After a hefty wait, the Audi A6 E-tron is finally here. Coming to the U.S. in slinky Sportback guise as both an A6 and a hot S6, is it going to be the thinking person’s Model S? Audi probably hopes so.
The second Audi, after the Q6 E-Tron, based on the new Premium Platform Electric (PPE) the electric A6 isn’t following the SUV trend. Instead it’s more of what you’ll be used to from Audi’s ‘A’ cars. Four doors, a sedan (err, “Sportback” in Audi parlance) body, and a lowish stance, it’s the first time Audi’s thrown electricity at a traditional car. Outside of the U.S. an “Avant” wagon bodystyle is available, too, for families looking for a longroof. You could argue the E-Tron GT was already a ‘conventional’ Audi EV, but the expensive Taycan-based flagship isn’t something you’re likely to see in the suburbs. You should, however, see some A6s in the ‘burbs. There won’t be a gas-powered variant—from here on out the even numbers in Audi’s line up are for electric cars, while the odd numbers have gas, diesel or hybrid powertrains under the hood.
Under the floor is a 100-kWh battery (net 94.9kWh) packing some pretty hefty recharge punch. Find a charger that can hit its 270-kW peak rate and it’ll fill itself from 10-80% in just 21 minutes. Audi also says it’ll take enough energy on board to net you 193 miles in just ten minutes, barely enough time to grab a coffee and a sandwich. This should quell a few of the ‘charging takes too long’ voices. It uses the same smart 800-volt-class architecture as the Q6 E-Tron, meaning you need an 800-volt charger to get the best experience. But if your chosen charger uses 400-volt tech, the battery will split itself into two banks and charge each at speeds up to 135kW. Under braking you can manage up to 220 kW of regen to keep the battery topped up on the fly.
That battery feeds a variety of powertrains. The A6 Sportback E-Tron performance comes with rear-wheel drive and 362 horsepower, firing it from 0-60 in 5.2 seconds and up to 130 mph. The S6 Sportback E-Tron gets all-wheel drive and rolls with 496 hp most of the time. With launch control activated there’s 543 hp to play with and a claimed 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds to try and match. It’ll top out at 149mph, too. To bridge the gap between the entry level and the top of the range, there’ll be an A6 Quattro all-wheel-drive model, which kicks out 422 hp, clocks 60mph from rest in 4.3 seconds and will top out at 130mph. The various setups will potentially do between 3.8 and 4.4 miles per kWh. If you drive conservatively.
On the range front Audi’s promising pretty huge numbers. Audi says the base car will allegedly manage 466 miles on a charge, while the S6 can achieve 416 and the later A6 quattro sits neatly in the middle with 435 miles. Those are European-market figures, though, which tend to be far more optimistic than U.S. EPA figures. Audi also says those figures are with EU-market wheels and tires, plus the trick camera mirrors. Expect EPA figures to be significantly lower, but still plenty impressive. Over 350 miles seems completely within reach.
How’s Audi managed it then? Clever internals thanks to PPE and a massive battery are one thing, but aerodynamics is another. With the right spec, the A6 E-Tron Sportback has a drag coefficient of just 0.21. The right spec bit is, sadly, a huge caveat here. That drag number comes with Audi’s camera-on-sticks virtual wing mirrors, which aren’t coming to the U.S.. However, at a preview of the car in Munich an Audi rep suggested old school glass slabs wouldn’t add much to the number.
To keep things on the straight and narrow when you’re on the road, there are two suspension set ups. A traditional set of springs tuned, says Audi, for agility, and optional (on A6, standard on S6) air suspension for each corner. Audi says it offers a broad spread between comfort and sport, and will adapt to road conditions. It’ll also let the car sit at four different ride heights depending on what you want to do. In ‘efficiency mode’ it’ll lower the body by 0.8 inches depending on your speed to aid aero and keep energy consumption as minimal as possible. The S6’s all-wheel-drive setup, incidentally, is rear biased should the desire for hooliganism take you. Both the A and S6 come with differently-sized front and rear tires to aid stability.
When it comes to the A6’s new shape… it’s a looker. It’s pretty big, as you’d expect for a car with a whacking great battery between its wheels, but not too much bigger than the current internal combustion A6. It measures up at 194 inches long, 75.7 inches wide and 58.7 inches high. Importantly, it doesn’t look like a half used bar of soap as can be the way with EV sedans.
Audi’s throwing some smart styling cues at its EVs to help them stand out in the crowd. The grille comes in an ‘inverted’ hue, differing it from the rest of the car—a white car will have a dark nose, a dark car gets a bright snout. There’s also a black insert in the car’s sill. It’s partly there to signify there’s a battery lurking beneath, but it also goes a good way to hide some visual weight. There’s a lot of metal down the side of the A6, so breaking it up is a smart idea. At each corner are fairly chunky quattro-style arches, which is a neat flourish, while its nose is pleasingly dramatic and hides smart aero touches to keep that all important drag figure low.
With its latest generation of cars Audi’s doing cool things with lights. Much like the recently revealed A5, you can choose your own adventure with light patterns front and rear. In other bits of the world you can chop and change them on the move, and even use the rear lights as a way to communicate with cars behind, but in the U.S. you can’t really do much. You can switch up your patterns, but you’ll need to be stationary to pick your favorite, and your choices will take effect the next time you turn the car on. At least they’re LED up front and OLED at the rear. Speaking of the rear, the light bar stretches across the width of the car, which not only looks rad, but emphasizes its girth. One neat trick the U.S. can have is an illuminated set of Audi rings front and rear, so people can see what you’re driving even in the depths of night.
Inside, the A6 E-Tron is a wonderful return to form for Audi. It looks and feels as though it’ll last through the year 3000. There’s a neat wraparound design, and it feels spacious but with a hint of coziness. The star of the show is the MMI panoramic display, part of something Audi calls the Digital Stage. It’s a curved OLED screen that wraps itself around the interior of the car made up of an 11.9-inch virtual cockpit and a 14.5-inch central MMI display. If your passenger tires of your sparkling conversation, they’ll enjoy the 10.9-inch MMI display just for them. They can watch movies, stream Tik Tok and do many other things. Thanks to a special coating on their screen, the driver can’t watch along with them while they’re on the move. The driver might not mind too much, as they’ll have an augmented reality HUD to play with. It’ll show nav info, speed and other such useful things. The Digital Stage comes with more tricks—there’s a ‘dynamic interaction light’ that stretches across the cabin to show you various things like state of charge, and more besides.
On top of all of that, the A6 comes with plenty of toys. U.S. cars will get an electrochromic panoramic roof as standard, which is a neat touch. Also, you can do the ‘wave your foot to open the trunk’ trick here, but the car will shine a light on the ground to show you WHERE you need to waggle your limbs. Handy stuff. And, of course, Bang and Olufsen sound is available should you wish (you probably do).
Full U.S. pricing is still TBA, but in Europe prices kick off at €77,250 ($83,549 at current exchange rates) for the base A6 Sportback E-Tron performance, and rise to €99,500 ($107,614) for the S6 Sportback E-Tron. That’s roughly in line with BMW’s i5 range, with which the A6 E-Tron will be in direct competition. Note that the BMW is cheaper in the U.S.—starting around $67,100—and the A6 may be too. U.S.-market pricing is never as simple as running the EU price through a currency converter.
Final specs, EPA figures and more will make themselves known soon, but if you’re super keen on some A6 E-Tron action, you can get an order in from September 2024, and the car will launch in spring or summer of 2025.
