Audi A6 Avant e-tron review

May 23, 2025 Matt Allan

Audi is flying the flag for high-end electric estate cars, but does the new A6 Avant e-tron live up to expectations?

The Audi A6 Avant e-tron is, in my opinion, a great sign for the electric car market.

After a tide of bland electric SUVs, car makers are exploring other areas, including the neglected but worthy estate segment. It’s an area where Audi has always excelled so it’s nice to see the A6 name continuing on this all-new all-electric model.

But can the Audi A6 Avant e-tron (try saying that three times quickly) live up to the legend of its predecessors and take the fight to the BMW i5 Touring as well as putting upstarts like the Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer in their place?

Audi A6 Avant e-tron design, interior and technology

Audi’s designers have leaned heavily into the need for EVs to be as aerodynamic as possible. So the A6 Avant e-tron is super slippery, with a smaller, smoother grille than previous models, flush-fit door handles and active aero flaps to aid air flow. There are also slimline digital wing mirrors, but we’ll get onto those later.

The body-coloured grille doesn’t quite have the impact of previous generations but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and the Audi is a bit more sleek and subtle than the gobby BMW i5.

Clever LED lights have a variety of “signature” patterns to choose from and the four-ring badge on the tailgate lights up so everyone knows you’re driving an Audi.

Audi A6 Avant e-tron side view — The A6 Avant e-tron is sleeker than ever but retains a recognisably Audi profile

Inside, there’s a familiar “Audiness” to things. There’s a smattering of gloss black plastic and chrome-coloured trim as well as a wealth of faux-suede on the seats, doors and dashboard. The sports seats are supremely comfortable and adjustable and there’s huge amounts of space up front. Unless your driver is unnaturally tall, there’s also good space in the rear for a couple of adults, but the estate’s boot is a relatively meagre 502 litres. The i5 Touring offers 570 and the ID.7 a whopping 605 litres.

Although everything looks great, there’s a worryingly un-Audi-like quality lurking just below the surface. Parts of the dashboard emit a hollow rattle and some of the low-level plastics would be rejected by Seat for feeling too thin.

At the heart of the dashboard is a 14.9-inch touchscreen that incorporates everything from the media and driver assistance controls to the heating and ventilation. This is curved round towards the driver as part of a continuous array with the 11.9-inch digital instruments. To make it easy for passengers to still mess around with all the settings when you’re not looking, our test car featured a dedicated third screen in the passenger side of the dash.

That extra screen is just part of the huge array of technology packed into the A6 e-tron. This ranges from the genuinely useful or experience-enhancing to the utterly hopeless. In the first camp there’s the logical and easy-to-use infotainment system (even if a few buttons would have been nice). In the second there are the headrest speakers that work with the Bang & Olfusen sound system to create a high-quality immersive soundscape. In the final category are the “virtual door mirrors”, which use cameras and door-mounted screens in place of traditional mirrors. They’re poorly placed, lack any sense of depth, and give a worse view out than a regular reflective piece of glass.

Audi A6 Avant e-tron interior — There are one or two missteps around the A6 e-tron’s attractive interior

Battery, motor and performance

The A6 e-tron is built on the same EV-dedicated PPE platform as the Q6 and Porsche Macan. That gives it the option of two- or four-wheel-drive and a massive 94.9kWh battery that’s also one of the fastest-charging units around – up to 270kW.

In the most efficient rear-wheel-drive, the big battery returns an official 435 miles, while in the high-spec RWD performance model I drove, the WLTP figure is 402 miles. In the real world, our test car promised around 280 miles from a fully charged battery and returned around 3.3m/kWh. Not bad for such a big car, but some way off the official figures.

While some EVs offer up to five levels of energy recuperation and one-pedal driving, the Audi has two main settings (plus off) and no one-pedal option. It does, however, get adaptive, predictive recuperation which uses navigation and camera data to manage the regenerative braking. On the whole it works impressively but you can deactivate it if you prefer.

The more efficient entry point to the A6 e-tron range gets a single 282bhp motor while the performance spec upgrades that to a healthy 362bhp (375bhp in launch control mode).

The A6 e-tron delivers its power not in a massive punch but in a pleasingly linear surge that’s oddly reminiscent of the old A6’s twin-turbo V6 diesel. Mid-range grunt for those autobahn overtakes is particularly impressive.

Against its most obvious rival, the BMW i5 Touring eDrive40, the A6 Avant e-tron performance has a bit more power and pace – an extra 27 horses and a 0-62mph time of 5.4 seconds to the i5’s 6.1 seconds.

But while the BMW can cut a convincing path cross-country, the A6 isn’t quite as composed. The steering is direct and accurate, but there’s not much feel and the Audi’s body control can’t match the BMW’s. Annoyingly, the slacker body control isn’t matched by a noticeable softer ride and the A6 can feel a little unsettled at times – an issue not helped by the massive 21-inch alloys.

Find a smooth stretch of motorway, though, and the Audi feels far more at home, chewing up the miles like the A6 always has.

Audi A6 Avant e-tron price and specification

The A6 e-tron range starts at just over £65,000 for the Sport edition, a healthy £4,000 less than the entry-level i5, although it’s less powerful than the basic Beemer. Above that, the S line starts at £68,615 and the Edition 1 at £73,615.

Those prices are for the regular e-tron. The performance powertrain fitted to our test car is an extra £7,500, while the 422bhp all-wheel-drive quattro is another £5,000 on top of that.

My £87,360 test car was the now-unavailable Launch Edition, which is effectively the regular range-topping 1st Edition with some extra toys thrown in. Those extras included the clever B&O stereo, a neat augmented reality HUD and a panoramic sunroof with switchable transparency, all of which can be added to the 1st Edition.

The standard spec sheet is pages long, but essentially the A6 Avant e-tron comes with almost everything you’ll ever need and quite a few things you probably don’t need. Adaptive matrix lights, three-zone climate control, Dinamica upholstery, heated seats all-round, that passenger display screen and a wealth of ADAS kit are all included in the price.

Audi A6 Avant e-tron panoramic sunroof — The trick sunroof is among the A6 e-tron’s tech highlights

Verdict

But is it worth that price? I came away from the Audi Avant A6 e-tron slightly conflicted.

In many ways it’s a worthy electric successor to previous A6 wagons. It looks good, has a stylish and comfortable cabin and feels built to swallow up long-distances thanks to decent efficiency and super-fast charging.

But there are niggles. Its handling can’t match its power, some of the tech is too clever for its own good, and there are just a few areas where its biggest Bavarian rival feels better made.