CI 75.3–83.2 (100 = national average) 100 79.2 0 200
Index
79.2
100 = age-normal
Raw fail rate
10.17%
n = 13,450
Dangerous /100
7
national ≈11
Rank
250 of 761
lower index = better

Age-adjusted peer: Volkswagen T-Cross (index 79.2) — the two published results are 0.0 index points apart.

Audi e-tron common problems: what actually fails the MOT

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are well below the reference at 1.1 per 100 tests, against 2.2 per 100 tests across UK electric vehicles of the same ages.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

Audi e-tron common problems: what actually fails the MOT — 2024 UK MOT data

family vs national — matched to UK electric vehicles of the same ages — top component groups, per 100 tests. Legend: This family · National avg. Combined labels: family / national average. A gap here reflects how these vehicles are driven, used and maintained as well as how they were built — an MOT defect is a test outcome, not a breakdown.

Component-group comparison table

Each ratio carries a 95% interval. With 6 groups compared here, roughly one apparent difference in twenty is chance alone, and 3 of these are already inside an interval that includes 1.00×.

GroupThis familyCases behind itUK, same agesFamily / national
Tyres10.62,24410.70.99×0.95–1.03 · not distinguishable
Visibility4.49274.31.03×0.96–1.09 · not distinguishable
Lamps & electrical1.12332.10.51×0.45–0.58
Identification0.81640.32.96×2.45–3.34
Brakes0.3571.20.25×0.17–0.29
Seatbelts & SRS0.2520.21.00×0.92–1.61 · not distinguishable
Named defects — items per 100 initial tests, this family vs UK national average; this model measured on 21,170 tests, 2019-2024, national column 2024
What failedper 100 tests (this family)per 100 tests (UK average)ratio family / UKWhat to check
Tyre cords visible or damagedA tyre cords visible or damaged3.161.631.94×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Tyre seriously damagedA tyre seriously damaged3.892.541.53×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Number plate does not conform to the specified…Number plate does not conform to the specified requirements0.640.203.18×Ask the seller about: Number plate does not conform to the specified requirements
Windscreen or window damaged or seriously…Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured but not adversely affecting driver's view2.522.361.07×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view
Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the…Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements3.203.590.89×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Wiper blade defectiveWiper blade defective0.821.260.65×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view
Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the…Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen0.322.220.14×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view

Named defects ranked by how much more often they appear than the national average — not by raw rate.

Audi e-tron MOT advisories: what gets flagged

Tyres are highest at 40.2 per 100 tests; Suspension is lowest at 0.5 per 100 tests — the gap is 39.7 per 100 tests.

higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests

Audi e-tron MOT advisories: what gets flagged — 2024 UK MOT data
Advisory rates table
GroupAdvisories per 100
Tyres40.2
Non-component advisories8.8
Brakes4.2
Identification0.9
Suspension0.5

Advisories are wear the tester noted but didn't fail — what will need money soon.

Tyres, brakes and suspension: Audi e-tron against cars of the same age

AgePartAudi e-tronSame age, petrol and dieselDifference
3 yearsTyres7.74.173.53
3 yearsBrakes0.191.77-1.58
3 yearsSuspension0.120.63-0.51
4 yearsTyres5.894.541.35
4 yearsBrakes0.262.43-2.17
4 yearsSuspension0.141.21-1.07
5 yearsTyres8.575.063.51
5 yearsBrakes0.53.09-2.59
5 yearsSuspension0.42.19-1.79

Failing items per 100 initial tests, 2019-2024. The comparison group is every petrol or diesel car tested at the same age, so weight and drivetrain show up rather than fleet age.

If a car like this fails, does it fail again?

A failure rate does not say whether a failure is a one-off or the start of something. This follows the same vehicles into their next ordinary MOT a year later — retests after a repair are excluded, because they follow a failure by definition. 2019-2024.

After this year's testFails next yearVehicles followed
It failed12.4%202
It passed8.1%6,908

A failed test does not clearly change next year's odds here (12.4% against 8.1%): the difference is within the margin of error. The failure most likely to come back is tyres — 11.8% of those vehicles fail again next year. Some of this is the vehicle and some is the owner: a car that was let go once tends to be let go again. One caveat: a car that fails may be sold or scrapped rather than tested again, so these figures describe the vehicles that came back.

Adjusted for how much these are actually driven

The headline index adjusts for the fleet's age. Wear, though, follows mileage: a three-year-old taxi and a three-year-old garage queen sit in the same age band. These two rows compare every car with vehicles of the same age, and then with vehicles of the same age and the same annual mileage, 2019-2024, on 21,170 tests. Both stand on the six-year corpus so they are measured on identical data — compare them with each other, not with the headline index above, which is measured on 2024 alone.

Standardised forIndexReading
Age only75.8fails less often than expected
Age and annual mileage69.4fails less often than vehicles driven as much
Share doing under 3,000 miles a year1.6%a normal spread of use

Mileage matters here: matching on how much these are driven moves the figure by 6.4 points — this fleet works harder than the vehicles it is measured against, so the age-only view penalises it — but it does not change which side of normal the car sits on. One limit to keep in mind: mileage is partly a result of how often a car breaks down — one that spends weeks in the workshop covers fewer miles — so the mileage-matched figure can understate a real weakness. Tests with no usable odometer reading are left out of it.

How the Audi e-tron compares with cars of its own age and size

Not against the whole fleet — against cars of the same size class tested at the same age, 2019-2024.

AgeAudi e-tronSame class, same ageDifferenceTests
3 years10.44%12.67%-2.22 pp13,414
4 years8.75%14.2%-5.46 pp6,253
5 years11.27%17.34%-6.08 pp1,003

Raw first-time failure rates within each age, so fleet age cannot flatter either side. A positive difference means this model fails more often than its own class at that age.

How does the Audi e-tron perform as it gets older?

The e-tron at age 4 is well below the reference at 8.9%, against 13.1% for all vehicles of the same age.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

How does the Audi e-tron perform as it gets older? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · failure-rate scale 0–19%.

Takeaway: solid line: this family; dashed: all cars.

Data table
AgeAudi e-tronAll vehiclesGap
311.0%12.4%-1.4 pp
48.9%13.1%-4.2 pp
511.3%15.1%-3.9 pp

Is an Audi e-tron ULEZ compliant?

The share of classifiable 2024 Audi e-tron MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 100.0%.

Based on 13,450 classifiable initial MOT tests. This describes the tested fleet, not a specific car. MOT data do not record Euro class, so likely compliance is inferred from fuel and first-registration date. For the only authoritative answer, check the registration with TfL's official ULEZ checker.

higher = larger share likely compliantinferred from fuel and first-registration date; not a recorded Euro class

Age-band estimate from classifiable initial MOT tests
Vehicle age at testLikely ULEZ-compliant shareTests
Under 3 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 118
3–5 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 13,332
6–7 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
8 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
9 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
10–14 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
15–17 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
18 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
19 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
20+ yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0

How dangerous are Audi e-tron MOT failures?

Major defects are well below the reference at 6.8 per 100 tests, against 52.8 per 100 tests nationally.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

How dangerous are Audi e-tron MOT failures? — 2024 UK MOT data
Severity table
SeverityThis family /100National /100Family / national
Minor4.1714.220.29×
Major6.8352.750.13×
Dangerous6.8611.150.62×

Chart values: Minor 4.2 · Major 6.8 · Dangerous 6.9.

Per 100 tests on this family. National average: Minor 14.2 · Major 52.8 · Dangerous 11.2 per 100.

Does the month of an Audi e-tron MOT matter?

Nov is highest at 10.7%; Jul is lowest at 9.0% — the gap is 1.7 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Does the month of an Audi e-tron MOT matter? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart scale: 8%–33%.

bars: Audi e-tron · dashed: all class-4 cars

Month-by-month table
MonthAudi e-tronAll vehiclesGap
Jan10.03%31.12%-21.1 pp
Feb10.05%29.99%-19.9 pp
Mar9.68%28.26%-18.6 pp
Apr10.01%29.78%-19.8 pp
May9.78%28.79%-19.0 pp
Jun9.18%28.15%-19.0 pp
Jul9.04%29.33%-20.3 pp
Aug9.72%29.2%-19.5 pp
Sep10.29%28.19%-17.9 pp
Oct10.39%30.34%-19.9 pp
Nov10.74%30.58%-19.8 pp
Dec9.16%29.33%-20.2 pp

Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 1.7 percentage points — booking month barely matters for this family. Seasonality partly reflects registration-date clustering, not weather.

Before reading the shape: most of it is not about cars. Britain changes its registration plates twice a year, and 18.9% of these cars were first registered in March with another17.1% in September — 36% in two months against the 17% an even spread would give. An MOT falls due three years after first registration, so the buying calendar becomes the testing calendar. That shapes how many cars are tested each month — not how often they fail: the busiest months here are not the worst ones, so read the failure line on its own and the volume behind it separately.

Audi e-tron average mileage by age

At age 4, the middle half of e-trons runs from 26,062 miles to 43,288 miles, against 34,018 miles as the median.

further right = more milesmedian is the typical car; band is p25–p75

Does high mileage mean more Audi e-tron MOT failures at the same age?

Within the same age group, split by odometer (2024 MOTs), so this separates wear from age: at ages 3–5, 9.4% of those with under 40,000 miles failed first time versus 12.5% of those with 70,000–100,000 miles.No clear mileage gap inside this age group, among cars still being tested.

Does high mileage mean more Audi e-tron MOT failures at the same age? — 2024 UK MOT data
Audi e-tron: first-time failure by mileage within each age group (2024)
AgeOdometer% failing95% intervalTests
3–5<40k miles9.4%8.9–10%9,620
3–540-70k miles12.1%11.1–13.2%3,418
3–570-100k miles12.5%9.1–17%272 (rough estimate)

line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75)

Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
Agep25Medianp75Tests
321,83229,04637,7187,085
426,06234,01843,2885,244
530,86340,75952,6491,003

A typical 4-year-old e-tron has ~34,018 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.

Where in Britain the Audi e-tron fails its MOT most

Swansea area is highest at 33.9%; Wigan area is lowest at 3.6% — the gap is 30.4 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Audi e-tron line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75) — 2024 UK MOT data
Toughest areas% failingvs model overall
Swansea (SA)33.92%+24.0 pp
Bath (BA)18.42%+8.5 pp
Lincoln (LN)17%+7.1 pp
Huddersfield (HD)16.57%+6.7 pp
Brighton (BN)16.46%+6.6 pp
Easiest areas% failingvs model overall
Wigan (WN)3.57%-6.3 pp
London E (E)4.07%-5.8 pp
Southampton (SO)4.15%-5.8 pp
Norwich (NR)4.58%-5.3 pp
Doncaster (DN)4.88%-5.0 pp

Every dot is a postcode area — size = how many were tested there, colour = share failing. These figures are not age-adjusted: coastal and rural areas often run older fleets and salted roads, so higher raw fail rates do not automatically mean a worse local stock of this model.

Map labels: Scotland · N. England · Wales · London · S. West. Colour scale: 6%–16% failing.

Audi e-tron survival: which cars are still on the road

By age 5 is well below the reference at 27.6%, against 100.0% at the ages 4–6 reference level.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Survival vs fail rate by age
AgeTestsSurvival vs ages 4–6Fail %
313,414100%10.44%
46,253100%8.75%
51,00327.6%11.27%

By age 5, only about 28% as many cars of this family present for MOT as at ages 4–6 (reference n≈3,628); survivors still fail at 11.3% vs 8.8% at age 4. Older cars that still appear are a selected subset — weaker ones have already left.

How many years is an Audi e-tron likely to last?

Bought at age 5 stands out at 0.5 years.

bigger number = longer remaining lifeyears on the observed survival curve

Age nowTypical mileage (p50)Expected years left
5—at least 0.5

estimateObserved only until age 5. The curve does not run five years past the stated age with the share still tested under 50%, so no 'years left' number is given.

Audi e-tron faults that come together

Brakes + Tyres stand out at 7.31×, against 1.00× if the faults were independent.

above 1.0× = more than expectedbelow 1.0× = less

Group AGroup BTogetherLift
BrakesTyres247.31× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentVisibility354.49× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentTyres423.02× (rough estimate)
TyresVisibility1352.24× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsTyres17too few (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleTyres15too few (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleVisibility13too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureTyres8too few (rough estimate)
BrakesVisibility7too few (rough estimate)
SuspensionVisibility6too few (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsVisibility6too few (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment5too few (rough estimate)

Defects in «Brakes» and «Tyres» appear together 7.31× more often than chance (24 co-occurrences in the same test; 55 pairs compared).

Lift = how many times more often both groups appear on the same test than if independent. A pair is listed from 5 tests with both faults; the lift is shown from 20, and called above chance only when its 95% interval excludes 1 (see rough estimates).

Is low mileage better for an Audi e-tron?

Cars driven under 5,000 miles a year is well below the reference at 11.7%, against 13.5% for cars driven 8,000–12,000 miles a year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

BandFail %Tests
<5k miles/year11.68%137
8–12k miles/year13.46%379
Gap (low − normal)-1.78 pp—

At matched ages 5–14, cars averaging under 5k miles/year fail at 11.7% vs 13.5% for 8–12k miles/year — 1.8 pp, interval includes no difference (n_low=137, n_normal=379). The gap interval includes no difference, so no higher/lower claim is made.

Audi e-tron MOT repair costs

The MOT-failure repair budget per test runs from £11.53 to £21.91, against £54.85 for the test itself.

bigger number = costs morepounds per test, MOT-failing faults only

MOT repairs, budget
£12–22
per test, repairs only
The test itself
£54.85
statutory cap, unchanged since 2010
How the figure is built: chance of failing × typical price of that repair
ComponentFails per 100 testsTypical repairIts priceContribution
Tyres10.6 (nat. 8.7)Tyre (single mid-range 16" fitted)£90£9.54
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment1.1 (nat. 18.09)Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid)£140£1.54
Brakes0.3 (nat. 11.25)Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback)£150£0.45

Multiply how often each component fails on this model by what that repair usually costs, and you get the amount an owner should expect to budget per test for MOT-failing faults only — roughly £12 to £22, on top of the test fee itself. It is a budgeting figure, not a quote: the spread between a set of pads and a set of discs is most of the range.

Prices are modal quotes from a hand-kept catalogue of published UK garage guides — we do not scrape the booking sites, their terms forbid it, so this list is short and updated by hand with a source and date against each line. Each line prices one typical repair in that group, not a full remedy, and only groups our catalogue actually covers are counted. The contrast worth noticing is the second card: the legal maximum for the test has been £54.85 since 2010, while the repairs it uncovers have followed inflation the whole time.

For scale from a different direction: Warrantywise, which sees used-car warranty claims rather than test failures, puts the average claim at £2,052 across the ten highest-claim models it ranks and £539 for Honda, the lowest-claim make in its index (Warrantywise index 2026, 1.6 million claims, cars aged 3–15). Those sit an order of magnitude above the figures in this table, and the gap is the point: a warranty claim is a gearbox or an engine, which almost never fails an MOT, while the faults that do fail one are corrosion, lamps and tyres, which no warranty pays for. The two numbers answer different questions and neither replaces the other.

Audi e-tron running costs for a fleet

Fails per 100 at age 5
11
vehicles needing work (rough estimate: 1,003 tests)
Repairs per 100
£1,153
plus £5,485 in test fees
Off the road
1d
median; 32.24% cleared same day
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
AgeFailsMedian odometerTestsGap vs age 5
311.02%29,0467,085-0.3 pp
48.87%34,0185,244-2.4 pp
511.27%40,7591,003+0.0 pp

No single year stands out as the point where this model starts costing more: the year-to-year steps in its failure rate are too small or rest on too few tests to name one (D1 rule: a step is named only with at least 2,000 tests on both sides and a jump above 3 percentage points).

Repair spend uses the same modal prices as the section above, so it inherits the same limits: one typical repair per component group, not a full remedy. Downtime is the gap between the failed test and the passed re-test, which is the window a vehicle is legally off the road.

Audi e-tron rust problems: where they corrode

Age-standardised corrosion susceptibility is well below the reference at <0.1×, against 1.00× for the national age-standardised rate.

above 1.0× = rusts more than averagebelow 1.0× = rusts less

How it rusts
<0.1×
0.01% of tests record a corrosion defect vs 0.77% typical — age-standardised
Salt Belt exposure
45th
percentile among the models published here, from its tests across 0 postcode areas

This Audi e-tron virtually never fails on corrosion once age is held constant, and its owners live in areas that are about typical for the models we publish.

Corrosion is the one failure mode that is as much about geography as about the car. We keep the two apart on purpose: a model can look rusty simply because it is popular in Scotland, and a model can look clean simply because it is bought in Surrey. Blending them into a single score would hide which of the two is doing the work.

Exposure is this model's tests weighted by an area corrosion index built from frost days, salt load and distance to the coast — the composite validated at r = 0.42 against corrosion defects we actually record. It is published as a rank, not a raw score, because every mainstream model skews towards low-corrosion areas for the simple reason that most of Britain's cars are in the south. Susceptibility is standardised to the national age profile, so an old fleet does not get labelled a rusty model.

Does an Audi e-tron advisory become a failure?

Tyres are highest at 7.0%; Non-component advisories are lowest at 0.0% — the gap is 7.0 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

Advisory today → failure at the next test, with how long you have
ComponentFails next timeTypical lead timeMiles of warningAdvisories tracked
Tyres7.0%12 months8,6051,659
Non-component advisories0.0%——526

This is the question an advisory note actually raises, and it needs six years of test history to answer. We followed the same vehicles from one MOT to the next across 2019–2024 and measured how often a component that was merely advised came back as a genuine failure at the next test.

Read it as a budgeting horizon, not a prophecy: the most likely component above turns into a failure for about 7 in 100 cars, and the median gap is 12 months and roughly 8,605 miles. The rest were repaired, sold, scrapped, or simply held. Rows with fewer than 500 tracked advisories are not shown.

What will fail next on an Audi e-tron?

Tyres after a failure at age 3-5 are highest at 10.4%; Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment after a advisory at age <3 are lowest at 0.8% — the gap is 9.6 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

Probability of each component failing at the next test, by age and last result
AgeLast testMost likely next failuresCars tracked
<3passedTyres 5.2% · Visibility 3.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 0.8%3,608
<3advisoryTyres 6.0% · Visibility 3.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 0.8%1,175
<3failureTyres 5.6% · Visibility 5.4% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 0.9%558
3-5passedTyres 5.9% · Visibility 4.1% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.4%1,805
3-5advisoryTyres 7.3% · Visibility 5.3% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.1%546
3-5failureTyres 10.4% · Visibility 5.7% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 3.2%279 (rough estimate)

The same chains, cut differently: given a car's age and how its last test went, which component most often causes trouble at the following one.

The pattern that repeats across every family: a failure at one test roughly doubles the chance of a failure on the same component at the next one, and an advisory sits about half-way between a clean pass and a failure. Age bands in years; probabilities are per car, not per defect item.

Audi e-tron ownership: what six years of MOTs show

The ten-day re-test pass rate is highest at 64.7%; The later re-test pass rate is lowest at 3.0% — the gap is 61.7 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fixed same day
32.24%
of failures re-tested
Fails /10k miles
0.107
miles actually driven
Clean streaks
42.77%
3+ tests, nothing noted
Odometer anomaly
0.142%
reading went backwards

Failing is usually a same-week event, not a disaster. Of 1,709 failures followed through to their re-test, 32.24% were repaired and passed the same day and 64.72% within ten days; the median gap is 1 day. 2,657 defect items were cleared in the process.

Per mile driven, not per year. Dividing failures by the miles that actually went onto the odometers between consecutive tests gives 0.107 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 7,681 miles a year across 6,346 chains. This is the number to compare between models — an annual rate quietly rewards cars that barely leave the drive.

Two populations hide inside one model. 42.77% of these cars strung together three or more tests with nothing recorded at all, while 1.37% carried the same advisory three times or more — the same fault, noted, ignored, noted again. When you buy used you are buying one of those two histories, and the MOT record shows which.

Odometer anomalies: 0.142% of 6,355 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 6,575 miles. We call this an anomaly and not fraud on purpose — instrument swaps, imports, unit mix-ups and keying errors all land in the same bucket. Obvious typos (drops under 100 miles or over 90% of the reading) are already excluded.

Audi e-tron safety recalls and how to check yours

DVSA recall campaigns stand out at 16.

bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone

recall campaigns launched per year

Audi e-tron recall campaigns launched per year — 2024 UK MOT data
Campaigns launched per year for the Audi e-tron. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls. Chart values: 2019: 1 · 2020: 0 · 2021: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2023: 0 · 2024: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2026: 1.
Most recent safety recall campaigns for the Audi e-tron
ReferenceLaunchedVehiclesConcern
R/2026/16817/04/202611,327Checking brake servo
R/2025/42630/09/202528Replacing front seat belt
R/2025/09828/02/202517,397Software update for brake electronics control unit
R/2024/34406/09/202437Replacing brake servo
R/2024/25918/06/202437Checking brake lines
All 16 campaigns
ReferenceLaunchedBuild datesVehiclesConcern
R/2026/16817/04/202608/05/2019 – 06/05/202411,327Checking brake servo
R/2025/42630/09/202511/07/2025 – 17/07/202528Replacing front seat belt
R/2025/09828/02/202520/05/2021 – 17/04/202317,397Software update for brake electronics control unit
R/2024/34406/09/202424/05/2019 – 16/10/201937Replacing brake servo
R/2024/25918/06/202408/05/2023 – 14/03/202437Checking brake lines
R/2024/22424/05/202402/04/2024 – 17/04/20247Checking hydraulic unit
R/2024/04021/02/202429/01/2019 – 03/11/20212,379Checking high-voltage battery
R/2024/04121/02/202414/02/2019 – 20/07/2021387Checking high-voltage battery
R/2022/08507/04/202201/10/2020 – 22/02/20223,656THE FUSE IN THE HIGH-VOLTAGE SYSTEM MAY HAVE BEEN MANUFACTURED WITH AN INSUFFICIENT QUANTI
R/2022/08507/04/202201/10/2020 – 22/02/20223,656THE FUSE IN THE HIGH-VOLTAGE SYSTEM MAY HAVE BEEN MANUFACTURED WITH AN INSUFFICIENT QUANTI
R/2022/03614/02/202207/11/2019 – 20/02/20215,327FOLLOWING A PREVIOUS CAMPAIGN THE TOE AND/OR CAMBER VALUES ON THE REAR AXLE MAY IN CERTAIN
R/2021/39818/10/202106/05/2020 – 04/06/2021119COMPONENTS OF THE BRAKE PRESSURE UNIT MAY CORRODE DURING THE VEHICLES'S SERVICE LIFE
R/2021/30627/08/202118/02/2020 – 30/11/2020292A BRAKE SERVO WHICH HAS A MANUFACTURING DISCREPANCY MAY HAVE BEEN FITTED
R/2021/30515/08/202117/02/2021 – 17/03/202158There may be a loss of power and the message Safely stop vehicle may appear.
R/2021/23625/06/202107/11/2019 – 18/02/202110,089REAR AXLE SUSPENSION LINKS NUTS DO NOT MEET SPECIFICATIONS
R/2019/18206/06/201918/02/2019 – 12/04/2019238WATER MAY ENTER THE HIGH VOLTAGE BATTERY

DVSA lists 16 safety recall campaigns for the Audi e-tron, covering roughly 55,034 vehicles in total. A recall is the manufacturer fixing a fault for free, so an open recall on your car costs nothing to clear.

Counter-intuitive, and measured on our own data: across the 25 families published here, more recalls go with a lower MOT Risk Index (r = −0.52). Heavily recalled models are not worse cars in the test bay — an active manufacturer removes the fault before it becomes an MOT failure.

Check whether a specific car has an outstanding recall — free, by registration — at DVSA's recall service. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls (check-vehicle-recalls.service.gov.uk), OGL.

Audi e-tron technical service bulletins: what dealers are told

US market, Audi E-TRON and its variants, model years 2019–2021 only. A count of bulletins, not a UK failure rate.

NHTSA manufacturer communications are 1,521.

bigger number = more recorded dealer communicationsnot affected vehicles or confirmed faults

These are the issues the manufacturer fixes quietly: service communications sent to dealers without a public recall campaign. They show what the service network has been told even when the issue never became news.

United States · NHTSA manufacturer communications

US technical service bulletins by communication year; leading subjects cover the full file
Communication yearBulletinsLeading subjects across all years
20131
  • Electrical system (624)
  • Equipment (392)
  • Other / uncategorised (182)
  • Structure (121)
  • Visibility (58)
  • Suspension (52)
  • Adaptive and mobility equipment (47)
  • Engine and cooling (42)
20141
20181
201999
2020186
2021217
2022144
2023220
2024367
2025179
2026106

Caveat worth stating plainly: this is NHTSA data about US-specification cars. British cars sold under the same name often use different gearboxes, engines and equipment, so a bulletin may describe a component that was never fitted here. The file counts dealer communications, not affected vehicles or confirmed failures, and it cannot tell you whether an individual UK car has the issue. A communication can carry more than one subject tag, so topic counts do not have to add up to the total. Source: NHTSA Manufacturer Communications API (US-market vehicles; queried model years 2015-2022). Licence: U.S. Government work / public domain · retrieved 2026-09-25.

Audi e-tron owner complaints: what goes wrong

US market, Audi E-TRON and its variants, model years 2019–2021 only. A count of owner complaints, not a UK failure rate; NHTSA has no UK denominator.

Lamps & electrical are highest at 69; Body & structure are lowest at 3 — the gap is 66.

bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone

Owner complaints (US) against actual MOT failures (UK) for the same component groups
ComponentComplaintsShareMOT fail items per 100MOT rankAgreement
Lamps & electrical6955.6%1.1#3complained about and fails often
Transmission (not MOT-tested)2016.1%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Engine (not MOT-tested)1915.3%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Brakes86.5%0.3#5complained about, fails occasionally
Visibility64.8%4.4#2complained about and fails often
Body & structure32.4%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure

Two different populations answering two different questions: the MOT records what an inspector can measure once a year, the complaint file records what annoyed or frightened an owner on the road. A component high in one column and absent from the other is the interesting case — driver-assistance and electronics dominate complaints while almost never appearing as an MOT failure item.

What the reports actually say
Airbag detection system continues to malfunction. When driving at random times it states the detection system is currently unavailable as well as all the function buttons on the steering wheel.
NHTSA complaint, filed 04/23/2026 · ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Brake lights become faulty due to moisture intrusion from car washes. The part is available for inspection if requested Audi has issued a technical service bulletin on this issue already. This should be handled through a recall, not a TSB.
NHTSA complaint, filed 03/14/2026 · EXTERIOR LIGHTING

US owners have filed 124 complaints about the equivalent Audi e-tron to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including 4 that mention a crash, 4 a fire and 1 an injury. These are owner reports, not verified findings — but they are the only large public record of what drivers themselves notice, and they cover the years between MOT tests.

Caveat worth stating plainly: US-specification cars, self-selected reporters, no denominator — complaint counts scale with how many cars were sold there and how motivated owners are to file. The mechanical gap matters as much as the statistical one: American cars of the same name often carry different gearboxes, engines and equipment — automatics where Britain buys manuals — so a drivetrain complaint filed in Ohio may describe a part that was never fitted here. Read the ranking inside a model, not between models, and treat drivetrain entries with particular caution. Source: NHTSA ODI consumer complaints (US market, public domain) — US-spec vehicles, indicative only.

Audi e-tron inspection results in other countries

Norway PKK is well below the reference at 7.5%, against 33.7% nationally.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Same model, different national inspection regimes
CountryTestThis model failsNational averagePositionSample
United KingdomMOT (class 4)10.17%26.01%-15.8 pp13,450
NorwayPKK7.5%33.7%-26.2 pp11,338
NetherlandsAPK27.4%50.8%-23.4 pp5,870
FinlandKatsastus4.5%26.3%-21.8 pp578

The verdict is consistent across every regime where the difference is clear, which is the strongest form this comparison takes: independent inspectorates, different rulebooks, same direction of travel.

The exact faults Netherlands records — APK defect codes, 2024
CodeFaultRecordedType
210Tyre pressure not at the correct value1,524failure
205Tyre with insufficient tread613failure
AC1Tyre down to 1.6–2.5 mm of tread433advisory
516Dipped headlight incorrectly aimed353failure
203Tyre damaged179failure
391Wipers leave insufficient visibility76failure
211Bandenspanning op 1 as niet gelijk29failure
542Retroreflector vertoont gebrek29failure

Worth dwelling on how mundane the top of that list is: tyre pressure, tread depth, headlight aim. The Dutch APK records 0.601 defects per inspection against a much higher national failure rate than Britain's, and the reason is not that Dutch cars are worse — it is that the two regimes draw the line between "note it" and "fail it" in different places. Codes are the RDW's own; the English wording here is our translation of the Dutch original.

Britain is not the only country that inspects every car every year, and the Audi e-tron is on the road in all of them. Each national regime writes its own rules, so the pass rates below are not comparable to each other — what does travel across a border is whether a model sits above or below its own country's average.

Rows with fewer than 500 inspections are not published. Sources: Statens vegvesen — Periodisk kjøretøykontroll (PKK) 2024, CC BY 4.0; RDW open data — Meldingen Keuringsinstantie + Geconstateerde Gebreken + Gekentekende voertuigen (2024), CC0. Not an RDW endorsement.; Traficom — Periodic inspections of cars by model / by model and fault object 2024, CC BY 4.0. Adapted; licences and full notice.

Audi e-tron MOT: quick answers

Audi e-tron MOT Risk Index is well below the reference at 79.2, against 100 for a car with the same age profile.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

What is the Audi e-tron first-time MOT pass rate?
89.83% of first attempts passed in 2024 (13,450 tests). This is the first-time figure: retests after repair are excluded. Basis: first-time, excluding retests.
Why does this number differ from other sites?
Other sites often report a pass rate that includes retests or counts all attempts. Our 10.17% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 13,450 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 79.2 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.

Compare the Audi e-tron with other cars

BMW X4 is highest at 79.7; Audi A5 is lowest at 79.1 — the gap is 0.6 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

Same brand

All Audi MOT statisticsAudi A5 MOT statsAudi Q3 MOT stats

Similar risk

Volkswagen T-Cross (index 79.2)Audi A5 (index 79.1)BMW X4 (index 79.7)

Same size class

how Nissan Elgrand compareshow Porsche Cayman compareshow BMW M4 compares

By build year

Audi e-tron 2019Audi e-tron 2020

By area

Audi e-tron MOT failure rate by postcode area

By failure group

Audi e-tron body, chassis and structure failuresAudi e-tron brakes failuresAudi e-tron vehicle identification failuresAudi e-tron lamps, reflectors and electrics failuresAudi e-tron seat belts and airbags failuresAudi e-tron suspension failuresAudi e-tron tyres failuresAudi e-tron visibility failures

Inspections abroad

Audi e-tron in NorwayAudi e-tron in FinlandAudi e-tron in the Netherlands


Data details & how to cite

Scope: class-4 vehicles (cars), initial tests only, outcomes pass / fail / fixed-on-the-spot at the station (PRS counts towards the failure rate — the defect was present at arrival). Index = observed initial failures ÷ failures expected for this fleet's exact age profile, ×100; margin of error is a 95% confidence interval. Covers ALL generations together — a 3-year-old and a 15-year-old are very different cars; a generation split is on the roadmap. Dataset release dataset_release_id=dvsa-2024-v2, frozen baseline; headline claim_id=family-stats:audi-e-tron:dvsa-2024-v2. Full method: methodology.

Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). Audi e-tron MOT statistics 2024 (data release dvsa-2024-v2; downloadable dataset motriskindex-families-2024-v5, doi:10.5281/zenodo.22975051). https://motriskindex.co.uk/cars/audi-e-tron/ · Published 2026-07-30.