Audi A6 Avant e-tron performance Launch Edition
This is the new Audi A6 e-tron, the German company's all-electric executive car, which fits into its plan to rename all its zero-emission models with even numbers and all its internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with odd ones. Meaning any ICE replacement for the old
A6 family line will become the
A7, just like the
A4 morphed into the
A5, and then that presumably means any ICE-powered replacement for the A7 will be the A9, with electric versions being the A8, which in turn pushes the
luxury flagship Audi saloon up to, what... A10 for an electric model and A11 for anything still using petrol power?
Only... Audi has almost immediately made a U-turn on this odd/even hierarchical split, following complaints from customers and dealers that it's just too confusing (no kidding), so it's dropping this arcane naming policy entirely - rather like its short-lived two-digit power output thing didn't last that long, having landed in 2017 to the consternation of everyone. Anyway, this most recent
volte face from Ingolstadt has come a bit late for the poor old A4, already renamed the A5, but there's recently been confirmation of an all-new replacement for the old ICE A6s which will still be called A6 this time around, so that'll mean Audi is selling two different models under one badge, just like it current has two Q8s,
one with ICE and
one as an EV, which aren't in fact the same bodyshell or chassis. What?!
Anyway. If you're utterly baffled by all of the above, we guess we could just have said 'here is Audi's alternative to a
BMW i5 Touring, what's it like?', and left it at that. Ho-hum. You live and learn.
Styling
The Avant is a good-looking thing, as all estate cars tend to be, although we remain to be convinced by Audi's strangely 'squinty' front-end styling created by those super-slim upper lamps with larger, separate light units beneath. As with most of the recently launched lines from the company, you can set eight different signatures for the LED front and rear illumination if you want, while a Launch Edition like this has all the black styling of the Edition 1 plus a set of 21-inch, five-arm Audi Sport alloys in the same colour. Malpelo Blue metallic sets this off well and makes the A6 Avant e-tron appear reasonably sleek, although if you concentrate hard on the area of its sills then you'll see the visual 'weight' of the car's electric platform - something the designers have tried to mitigate with that black trim panel which runs across the bottom of all the doors. Nevertheless, we're happy to say we far prefer the look of the A6 e-tron wagon to the closely related
Q6 e-tron we had on test just a few weeks before it.
Interior
The cabin of the A6 e-tron, Avant or otherwise, is predicated on the huge Digital Stage human-machine interface. You might as well get used to this, by the way, because it's clearly going to be the basis of all of the company's products going forward, as you'll already find it in both of the aforementioned A5 and Q6 lines, while the incoming
third-gen Q5 sports the same cabin too. It works OK, in the main, and Audi has at least kept all the climate controls along the bottom of the main 14.5-inch touchscreen as a small mercy - but our criticisms of the system from the Q6 remain, in that the 11.9-inch Virtual Cockpit instrument cluster isn't half as configurable here as it has been on much older Audis than this electric A6, while the optional passenger display touchscreen (fitted in our test car) is clearly visible to the driver when it's in use; in a
Porsche with the same tech equipped, this third display is invisible from the driving seat as a safety precaution.
We're also not enamoured with hexagonal steering wheels featuring haptic touchpad 'buttons' on them, something foisted on the A6 e-tron, nor do we see the merit in cameras-for-door-mirrors. It seems like reinventing tech for the sake of it, so while the units employed for the A6 Avant's system have clearly advanced from this set-up when we first tried it
on the old e-tron SUV, it still feels odd when you're trying to back the car into a space between two other vehicles in a parking bay, and there's always the fear that the cameras will cost a fortune to replace if they ever go wrong - far more than a glass mirror would do, at least.
But in the Audi's favour, we do love the huge head-up display the car has, while the general quality of the fixtures and fittings is as superb as you would expect of this marque, so if all its tech doesn't annoy you then the A6 e-tron's interior should meet your satisfaction, no problem.
Practicality
There's a reasonable amount of stowage and storage spaces throughout the A6 e-tron's cabin, while leg- and headroom in the second row is generous enough that tall adults should be comfortable sitting there. A pair of them, at least - the floor isn't quite flat in the rear of the e-tron and the central squab is high and narrow, so anyone in the middle of the bench will only want to be there for shorter periods of time. Further, a 502-litre boot lags a long way behind a couple of cars from the same group but supposedly a class down from the A6 Avant e-tron, namely the
Skoda Superb Estate and
Volkswagen Passat, but more pertinently it's also a good way behind the i5 Touring's 570-litre cargo bay. So overall the Audi is practical enough, but perhaps not quite as practical as it possibly could be.
Performance
Only a few weeks after driving a similarly Premium Platform Electric (PPE) model in the Audi stable, that Q6 e-tron we've already touched upon, we were back in another in the form of this A6. Yet while the Q6 was a quattro dual-motor, with only a touch more power (388hp) but a whole heaping pile more torque (855Nm) and the traction benefits of all-wheel drive, we know which one we much prefer for its performance. And it's this estate.
It might only have one motor rather than two, but the A6 Avant e-tron performance has a 140kg weight advantage over the Q6 and it shows in the way it accelerates. This Audi feels much more insistent and like a near-400hp electric vehicle should, and furthermore it also has the overall effortless level of shove that you'd want from an upmarket executive car that, traditionally, would have had a socking big engine to get to 381hp. With beautifully calibrated throttle and brakes, it's also a breeze to accurately control the A6 e-tron's speed and drive it smoothly, which only adds to its sophisticated manners.
The rear-drive performance model also proved economical by EV standards. It managed bang on 3 miles/kWh across 170 miles on test, with a best of 3.3 miles/kWh when running on the motorways for 30 miles or so. It also held a steady 118kW on its one rapid-charging session with us, going from less than 20 per cent battery and an indicated range of around 45 miles, to 74 per cent and 230 miles in only 25 minutes. It also does the cool thing these modern Audi electrics do while charging, causing the pinstripe lighting running around the base of its windscreen (which otherwise does a 'direction sweep' action on the relevant side of the cabin when the indicators are on) to 'fill up' with a green illumination bar as its battery tops up. About our only grumble here is the powered charge-port flaps, which take much longer to whirr open than simply pressing the cover manually to pop it out; something you won't appreciate if it's tipping it down in rain and you need to charge the A6 e-tron.
Ride & Handling
It's a real pleasure to be writing about a rear-wheel-drive Audi that
isn't an
R8 of some sort. With just the motor on the rear axle, and again comparing it to the Q6 e-tron we sampled not long before the A6 e-tron (sure, they're obviously not direct rivals, but we feel it's appropriate here), there's less corruption of the steering and none of that discomfiting sensation of the torque being vectoring around when traversing rougher roads that we experienced in the dual-motor SUV. The A6 Avant e-tron performance also always conveys the fact it is pushing from the back, rather than dragging from the front, so while its still-mammoth 2.2-tonne kerb weight doesn't mean we're about to tag this Audi as a proper driver's car, it's nonetheless one of the more rewarding big EVs we've yet driven from any manufacturer.
But it's also supremely comfortable and quiet, which you'd expect of an EV, granted. That said, those 21s could've spoiled the A6 Avant e-tron's composure, especially as the regular models come on standard passive dampers and only the S6 gets the air springs. Yet the ride was magnificent on this Audi, which is even more of a boon given the company has exhibited a tendency in the past to over-damp its sporty-looking stuff that isn't actually sporty. Ride comfort, rolling refinement, the reduction of tyre, suspension and wind noise - the A6 e-tron performance is genuinely a true delight to travel in.
Value
As ever with an EV, it's the retail figure of the A6 Avant e-tron performance Launch Edition which alarms the most. Accepting that car prices are getting ever more ludicrously expensive, and that most people finance their vehicles anyway so only want to know the monthly numbers and not the lump-sum fee for the entire car, the fact this electric A6 line-up kicks off at (un)comfortably more than £60,000 still seems brassy in the extreme. And that our Launch Edition rocked in at £87,350, when it's by no means the pinnacle of the entire A6 Avant e-tron range, was all the more breathtaking. Even an extensive standard equipment list, including luxury items like four heated seats and a warming steering wheel too, an opacifying panoramic sunroof, a high-power B&O Premium sound system and pretty much every ADAS item you could think of, only goes some way to mitigating the Audi's vast expense. In its defence, a BMW i5 Touring starts from just shy of 70 grand, so maybe the A6 e-tron's something of a bargain in comparison. The proof of the pudding will be how much the new ICE A6 range costs when it lands officially in the UK, then.
Verdict
While it's pricey, there remains a little too much of a focus on technology inside (and on the outside, when it comes to the door mirrors), and there's a heck of a lot of product confusion in Audi's portfolio right now as it flips and flops on ill-advised naming strategies, if you can strip all of these considerations away and focus on the machine itself, then you'll find a deeply appealing machine in the form of the A6 Avant e-tron. Ultra-smooth to drive, good on electric, blessed with an unexpectedly involving chassis and still emanating that classic Audi sensation of being a thoroughly high-quality item, this is a cracking electric estate car and a highly polished premium product to boot.
