Audi A6 Avant e-tron (2025 – ) Electric review

OK, with a starting price of over £60,000 and a near two-grand premium over the equivalent Sportback A6 e-tron the Avant isn’t what you’d call a cheap car. But what were you expecting? Thankfully you get what you pay for in terms of tech, premium style and all the rest while, as with any electric car, running costs are cheaper than a petrol or diesel if you can charge at home, run it as a company car and avoid plugging into expensive public chargers. The latter should at least prove easy, given the impressive range on all Avant models.

Call this a holding score for now, on the basis this is an all-new car based on an all-new platform. Take some confidence this has been co-developed with Porsche, given the pride the latter takes in its engineering. A standard three-year warranty is nothing to write home about, though. You can if you prefer extend it to four or five years at extra cost.

While versions of the same safety tech can be found in cars at all price points these days you reap the benefit of the extra development effort a premium brand like Audi puts in. Meaning when there are interventions from the steering and brakes to things like drifting out of lane or failing to spot a hazard they’re more tactful than hysterical, and less prone to tiresome false alarms. The camera-based rear-view mirrors are one interesting option, and a big improvement over the ones on the Q8 given you don’t have to look into the footwell to use them. The driver’s side screen is still less intuitive than a traditional mirror and they still feel like a gimmick too far but, hey, they improve range a few miles so do have some practical value. Given the stereotypes about tailgating Audi drivers we also appreciated the delicious irony of fancy rear lights that flash warnings at drivers who sit on your bumper.

You’ll have probably got the memo by now we generally prefer lower-slung estate cars to high-riding SUVs and crossovers for the fact they are less ostentatious, generally make better use of their interior space and being closer to the road makes them ride more comfortably. All of this applies to the A6 Avant e-tron, the massive increase in range from the slippery aerodynamics yet another plus point. Indeed, at a steady 120mph Autobahn cruise in freezing temperatures we were still getting equivalent efficiency to a lumbering great Q8 e-tron at much more pedestrian speeds. Being built as an electric car from the start also means a relatively flat floor in the back for extra legroom but, fair to say, estate cars are best suited to families of four. And if you need to carry five or more an SUV-shaped vehicle still wins out.

All A6 Avant e-trons get the smoothly integrated 11.9-inch screen for the instruments and a bigger 14.9-inch one for the main infotainment to which you can optionally add augmented reality nav projected onto the windscreen and even an additional screen for the front-seat passenger. The tech powering them is slick, with crisp graphics and a logical interface meaning you can seamlessly flit between the car’s system and your phone via CarPlay or Android Auto. BMW’s system in the equivalent i5 Touringis perhaps a little nicer to use and Mercedes’ in the EQE is glitzier but Audi’s tech is well up there. Hallelujah for the A6 sticking by physical stalks for controlling stuff like lights, indicators and wipers as well. We were slightly less impressed with some of the cheapness of other fixtures and fittings – everything looks good but a prod of the soft-touch fabric trim on the dash reveals hard plastics lurking beneath and the cup holders and cubbies had some unpleasantly sharp edges hinting at penny pinching you wouldn’t normally associate with Audi. On the plus side you can literally drown any concerns out with the absolutely superb Bang & Olufsen stereo on the optional Sound & Vision pack, the silence of the electric drive creating the perfect stage for your favourite tunes. Definitely an option we’d be ticking.

You can have your A6 Avant e-tron in anything up to Autobahn blitzing S6 trim with twin motors and 551 horsepower. But back in the real world we’d be perfectly happy with the base version, which has a more than sufficient 326 horsepower from its single motor and range of 383 miles. Audi expects this to be the biggest seller, the next one up having a bit more power, a bigger battery and that headline 437-mile range while the quattro does the same but with another motor and additional horsepower you probably don’t need. Again, you feel the benefits of buying from a premium brand with a proven track record, the smooth and silent power delivered intuitively while paddles behind the wheel offer simple adjustment of regeneration according to the driving situation. If you were waiting for a painless and easy transition to electric this is it right here, and you won’t miss your old petrol, diesel or hybrid one bit.