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By Jonathan Crouch

The A6 Sportback e-tron offers us a very different kind of Audi A6. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 55

With this A6 e-tron, Audi reinvents its executive contender as a sleek EV, offered in both Sportback and Avant estate forms. It aims to set new segment standards for driving range and charging speed, thanks to its advanced 800-volt architecture. With a high-end cabin to match, it's a compelling package designed to worry established rivals.

Backgroundword count: 244

Prior to this car's launch in mid-2024, the intention was that this all-electric model would be the new face of this Ingolstadt maker's long-running A6 model line. Back then, the plan was that the brand would in the short term continue to offer combustion-powered cars in this segment, but badge them separately as 'A7' designs. In early 2025 though, new Audi CEO Gernot D llner led a last-minute change of mind on the subject as, under his leadership, the brand recommitted to combustion engineering for the latter part of this decade. And decided that going forward, it would offer customers in this class two very different kinds of 'A6'-badged Audis. EV folk are targeted with Sportback and Avant versions of this all-electric e-tron model - as you can see, we have the Sportback version here. Alternatively, those still stubbornly committed to fossil fuel get saloon and Avant versions of a separate petrol and diesel-powered design. As we said, it's this e-tron EV model that's our focus here, which shares nearly all of its engineering with the brand's Q6 e-tron SUV, a car we reviewed for you a few months back. As with the Q6, this car employs an advanced 800V electrical architecture and Premium Platform Electric chassis package jointly developed with Porsche. And the hatch and estate-based models created from it could hardly have a wider market reach; rivals could be anything from a Mercedes EQE to a BMW i5 or a Porsche Taycan.

Driving Experienceword count: 552

It's interesting what the EV revolution can get brands to do. For decades, Audi's chosen not to follow its BMW and Mercedes rivals in the full-executive segment by delivering a car with rear-wheel drive; previous A6 models have always been front and four-wheel-driven. But this one is fundamentally designed to drive from the rear; and prioritises drive from the rear even when, in top models, an extra motor's added on the front axle to create a quattro 4WD system. It's quite a turnaround in engineering policy. Across the Sportback and Avant body styles, four different powertrains are being offered, with two single motor options and a couple of quattro dual motor set-ups. At the foot of the line-up, the standard rear-driven A6 e-tron offers a rear axle-mounted 326PS electric motor with 423Nm of torque. Energy comes from an 83kWh battery pack, 75.8kWh of it usable, providing for a WLTP-rated range of up to 384 miles in the Sportback - or 363 miles in the Avant. If you're attracted by an A6 e-tron though, you're probably going to want to upgrade yourself to the slightly more potent mid-level 'performance' model we tried, which gains a larger 100kWh battery (94.9kWh of it usable). Even though that energises a powerful rear motor (output's up to 380PS, with 565Nm of torque), that bigger battery enhances driving range an awful lot, this A6 e-tron performance model able to travel up to an impressive (and class-leading) 464 miles between charges in Sportback form (or 438 miles as an Avant). Earlier, we mentioned the dual motor quattro drivetrains which, as you'd expect, also use the larger 100kWh battery. In this case, it energises not only a permanent magnet motor at the back but also an added asynchronous motor at the front. And in the case of the A6 e-tron quattro, that means 462PS and 580Nm of total output, enabling the car to surge from 0-62mph in a mere 4.7s (or 4.5s with launch control). Yet that model can still cover up to a very useful 438 miles between charges. If that's not fast enough, the top S6 e-tron offers all the acceleration you could reasonably want, tweaking that quattro system's output further to boost output up to 503PS - or as much as 551PS if you engage Launch mode, which provides for a 0-62mph time of 4.1s (or 3.9s with launch control) en route to 149mph. Best possible driving range for the S6 is still a very respectable 407 miles for the Sportback - or 391 miles for the Avant. The quoted range results do of course assume selection of the most frugal of the available 'drive select' drive modes - 'efficiency' (the others are 'comfort', 'dynamic' and individual). And those mileage stats also assume driver familiarity with the advanced two-stage energy recuperation system, operated via paddles mounted on the steering wheel. Apart from range, the other development focus points here have been ride and refinement. And drive dynamics? Well any heavy large EV is compromised to some extent with these, but this one's been carefully tuned to dial out body roll and maximise grip from its Michelin Pilot Sport EV tyres. As usual in a big Audi - well, almost any Audi actually - the steering could do with a bit more feel, but it's precise and accurate.

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