Audi A6 Sportback E-Tron evolves the electric car

• A6 and S6 Sportback E-Tron electric cars arrive in North America next spring or summer
• The first cars using Audi’s new platform cut a sharp shape
• A 94.9-kwh usable battery pack supports three models

The Audi A6 and S6 Sportback E-Tron join the Porsche Macan EV and Audi Q6 E-Tron SUVs as the first cars to utilize Volkswagen Group’s new Premium Platform Electric (PPE). 

These new underpinnings provide more range, promise better driving dynamics, optimizes the interior space, and introduces a new digital dash. 

A first drive of the Q6 E-Tron SUV earlier this summer and a media preview of the A6 Sportback E-Tron in mid-July in Munich, Germany, have shown EV kind of cars that PPE positions Audi to be a leader in electrification. 

Technically, Audi was there first. The Audi E-Tron launched the brand’s electric ambitions in 2018 for the North American market. The E-Tron joined the more expensive Tesla Model X and discontinued Jaguar I-Pace as the first electric crossovers to market. Audi played it safe by making the E-Tron as much like the combustion Q8 as possible, and Audi did it so well that it earned EV kind of cars Best Car To Buy 2020.

So much has changed in five years, including a new 2024 Q8 E-Tron. While the Q8 showcases how much can change for a single electric model, the A6 and related Q6 show how much more is possible on a dedicated platform used not just on several model lines but across VW AG’s many brands.

The flexible PPE and its 800-volt electric architecture will be used on at least 10 electric models launched globally in the next few years.

“The future will be an all-electric portfolio,” Audi CEO Gernot Döllner confirmed in a press briefing in Munich. “We have a lot of debate in Europe about the speed of that. We’ll be flexible for the next 10 years.”

By 2027, Audi plans to have a battery electric offering in every core segment, and in two years time the brand will have a new combustion portfolio. Audi still forecasts a fully electric lineup by 2033, even as automakers ranging from Cadillac to Mercedes-Benz and even its Porsche family member walk back those all-electric targets. The A6 and S6 hatchbacks will rival existing models ranging from the Mercedes-Benz EQE, BMW i5, and Tesla Model S.

In the meantime, the new A6 E-Tron illustrates Audi’s new naming convention, where even-numbered models are electric and odd-numbered models are combustion vehicles, also on a new Premium Platform Combustion heralded by the 2025 Audi A5. 

“We will need these vehicles to bridge to the all-electric future,” Döllner iterated. 

For the time being, Audi holds fast to the balky E-Tron naming convention for EVs.

Audi A6 Sportback E-Tron builds a bridge

The 2025 A6 E-Tron spearheads Audi’s mainstream electric sedans, excepting the $130,000 E-Tron GT that’s also refreshed for 2025. The electric A6 embodies the understated poise that has defined Audi design for decades. 

The hood cascades down between slim daytime running lights bejeweled with a three-dimensional design. Customizable light signatures crown a solid grille studded with faux levers as part of Audi’s “inverted grille” design, where the lower grille is open except for the radar housings. Plastic corners with recessed intakes hold up the LED headlights in a raccoon mask of black. A splitter lips the bottom. The grille optimizes airflow while minimizing drag, Audi tells us, and helps make the A6 Sportback E-Tron the most aerodynamic vehicle in the VW Group family with a 0.21 coefficient of drag.

You may notice the welcome light show more. With the optional light package, the four-ring logo illuminates in red at the tail and white on the nose. Brush your hand on the hood above the rings up front and it pops the frunk, which is large enough to fit a stuffed backpack or the cable for the 9.6-kw onboard charger. In the rear, a light arrow appears on the ground to wave your foot and pop the hatch with no hands.

Walk up to the car and it illuminates like a good pup sitting and waiting, its tail wagging, instead of other automakers’ light shows that can be too much, like a pup jumping all over you. In the back, ten OLED panels and a light bar span the raised hatch and integrated spoiler. It too has eight customizable light signatures, like the front, and in some markets the taillights can flash a hazard triangle to reflect danger up ahead or it can generate other images in concert with whatever the algorithms are picking up from the five onboard computers supporting Audi’s digital architecture.

There’s a lot promised, and features such as car-to-X communications and the adaptive matrix LED headlights won’t be available for North America for now, but this evolution of using the taillights to communicate to other drivers could be far more significant than the third brake light mandated in the U.S. in 1986. 

Getting other automakers and cars to speak the same language is a separate hurdle.

Even the customizable light signatures are subject to different U.S. regulations; they can only be changed when you’re parked. Blame U.S. regulators for the chunky side mirrors instead of the slim side-mirror cameras available in other markets; that ups the coefficiency of drag from 0.21 to 0.22 in North America. 

Another non-American thing? The gorgeous Avant wagon model, muscular in all the right places yet toned on the ends, won’t come to North America.

In profile short overhangs and slim wheel gaps house 19-inch wheels standard on the A6, 20-inchers standard on the S6, or optional 21-inch wheels. The curved roofline and raised haunches lend it the sophistication of a grand tourer but with a prominent Sportback rear. A black E-Tron blade breaks up the rocker panels and signals the thick, nearly 6-inch floor housing the 100-kwh battery pack (94.9 usable).

Audi A6 Sportback E-Tron specs and the PPE

• A6 Sportback E-Tron RWD, 362 hp, 0-60 mph in 5.2 seconds
• A6 Sportback E-Tron Quattro, 422 hp, 0-60 mph in 4.3 seconds
• S6 Sportback E-Tron Quattro, up to 543 hp, 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds

Underneath its toned Sportback skin, the A6 E-Tron gets most of the same mechanicals as the Q6 E-Tron SUV that marked Audi’s first big evolutionary EV lift. 

When it goes on sale here next spring or summer as a 2025 model (we’re confident it will be changed to a 2026 model) it will be offered in three variants bulleted above.

The low-set battery pack consists of 12 modules of 15 prismatic cells made of more energy-dense nickel-cobalt-manganese lithium-ion cells. The A6 E-Tron uses a 280-kw permanent magnet synchronous motor in back as the main propulsion unit, while a 140-kw induction motor on the front axle helps with takeoff and supplements heavy power demands. The front motor spins freely, when cruising for greater efficiency. 

New motor designs weigh less and require about 30% less installation space than the motors used in the Q4 and Q8, with more efficiency and about half of the friction losses versus Audi’s last-gen motors. Curb weight, range estimates, torque, and other specs were not finalized for the A6. 

Audi fits the S6 with an air suspension with adaptive dampers. Audi says the front and rear tires will be sized differently, wider in the rear, with the demo S6 cars wearing Michelin Pilot Sports 245/40R21s up front and 275/35R21s in back. We don’t know if that will carry over to the U.S.

A6 Sportback E-Tron braking

Audi says that 95% of everyday braking in the A6 E-Tron can be handled by both motors, and it can recuperate up to 220 kw. The Q6 can capture up to 0.25 g of deceleration, but Audi didn’t have that spec finalized for the A6. Paddle shifters can adjust the regen levels, from coasting to grabby, or the “B” mode in the console gear selector enables one-pedal driving. An Auto mode modulates regen braking from the camera system reading the road and traffic ahead.

Audi did not want to talk range, especially for the U.S., but in European spec it targeted a range of 750 kilometers, or 466 miles on the very generous WLTP cycle. Maybe the A6 E-Tron RWD will reach 375 miles on the EPA cycle?

A6 Sportback E-Tron charging

The PPE’s 800-volt system accepts a DC fast-charge of up to 270 kw, if you can find a public charger pumping electrons at that rate. Audi estimates a 10-80% state-of-charge in 21 minutes, and the first 10 minutes of charge at that rate could recoup nearly 135 miles of range. That’s fast. 

Owners can use Plug & Charge at Electrify America stations that automatically connect to your account, so you don’t need to swipe a card. Even at an EA station rated at 135 kw, the 800-volt charging system virtually splits into twin 400-volt circuits that can charge in parallel in 35 minutes. At home, on a 50-amp 240-volt AC circuit, the A6 E-Tron’s 9.6-kw onboard charger will fill the battery in about 10 hours.

Audi A6 Sportback E-Tron interior space and digital dash 

• A6 Sportback E-Tron measures 58.7 inches tall, 194 inches long, 75.7 inches wide
• A6 Sportback E-Tron has a 116-inch wheelbase, and plenty of room for four adults
• The hatch measures 26 cubic feet or 40 cubic feet with the rear seats folded

The new A6 E-Tron is about the same length as the outgoing gas model but it’s at least an inch taller and wider, and I could fit easily in the rear seats, with a fist-full of headroom for my 5-foot-8 stature. 

A panoramic sunroof with six grades of opacity opens up the space, and the demo cars showcased Audi’s finest quilted leather.

The A6 E-Tron embraces the brand’s “Digital Stage” rolling out in new models on these new platforms, including the Q6 E-Tron and the new Audi A5 sedan. The curved panoramic display starts with the crystal clear 11.9-inch digital instrument cluster that shows vehicle info and whatever the exterior sensors are picking up. It holds a small message board of colored dots and dashes that reflect what the voice assistant is processing. The same system in the Q6 had good fidelity and, aided by AI, it can process more than 800 vehicle commands and general interest questions.

The voice commands lessen the need for the 14.5-inch touchscreen interface that evolves Audi’s already excellent graphics. Users can easily press and drag apps to their desired position, rearrange info hierarchies, and customize tile displays. Beside it is a 10.9-inch passenger touchscreen for private streaming or to help navigate; the passenger can override the nav settings from their screen. One cool available feature will be a 20-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system that includes headrest speakers creating two sound zones—one for the driver to listen to nav directions, for instance, without disrupting the passenger’s Netflix and chill.

Pricing and full U.S. specs won’t be released until closer to late spring, but in Germany the A6 Sportback E-Tron Quattro will cost 75,600 euros, or about $82,000, and the S6 slots at 99,500 euros, or about $108,000. We’ll see. 

Audi paid for lodging and airfare for EV kind of cars to present this firsthand report.