The Audi A6 e-tron Review: A Very Expensive, Very Silent Butler

For decades, the Audi A6 has been the uniform of the German middle manager. It was the car you bought when you had made it, but didn’t want the neighbors to know exactly how much you had made. It was discreet, competent, and built like a bank vault. Now, the combustion engine has been banished, the nameplate has been electrified, and the result is the 2025 Audi A6 Sportback e-tron performance. It sits squarely in the executive segment, a shark tank currently occupied by the BMW i5 and the Mercedes-Benz EQE. It is longer, lower, and significantly more aerodynamic than its predecessors, sporting a drag coefficient of just 0.21. Audi wants you to believe this is the future of the business sedan. In many ways, it is. However, in a few specific, tactile ways, it is a future some of us might dread.

The competition is fierce. The BMW i5 eDrive40 starts at roughly €70,200, offering a driving experience that still feels distinctly like a car. The Mercedes-Benz EQE 350+, priced around €71,400, prioritizes isolation above all else. Then there is the Tesla Model S Long Range, which costs significantly more at approximately €92,990 but remains the yardstick for range and speed. The A6 Sportback e-tron performance splits them with a base price of €75,600. It is not cheap, but for that money, you get a rear-wheel-drive powertrain delivering 270 kW (367 PS) and a massive 100 kWh battery pack. It looks good on paper, and for once, the paper might actually be understating things.

The headline figure here is the range. The manufacturer claims this specific “performance” trim can achieve up to 756 kilometers on the WLTP cycle. This is a staggering number for a car that is not a purpose-built hyper-miler but a luxury sedan you can buy at a dealership today. It effectively eliminates range anxiety for all but the most paranoid drivers. It suggests that Audi has finally cracked the code on efficiency that has eluded the Volkswagen Group’s earlier efforts.

Of course, we must temper expectations. Real-world driving is rarely a laboratory test. WLTP figures are optimistic estimates, and in hindsight, relying on them for trip planning is a recipe for disappointment. In mixed conditions with highway driving at 130 km/h, you should expect the real-world range to settle somewhere between 500 and 550 kilometers. In the city, you might see 600 kilometers. Cold weather will naturally take its cut, reducing these figures by 15 to 20 percent. Even so, a reliable 500-kilometer highway stint is enough to cross most of Germany with a single coffee break.

This range is made possible by the battery beneath the floor. The A6 e-tron uses a 100 kWh gross (94.9 kWh net) pack using NMC 811 chemistry. This Lithium-Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt mixture is the current gold standard for energy density in premium EVs. Audi uses prismatic cells here, which pack efficiently into the modules. The trade-off with NMC 811 is typically thermal sensitivity, but Audi has over-engineered the cooling plates integrated into the housing. The real benefit of this chemistry, combined with the car’s 800-volt architecture, is the charging curve. It can peak at 270 kW and, more importantly, hold high speeds longer than most rivals. You can add 300 kilometers of range in ten minutes, provided you find a charger that works.

Under the metal, the A6 runs on the new PPE (Premium Platform Electric) architecture, co-developed with Porsche. This is a dedicated EV platform, not a converted combustion chassis. The benefits are obvious in the packaging. The floor is flat, the wheelbase is long, and the wheels are pushed to the corners. The motor in this rear-wheel-drive model is a permanently excited synchronous machine (PSM) with hairpin winding, designed for efficiency. Audi has also employed a silicon carbide inverter, which reduces heat loss. It is a serious piece of engineering. The thermal management system even uses the heat from the motors to condition the battery, ensuring that you don’t waste energy heating the cabin in winter.

Suspension duties are handled by a five-link axle at the front and rear. While the base models come with steel springs, the test car came equipped with the optional adaptive air suspension. If your budget allows, this is the box to check. The air springs mask the car’s considerable weight (over 2.2 tons) with eerie competence. It does not float like the Mercedes EQE; instead, it feels planted and substantial. It irons out expansion joints and cobblestones without communicating the impact to your spine. It is comfortable, certainly, but it retains that characteristic Audi firmness that prevents seasickness.

Then we move inside, and things get complicated. The interior is dominated by what Audi calls the “Digital Stage,” a curved OLED panoramic display that merges an 11.9-inch instrument cluster with a 14.5-inch infotainment screen. There is also a 10.9-inch screen for the passenger. My son, who usually complains about boredom on long drives, doesn’t seem to mind the passenger screen, where he can watch movies without distracting me. The screen has a privacy filter so I can’t see it from the driver’s seat. It is a clever touch.

However, the rest of the controls are less clever. Audi has eliminated almost every physical button. The climate controls are permanently docked at the bottom of the touchscreen, which works well enough until it doesn’t. Worse, the light switch panel and door locks have been replaced by a haptic touch panel on the door handle. You have to press a flat, plastic surface to unlock the doors or turn on the fog lights. It provides no tactile orientation. Driving this car at night feels like checking into a high-design boutique hotel where you cannot figure out how to turn off the bedside lamp because the switch is a hidden touch sensor behind the headboard. It is sleek, modern, and deeply frustrating.

The interior materials are a mix of soft fabrics and sustainable plastics. It feels premium, but in a cold, architectural way. The “Softwrap” extending from the doors across the dashboard is a nice texture, breaking up the expanse of screens. The seats are excellent, as expected from Audi, offering support for hours. Cargo space is generous for a sedan, thanks to the liftback design of the Sportback, offering 502 liters with the seats up. There is also a 27-liter frunk, which is just enough for charging cables, keeping the rear boot clean.

Reliability is the elephant in the room. The PPE platform was delayed for years due to software issues within the Volkswagen Group. This is the first model year of a brand-new architecture running brand-new software. In the past, Audi’s mechanical components have been robust, but their electronics have been glitchy. The complex thermal management system and the sheer number of sensors required for the driver assistance systems introduce multiple points of potential failure. While the electric motors themselves are likely to be bulletproof, the software that governs them is unproven.

In summary, the A6 e-tron is a spectacular piece of hardware let down by a few user interface choices. It drives beautifully, charges incredibly fast, and looks like a spaceship. If you can live with the touch controls, it is the new benchmark for the segment. If you prefer buttons, you might want to look at the BMW.