Something is up globally.

VAG sold 71 Audi Q4 E-tron in whole Q4 in the US. Only three Q8 E-trons. 220 Q6 and 248 VW ID.4 .

Best VAG EV seller for Q4 is Porsche Taycan at 1,672 cars.

Total US EV sales Q4 across all manufacturers is 234,171

Audi stopped Q8 e-tron production in early 2025. I don't know how much allocation the US has had of the semi-replacement (S)Q6, and A6 was not launched at all.

Q4 is a bit weird, since it's just a more expensive ID. 4, and not exactly more premium. Actually less premium feel than the sister car Skoda Enyaq, but that's not available in the US.

They're a bit out-of-phase with BMW and Mercedes right now, who just opened the books on their new platform cars. Perhaps you could argue it was bad timing with the Q6 being a bit of an "inbetweener", but the PPE platform was delayed, to be fair.

The US market is extremely regressive due to the changing regulatory environment. I fully expect new ICE cars without catalytic converters in the near future.

This is not representative of the rest of the world.

Unless the feds can take California out of the regulatory picture, I don't expect major steps backward. Almost half the country adopts California's emissions standards.

They might be happy that they can keep making V8s, but they have to know any future administration could easily outlaw any design that goes too far backwards. Such a car will also not be able to be sold anywhere else in the world. Heck, by the time they design, tool, and produce such a beast it could already be too late.

Well, just leave the catalytic converter out in the US variants of cars and pocket the difference. That's a far simpler change.

I don't want that, but given everything else that's going on, it wouldn't be a surprise.

The demand for EVs is crashing across the board. Porsche for example is now in dire straits because they had promised to make the 718 only as EV and with demand going down, they'll revamp the platform and get ICE 718s back.