Audi A6 E-tron and S6 E-tron review

Yahoo

03-05-2025

Whatever other decisions may yet be made in the busy corridors of power at Audi's Ingolstadt headquarters, we know one thing for sure: this is the new, all-electric Audi A6 E-tron - and it's just touched down in the UK, in right hand drive form.
Soon enough, however, another new Audi A6 will touch down, that you can have with a combustion engine if you prefer. That will, no doubt, leave some a little confused.
The latter car was all set to be a new A7. But the idea, as Audi originally planned, that A6 devotees might willingly switch to an A5 or A7 in order to avoid inadvertent electrification - and that even-numbered Audis would, for the sake of simplicity, hence force be electric - has proven too much for the company's customer base and dealer network to accept.
So, rather than adjusting the entire model nomenclature strategy to make room for a growing number of EVs which European buyers remain stubbornly slow to warm up to, Audi's had a rethink. A sensible one, it seems to me. Right now, lots of people instinctively know what an Audi A6 is; likewise an A4, a Q2, etc. That's money in the bank that, frankly, Audi can ill afford to lose.
This new A6 E-tron, however, doesn't look much like an A6. It looks, to us, like a car that could have had several proposed identities during the course of its gestation; and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that 'Audi Axolotl' was one of the more leftfield ones. There's a certain similarity with the platform-related Q6 E-tron; but also a slightly strange, pumped up, lizard-featured look to it which I'm not sure that Audi's long-standing, design-loving clientele will instantly appreciate. At any rate, at least it isn't 'evolutionary'.
This car joins the ranks of the BMW i5, Mercedes EQE and perhaps even the Porsche Taycan, then, in the pursuit of the well-heeled executive's company-car dollar. Available as either five-door Sportback or Avant estate, it can be had with one motor or two; with either 75.8- or 94.9kWh of usable battery capacity; and from a UK-market departure price of £62,500.
Uncharacteristically, Audi has made the single-motor versions rear-wheel drive - but the same is true of last year's new Q6 E-tron SUV, and will continue to be so of other Audi EVs built on the same PPE platform; so we'll doubtless get used to that idea.
Suspension will be via steel coil springs and multi-link axles on all UK-market A6s, with adaptively damped air springs reserved for the range-topping S6 E-tron - which also offers close to 550-horsepower and a sub-4.0sec 0-62mph sprint, and is the derivative we used to take the performance and efficiency readings, among other measurements, you'll see throughout this test.
Through the lower tiers of the model range, you can have 322-, 376- or 456bhp, lastly in the twin-motor A6 E-tron Quattro version; but ours was a mid-level 376bhp A6 Avant E-tron Performance.
So, let's get stuck into the range-topper, shall we? The driveline technology may be different but the approach Audi takes to evolve an A6 into an S6 in the electric age follows a familiar path, as it always has with combustion-engined models. Namely, more power, control and grip, but in a measured manner, so not with full RS levels of commitment, drama and cost.
Both the A6 and S6 E-tron sit on the 800V Premium Platform Electric (PPE), co-developed again with Porsche, and use powertrains made at Audi's mammoth Gyor facility in Hungary. The S6 picks up the baton from the most potent of the mainline A6 models – the 422bhp Sport E-tron Quattro – and ups the ante to 496bhp, or 542bhp if you're engaging the car's launch control function. That power, along with an eyebrow-raising 620lb ft, comes courtesy of a 10cm asynchronous motor at the front and a permanent magnet synchronous motor at the rear, with an axial length of 20cm.
Compared with the first-generation E-tron products, Audi says its latest motors take up 30% less space and weigh 20% less. The platform's higher voltage also means thinner, lighter cables can be used, and various tweaks (a new hairpin winding and direct oil-spray cooling system for the larger motor, and an electric oil pump in the gearbox) have boosted range by about 25 miles over the old platform in terms of like-for-like capacity.
But nobody will be surprised to learn that the S6 E-tron, particularly in big-bodied Avant form, isn't very light. Its on-paper weight of 2335kg (11kg more in reality) is substantial, though the distribution is peachy, at 48:52 front to rear. It is also no heavier than its chief rival, the BMW i5 M60 xDrive Touring, which has a claimed weight of 2350kg (though the BMW does in fairness carry actuators for its rear-axle steering and has active anti-roll bars, while the Audi has neither).
Meanwhile, charge is held by the larger of the two nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries also found in the A6 (100.0kWh in capacity, 94.9kWh of which is usable). Spread across the width of the floorpan, it gives the S6 E-tron a considerably lower centre of gravity than any car previously to have worn the badge.
So what else does the S6 owner get for their near-£100k outlay, beyond more power than the A6? Bigger brakes, thicker anti-roll bars, a larger contact patch and a sportier tune for the air springs and adaptive dampers, although Audi will tell you the alterations are subtle in nature, rather than transformative.
Audi's designers have somehow made this look like quite a low, ground-hugging car from the kerbside; so when you get into it and feel as high-perched as you do, it's something of a shock. Audi has never traded in particularly low, sporty driving positions, to be fair - and the A6's seat itself is widely adjustable and supportive, and comfy over distance. You just don't feel like you can put it quite where you'd like to - relative to the beltline of the car, the nearness of the panoramic glass roof, or the primary controls in front of you.
This is nonetheless a comfortable cabin, and the S6 is as per the A6, only with the red stitching and plenty of synthetic suede, as is the Audi way for sporty derivatives.
Audi's latest cabin design and digital technology philosophy relies a great deal on a 14.5in central multimedia touchscreen that has no separate cursor controller, so it demands plenty of your attention while driving. There are no physical heating and ventilation controls, though there are a few useful physical buttons (for ADAS systems management and drive modes); and that touchscreen does have a permanently displayed shortcut zone as a usability aid.
Cabin quality is good enough, albeit not at the lofty level, relative to the executive class norm, that we've known of big Audis more traditionally. And some of the car's technological features (camera-based door mirrors that don't grant a sufficiently adjustable field of vision, and a head-up display that likes to blind you with red light if you get an arbitrary centimeter too close to the car in front) seem a bit gratuitous and self-serving.
There's reasonable leg and head room in the rear seats, unless you're very long-legged, that is - when you may find your knees bent up due to a fairly high floor. Still, kids are well catered for with three sets of Isofix seat anchorages (two in the back and one in the front passenger seat) and some usefully practical plastic backings to the front seats that will wipe clean of the inevitable shoe scuffs.
There's also a compact 'frunk', which is good, because space isn't as ample in the boot as you might expect. The 502-litre luggage space in the Avant is actually the same as the Sportback's, which is a bit disappointing. The floor is deep and wide, and you will get your double buggy or duo of labradors in there, plus there's some underfloor storage pace. But the sloping rear windowline eats into overall boot capacity; the i5 Touring (570 litres), ID 7 Touring (605 litres) and Macan Electric (540 litres) all offer more outright cargo space.
As for the camera-based wing mirrors, they are said to add about four miles in official tests, but they add yet more digital real estate.
Here we focus on the S6 Avant, where Audi, to its credit, hasn't gone in on moody, synthesised soundtracks for this car, and the electric boom-whir that accompanies prods of the acceleration in Dynamic mode isn't overbearing, even though something more dramatic would have been fully justified given the pace of the S6 E-tron.
Our Avant test car hurtled to 60mph from rest in just 3.7sec and with an insouciance we didn't expect. Triple figures arrived after 8.6sec, and the headline here is that the understated rapid Audi estate is alive and well in the electric era. As for overtaking, you need only think it, and it's done. Roll-on response is characteristically instant, and 2.9sec taken to dispatch 30-70mph is just a tenth shy of our time for the new BMW M5 (tested in saloon form, but also made as an estate).
We also like the fact that this car, with variable regenerative braking modes (controllable via the steering wheel-mounted paddles, though the auto setting is clever and effective), can fully coast, which often pays dividends in cars this heavy, as you can use that mass to your benefit. It means the driver can hustle or flow the S6 as their mood, and the situation, demands.
The S6 acquits itself equally well under heavy braking too, stopping around two metres sooner from 70mph than the S E-tron GT we tested recently, and doing so with more resolute pedal feel.
While the S6 is quite easily the quickest car in the range, every version of the A6 has the same crisp accelerator response and smooth delivery. And because even the weediest model still makes 322bhp, no A6 E-Tron is what you'd call slow.
There's an oily progression of weight to the A6's steering as you add lock, a good sense of how much grip you've got, and an easy nonchalance to the way the big Audi can be placed precisely on the road. There are more tactile steering set-ups out there, though: just ask Porsche and BMW.
The A6 never feels remotely scrappy or wayward, despite the rear-wheel drive. It's characterised by its resolute composure. Its body control becomes more fiddly, restless and firm when the surface underneath is uneven, but it keeps staunch check on lateral body movement in fast corners, and handles quite keenly for such a big, heavy exec - though not in a way you'd call involving per se.
As for the S6? The S6's driveline resorts to pure rear-drive operation until extra traction is required, at which point the front axle joins in. In this sense, the first electric S6 is different from any petrol-powered (or, more recently, diesel-fed) S6 you may have driven, because those cars used full-time Quattro. It was this, along with the layout of the ICE drivelines, that often translated to a faint but determined understeer balance in the ICE cars, though that did improve notably in recent years.
Along with the low centre of gravity inherent in the PPE platform, it means the S6 E-tron has a neater natural cornering style than its forebears, bleeding into 'push' only when you really begin to drive the car harder than you possibly should on the public road. In the main it's impressively neutral, with good grip, superb traction and an understated manner that feels appropriate for a fast, family-oriented Audi. Mind you, turn the ESP off entirely and really let the S6 rip on a circuit, and it will serve up oversteer almost as easily as the M5. Evidently some preconceptions need to be reconsidered when it comes to EVs, as you don't often see dynamic duality quite so stark.
Back on the road, the S6's composure is reflected in its steering, which is nicely geared and resistant to deflection, if also synthetic in feel. In general it's a precise car: easily placed, sped up and slowed down, and so on. It's not especially engaging, though, and that's more of a problem than it was with the old, big-engined S6 models.
Meanwhile, refinement is strong, as you would expect. The S6's wider tyres will generate more roar than those on the A6 E-tron but the uplift is pretty negligible and rolling refinement on par with the Mercedes E450d Estate we also tested recently – itself a match for the latest Range Rover. Ride quality is a strong point too – and not just in terms of the languid motorway gait. The S6, despite its enormous wheels, isolates you from the worst intrusions of our roads even at trundling speeds. Many others don't, even at this level.
The A6 is far from cheap, but it's also comparably good value when stacked up next to the obvious alternatives. Pricing starts at £62,500 for the Sportback, which gets 20in alloy wheels, leather upholstery, heated front seats, tri-zone climate control and adaptive cruise control, so it's hardly poverty spec.
S Line trim ups the ante with sports seats, privacy glass and fancier style tweaks for both the inside and outside. Edition 1 then tops the line-up and is the only trim you can get on the S6. It gets 21in alloys, matrix LED lights, an additional 10.9in touchscreen for the passenger, electrically adjustable front seats and heated rear seats.
The big-battery Performance in S line trim (in which we spent most of our time) is likely to be a fairly big seller and comes in at over £75,000.
So by the time you've added a few packs, it's not going to be unusual to see an A6 Avant with a transaction price of £80,000. Ouch. And yet it's no different to the much shorter-range i5 or less practical Mercedes-Benz EQE saloon. So if you look at it like that, the A6 actually looks like relatively decent value.
Real-world efficiency, meanwhile, averaged around 3.1mpkWh from our single-motor, high-spec, bigger-batteried, 376bhp UK test car, making for dependable range of almost exactly 300 miles; and DC charging speed is strong, up to a claimed 270kW.
And for the S6, well, it was when BMW announced the i5 M60 xDrive that the penny dropped – fast, full-size executive cars of an electric, premium nature weren't going to come cheap.
The Audi is no different. The S6 TDI Avant (yes, you can still buy one, though it isn't anything like as quick as the E-tron) starts at just under £75k, whereas its electric sibling costs £95k. Amazingly, this makes it less expensive than the BMW, and also the Mercedes-AMG EQE 53, which is easily the most expensive of this trio.
Meanwhile, none of them, the S6 E-tron included, is forecast rock-solid residuals either. Expect it to lose around half its value in three years and 36,000 miles.
If that doesn't deter you, efficiency is potentially excellent. The S6 performed especially well in our 'everyday' economy test, managing 342 miles. A touring test range of 266 miles is less impressive, but still competitive, as is the claimed rapid-charging rate of 270kW (for real-world test results, see below).
'Good' feels like damning the Audi A6 E-tron with faint praise. It's EV-class-competitive, for definite. But does that sound like the kind of 'Vorsprung Durch Technik' on which to stake the reorganisation of an entire brand's model nomenclature? To remake Audi's reputation for a new generation of EV-suggestible heartland buyers?
Three years ago, when the car's engineering targets were likely signed off, it might have. But today? Suddenly those nomenclative second thoughts make a lot more first-hand sense.
By current EV class standards, this is certainly a capable executive option. It has plenty of usable range, is a genuine pleasure to spend time in, and is competitive value for money in at least key relative terms. Some may be disappointed by the Avant's underwhelming boot, and that the i5 has the edge on perceived quality; others, that you don't get quite the practical executive car here you used to in an ICE-powered A6.
The range-topping S6 would also be a peachy car to live with: properly muscular, brimming with tech, seriously refined and comfortable. With ultra-rapid charging from the 800V electrical system and plenty of real-world range, it's not hard to see why you would opt for an S6 as your next director-grade company car.
If you're hoping for Porsche Taycan-style handling finesse or Hyundai Ioniq 5 N-style drama, you will be disappointed. But if you can afford an S6, you can afford a Porsche Taycan or an Audi E-tron GT, so the fact that the more practical S6 feels demonstrably different - executive with a dash of sports, rather than sporting with a dash of executive - is no doubt entirely deliberate and a very good thing.
To an enthusiast audience, the S6 is perhaps a bit too calm and undramatic for its own good. As a rapid, lustrous, long-legged electric business express, however, the S6 is probably – just like its A6 siblings – exactly what the target audience will want.
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