2025 Audi S6 Avant e-tron | UK Review

Audi has recently rejigged its naming strategy. Again. The revelation landed when this S6 Avant e-tron was already in the PH road test diary, the car’s place in the world suddenly turned on a sixpence. Or it least altered a little.

“We choose the names of our models in a way that reveals size and positioning at first glance,” affirmed Marco Schubert, Audi’s sales and marketing board member. Before his newsflash, any new RS6 – a name badge arguably as hallowed as numerous M cars by now – was going to be fully electric. With order now restored, we’re almost certainly going to have a big, burly Audi estate with the correct nameplate allied to a thumping engine of some kind. Which changes the weight of the verdict here. Because a faster, gnarlier version of this particular S6 would have to really deploy the best of Ingolstadt’s engineering team to live up to our expectations.

The S6 e-tron spec sheet promises much. Beneath the rather bold body shell is the PPE (Premium Platform Electric) architecture that sits beneath the latest Porsche Macan, a decent enough thing. While the A6 e-tron starts at £63k and offers between 326 and 462hp, rear- or all-wheel drive and a peak range figure of 463 miles, the S6 begins at £97,500 and exclusively deploys motors at each axle for quattro-branded all-wheel drive, 550hp, 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds and a range figure of 405 miles in Sportback form. Or 384 (WLTP combined) as this Avant.

Indeed, the 0.21 drag coefficient of the saloon makes it the most aerodynamic Audi of all time and the slipperiest shape in the VW Group at time of writing; the 0.24 Cd of an Avant isn’t far behind and can be improved slightly with the £1,495 ‘virtual mirrors’ of this test car, though I personally wouldn’t…

The S6 boasts wider tyres at the back (275 vs 245 on its mahoosive 21-inch wheels) and heavily rear-biased torque, but the truth is it’s no entertainer. Performance is so almighty as to not be much fun – the right pedal more like a time portal than a throttle – while it’s unflappable in corners. Impressively so for its 2.4 tonnes with no four-wheel steer nudging it around, but those of us who relish being immersed in propelling a car down a challenging road will be left wanting. For a big, plush Audi estate it might be right on the money, but the freshly facelifted e-tron GT manages to be more engaging on its ’J1’ platform shared with the Taycan.

Standard air suspension means its ride is more accomplished than those ginormous rims suggest, though, and the UK configurator doesn’t yet offer you an A6 with the same setup – not even optionally. It brings a neat trick in Efficiency mode too, where the car hunkers down by 20mm for greater range (albeit the gauge readout is unlikely to rise by more than ten miles). You’ve three levels of brake regen to assist further; B mode on the gear selector makes it a one-pedal car, although it’s too aggressive for most use cases. The plastic steering wheel paddles flick you between softer settings within D that work hand in hand with the autonomous, active cruise functionality for a largely restful way to cover big motorway miles. 

Which you broadly can. The digital instruments promised me a 290-mile range from an indicated 3.1 miles/kWh on a grimy, wintry day with heated everything switched on (versus WLTP claims of 3.6). Its 100kWh (94.9kWh net) battery and 800v architecture can charge at 270kW with pricier motorway facilities meaning a hop up to 80 per cent can be as brief as sitting down with a coffee and muffin. Charging is simple and you can pre-condition the battery by setting a rapid charger as your destination in the native Audi nav; while not as traffic-savvy as using Google or Waze via the smartphone mirroring, doing so introduces jazzy augmented graphics to the head-up display to make sure you don’t miss tricky junctions.

That’s a mere flourish atop a whole repertoire of technological boasts. The screens are vast and slickly combine the 11.9-inch virtual cockpit and 14.5-inch central touchscreen on an artful, curved display while the front-seat passenger gets their own 10.90-inch screen which can safely stream TV or films without distracting the driver. All as standard on this sole Edition 1 specification.

The cameras, though, are an easy saving on the options list. Perhaps you’ll be wooed by them, but during my week with the car, I never truly learned to trust them. They’re not as natural for gauging your distance from surrounding traffic while for the busy, on-street parallel parking I often need to do, they made a meal out of quickly slotting a girthy car close enough to the kerb. Negotiating rural, single-track lanes feels perilous too when its 1,923mm width is bookended by such pricey complexity. In time, you might adjust – but that interim period will be riddled with levels of tension two slivers of regular, mirrored glass simply don’t generate.

With its vast layers of tech peeled away this S6 feels rather binary as a driving device. Many EV buyers won’t mind and if you’re looking to hotfoot your way out of a Tesla – as some owners understandably are in the wake of Elon Musk’s latest escapades – then perhaps an alternative ‘tech showcase on wheels’ is precisely what’s needed. A big, bougie estate that wafts around so effortlessly (size notwithstanding) should hold plenty of appeal for anyone with less than a passing interest in feel, feedback or fun.  

It’s roomy, it’s luxurious, it’s quiet – it’s good at the things S6s always were bar their wonderful subtlety. Prepare to get looked at in here, especially in Stormtrooper spec. But whereas the old cars wrapped their modesty around a muscular, characterful powertrain – this badge has been strapped to 5cyl, V8 and V10 petrol engines and lately a V6 diesel – I’m not sure the S6 e-tron offers much over the next A6 e-tron down beyond its air suspension and a mite more power. The feistiest A6 is £25k less and still boasts AWD and a 4.5-second sprint to 62mph, as well as better range claims. The same money also gets you the soon-to-be-replaced S6 Avant TDI, whose 550/1,600-litre luggage capacity trumps the S6 Avant e-tron’s 502/1,422…

…though it’s unlikely to dwell in the configurator much longer. Next week, Audi shows us its new A6 TFSI, a car that was presumably an A7 on the pricelists until the naming U-turn. If an ensuing S6 TFSI gets a V8, then the car you see here may become surplus to all but the most ardent of EV evangelists. If your heart is set on an electric Audi in the meantime – and practicality isn’t of utmost priority – may I direct you to a bunch of smarter looking, smarter handling e-tron GTs for under fifty grand in the classifieds? 

Engine: 800V lithium-ion battery, 94.9kWh useable capacity
Transmission: twin electric motors
Power (hp): 503 (550 with launch control)
Torque (lb ft): 202.8 front motor/427.8 rear (620 combined)
0-62mph: 4.1 seconds (3.9 with launch control)
Top speed: 149mph
Weight: 2,410kg (DIN)
MPG: 384 miles, efficiency 3.6 miles/kWh (WLTP)
CO2: 0g/km
Price: £99,330