As the automotive world evolves, so too must its stalwarts. Which is why the new Audi A6 bears the ‘e-tron’ suffix, denoting at least some degree of electrification. This time, the electrification is total, and the A6 range does without a petrol or diesel engine for the first time.
That puts it straight up against the impressive BMW i5 and Mercedes-Benz EQE models, but Audi is hoping its brand of premium quality and style, as well as its latest battery-electric technology, will see the A6 e-tron forge ahead of its rivals in the sales charts.
For this, our first on-road encounter with the new A6 e-tron, taking place in Tenerife a the car’s international launch, we tried out what Audi believes is likely to be a big seller in the range: the A6 Sportback e-tron Performance, which sits somewhere in the middle of the line-up and offers the longest range of any A6 e-tron.
What does the new Audi A6 Sportback e-tron look like?
Whereas the old, fossil-fuelled A6 was very much a three-box saloon, the new A6 e-tron has taken on a more coupe-like fastback shape. Apparently, that’s all down to aerodynamics, which Audi says is especially important in providing the long motorway range that matters to its customers, and the German engineers’ attempts to make the big A6 slip through the air with barely a whisper.
To that end, the A6 has a blanked-off front, with a decorative panel hinting at the brand’s now-familiar grille shape. The wheel designs are more aerodynamic, too, and there are little air ducts in the front bumper to keep the dreaded drag at bay. More obviously, though, Audi is offering the A6 e-tron with tiny cameras in place of door mirrors, apparently increasing the range by a few kilometres. You can still have conventional door mirrors if you want, though.
Whatever, the point is that the A6 looks sleek, and the figures suggest it is every bit as aerodynamic as it looks. But premium cars are about more than scientific data, so Audi has fitted narrow lights and an aggressive bumper, as well as a black swathe of decorative trim that highlights the position of the battery in the floor. At the back, meanwhile, there’s a full-width light and an illuminated four-ring Audi logo.
Lighting, it seems, is a key part of Audi’s offering these days, and the A6 e-tron comes with customisable light signatures, allowing you to choose between one of eight different LED patterns for the head- and taillights. And the lights can even ‘talk’ to other cars, with warning triangles appearing in the pattern when you put the hazard lights on and a chevron signal appearing when you park. There’s even a symbol to warn other drivers if they get too close to your bumper.
A look inside the Audi A6 Sportback e-tron
Just as the A6 e-tron looks quite different from its conventionally powered predecessor on the outside, it also looks quite different inside. Here, inspiration has been taken from the new Audi A5 and Q6 e-tron, with a massive unit housing the touchscreen and digital instrument display, as well as a relative lack of buttons. Yet somehow, despite the lack of switchgear, the A6 e-tron’s cabin doesn’t feel that minimalist.
Lots of materials are on show, and there are lots of angles, not to mention the five screens you get if you choose the digital door mirrors and the optional passenger display screen. So, the cabin is still quite busy looking, and that is by no means aided by the bewildering array of buttons on the steering wheel and in the door card armrests. You need fingers and thumbs like cocktail sticks to operate them, and it’s all too easy to press them accidentally, but that’s a relatively minor complaint and an owner is likely to get used to it all.
Generally speaking, quality is every bit as good as you’d expect from an Audi, with lots of robust switches, premium materials and generally excellent fit and finish. In one or two places, such as those steering wheel switches, the A6 feels a little on the cheap side, but it’s still more solid than a BMW i5 or a Mercedes-Benz EQE.
Unfortunately, the five-door fastback shape means the Sportback versions of the A6 e-tron are a little cramped in the back. Headroom will be just about fine for adults of average height, but taller passengers will find their heads perilously close to the roof lining and might thank you for choosing the slightly roomier Avant estate. That said, legroom is perfectly adequate no matter which version you choose, but it’s quite difficult to fit your feet under the front seats, which limits the usefulness of that space.
Surprisingly, picking an Avant over a Sportback makes no difference at all in terms of outright boot space, at least with all five seats upright. Audi quotes the same 502-litre volume for the A6 Sportback e-tron as it does for the A6 Avant e-tron, though those figures only tell half the story because of the boot shape. The Avant has more space with the rear seats folded, thanks to its higher roofline, and it also offers a more practical boot shape with the seats upright, due to the more steeply angled tailgate. That said, 502 litres is a bit less than you’ll get in the BMW i5, if more than you’ll get into the Mercedes-Benz EQE.
The Audi A6 Sportback e-tron’s on-board technology
It seems Audi is really putting emphasis on technology to try and differentiate its electric saloons, and there’s a heavy focus on tech both inside the cabin and outside. As well as the clever lights, Audi is giving customers the option of digital door mirrors with screens in the door cards, displaying the view the cameras see. It’s nothing all that new for Audi - the Q8 e-tron is offered with a similar system - but the German marque has tweaked the tech, so the cameras are smaller and the screens in the doors are slightly higher, giving you a more natural view.
Audi’s tweaks have undoubtedly worked, and the system is clearer and more natural than in the Q8 e-tron, but it still has many of the same limitations. Adjusting the view is fiddly, you can’t move your head to adjust what you see on the fly, and the camera plays with your depth perception slightly, so they take a lot of getting used to. Fortunately, conventional mirrors are still fitted as standard.
Even if you choose the digital mirrors, the dash is still dominated by the enormous, curved housing that plays host to the digital instrument cluster and the touchscreen, both of which are big, very modern and very sharp. But they aren’t without their drawbacks. The old A6’s ‘Virtual Cockpit’ instrument display was a big selling point of the car, and though the A6 e-tron’s display is bigger, sharper and more modern, it has less functionality and customisation, which leaves it feeling a bit disappointing. And the touchscreen may be very clever, but it feels a bit less user-friendly than Audi’s older, simpler system.
That said, the central touchscreen’s integration of the climate control panel is one of the best we’ve seen. The temperature controls are always visible, as are features such as demisting, which makes it better than most touch-sensitive systems. Proper buttons would still be less distracting, though, and they would arguably still work aesthetically.
Similarly contradictory is the optional passenger display, which feels a bit unnecessary a lot of the time, but it has a simplified version of the central touchscreen’s operating system that’s clear to look at and easy and intuitive to use. That arguably makes it a better system than the primary display.
But the pièce de resistance is the head-up display, which occupies a huge area of the windshield and allows the tech to virtually ‘pick out’ things in the outside world, such as the lines on the road. It will also feed navigation directions onto the windshield, so arrows ‘send’ you down the right turning at a junction. It’s very clever, and it looks great. It also allows for some pointless but clever features, like the way the font size on the display gets bigger when you accelerate hard and smaller when you brake, giving them the effect of coming closer or getting further away.
How fast is the Audi A6 Sportback e-tron?
The A6 Sportback e-tron is being offered with a choice of four different all-electric powertrains, with customers getting a choice of single- or dual-motor layouts. The base model is simply called the A6 e-tron, with its 83kWh battery and 326hp electric motor, which is mounted on the rear axle. That gives the car a range of about 620km on a single charge, which is more than you get from a basic BMW i5, and the performance is pretty solid, too: even this version of the A6 e-tron will get from 0-100km/h in around the same time as a Volkswagen Golf GTI.
But the big Audi can go faster still if you choose the Performance version tested here. With a bigger 100kWh battery and a more powerful 380hp electric motor, it improves on the standard car in terms of both range and performance. In fact, it offers more range than any other model in the A6 e-tron line-up, with an official figure of around 750km from a single charge. Of course, you probably won’t manage that in the real world, but you should easily top 500km in all conditions, and that’s a really useful distance.
If neither of the single-motor cars take your fancy, though, you could always opt for the quattro, which retains the 100kWh battery but uses two motors - one on each axle - to produce up to 462hp and to provide all-wheel drive. That security might come in handy for those living in areas often impacted by rain and snow, but performance is clearly a major part of Audi’s thinking. The quattro is faster to 100km/h than an entry-level Porsche Taycan, but that performance means range takes a slight hit, dropping to roughly 710km.
And if you go for the flagship two-motor, 551hp S6 Sportback e-tron, the range drops further, to just over 650km. That’s still extremely useful, though, particularly for a car that gets from 0-100km/h in 3.9 seconds. It doesn’t feel that fast on the road, though.
For most, then, the Performance will be perfectly sufficient, and it feels that way on the road, too. The power is ample, performance is more than adequate, and the refinement is particularly good. You really don’t hear much road or wind noise at all, although that’s probably to be expected given the Audi’s fastidious approach to aerodynamics.
It’ll also charge very quickly, with charging speeds of up to 270kW available from the right DC charger in the right conditions. Find the right combination, and it’ll charge from 10 to 80 per cent in around 20 minutes. Admittedly, the basic A6 e-tron, with the smaller battery, will do much the same trick, but it ‘only’ charges at up to 225kW.
Driving the Audi A6 Sportback e-tron
Audi is evidently quite proud of the work it has done to make the A6 e-tron handle more engagingly than its petrol- and diesel-powered predecessors, using the same electric architecture that underpins the new Q6 e-tron SUV and the new Porsche Macan. That design has allowed the company to create a more “sophisticated” suspension set-up, which it claims will deliver better comfort and stability. However, judging the car on those fronts is made slightly difficult by the fact our test car came in a German specification with optional air suspension, which isn’t available at launch in Ireland unless you choose the top-of-the-range S6 e-tron models.
What we can say is that in its comfort-orientated settings, the air suspension is quite soft, but the damping makes it respond quite slowly to bumps, and it sometimes gets caught out as a result, even on smooth European roads. That’s particularly true if you hit a bump at speed, then hit another immediately after, causing the car to lift and then never quite settle again in time. It isn’t what we’d call uncomfortable - the impact is actually quite well absorbed - but it does affect the car’s stability.
Generally, however, the A6 e-tron feels fairly planted, and though there is a bit of body lean in corners, it is relatively well contained. And though the steering has a nice weight to it and provokes a predictable and linear response from the front wheels, it isn’t especially communicative or engaging. Because the lowlier versions of the A6 e-tron are rear-wheel drive, however, adding too much power in the middle of the corner will still cause the rear end to swing out, albeit in a pretty mundane and unthreatening manner. You just have to be aware that it can happen, particularly if you provoke it on a greasy road. All-wheel-drive versions understandably feel a little more secure on that front.
In essence, then, the A6 e-tron is pretty unremarkable to drive, and though it’s more fun than some Audis have been in recent years, it still doesn’t have the panache of a BMW i5 on the road, and those seeking a properly sporty driving experience will likely head the way of BMW. However, the A6 e-tron strikes a reasonable balance between comfort and handling, which will likely appeal to those already loyal to the Audi brand.
How safe is the Audi A6 Sportback e-tron?
The European independent safety organisation, Euro NCAP, has not yet assessed the A6 e-tron, so we don’t know how safe it will prove, but the signs are good. The Q6 e-tron, which is built on much the same architecture as the A6 e-tron, scored a very impressive five stars when it was tested, with strong scores across the board.
The A6 e-tron also comes with heaps of safety technology, including features such as lane departure warning and autonomous emergency braking, which can stop the car automatically if the driver fails to spot a hazard. The car also comes with a sharp reversing camera and numerous other driver aids, including a speed limit advisory system that tells you when you’re exceeding whatever the car’s on-board cameras and sensors think the speed limit is. The problem is they aren’t always right, and the noise can be irritating if it’s unwarranted. Fortunately, it’s easy enough to switch off.
How many child seats can you fit in an Audi A6 Sportback e-tron?
As is customary in cars of this size, the Audi A6 e-tron comes with an ISOFIX child seat mounting point in each of the outermost rear seats, allowing owners to fit two child seats in there side-by-side. But while that may be par for the course, the inclusion of a third ISOFIX mount in the front passenger seat is not, and it adds a welcome level of adaptability to the A6’s cabin.
How much does the Audi A6 Sportback e-tron cost in Ireland?
A6 e-tron prices start at €74,500 for the entry level Advance model, which comes with 19-inch alloy wheels, the digital instrument display and huge central touchscreen, as well as LED lights and fabric upholstery. Moving up to the €79,725 S line, meanwhile, gets you sportier exterior design with black exterior trim, as well as 20-inch alloys, the clever headlights and sports seats trimmed in part-leather.
If you want to upgrade to the larger battery, the e-tron Performance comes in at €85,730 in Advance trim, while the quattro will set you back €90,370.
The reasons you’d buy an Audi A6 Sportback e-tron
The A6 e-tron is exactly what you expect it to be, and though it isn’t perfect, it is still an enormously competent executive electric car. Yes, keen drivers will prefer the more poised BMW i5, but the Audi fights back with a better-quality cabin and a more compelling range, which will give it plenty of appeal among its target customer base.
Ask us anything about the Audi A6 Sportback e-tron
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