Audi S6 Avant e-tron Review & Prices

Audi knows a thing or two about making fast estate cars - its RS Avant lineup is the stuff of legend. It’s pretty good at making fast electric cars too - just take a look at the RS e-tron GT. Well, the S6 Avant e-tron is the first time it’s combining its expertise and building a fast, electric estate car.

It’s like when the Avengers team up to vanquish their latest foe - all the skill strands combine into something great. At least, that’s what Audi is hoping with the S6 Avant e-tron - we’ll know more once we’ve driven it.

The S6 Avant e-tron doesn’t have much in the way of competition - most manufacturers are building electric SUVs rather than estate cars. The exceptions are the BMW i5 Touring M60, which has very similar pricing and performance to the S6 Avant, and the cheaper, slower but similarly sleek and practical VW ID7 Tourer GTX.

SUV alternatives are more plentiful and include Audi’s own SQ6 e-tron, the BMW iX and the Mercedes EQE SUV.

The S6 Avant e-tron looks rather like a longer, lower SQ6 e-tron. It shares many of that car’s styling details, including a stacked headlight design with slim daytime running lights over hidden main headlight units flanking a massive, blanked-off grille. At the rear there’s a full-width light bar and illuminated Audi logo.

All S6 Avant e-tron models come loaded with kit, as they’ll all be in high-specification Edition 1 trim. That means you get 21-inch alloy wheels and Audi’s clever Matrix LED headlamps, with configurable LED daytime running lights that can display a number of patterns.

There’s air suspension and a panoramic glass roof, while inside you get a Bang & Olufsen sound system and high-tech triple-screen dashboard. That comprises an 11.9-inch virtual cockpit for driver information and a 14.5-inch central display for infotainment, while the front passenger also gets a separate 10.9-inch screen to allow them to control media or even watch videos on the move.

One of the most important features of any estate car is the boot, and here the S6 Avant offers 502 litres - less than the BMW i5 Touring’s 570 litres, but it looks to be a pretty practical space, so we’ll judge properly once we get our hands on an S6 Avant e-tron for real.

The smooth front and sloping roofline all combine to make the S6 e-tron one of the most aerodynamic cars Audi’s ever built - and that’s good news for driving range on a charge, as well as wind noise on the move.

Speaking of range, the S6 Avant e-tron uses the same 100kWh battery pack as the rest of the A6 e-tron range. Audi claims a maximum driving range of 388 miles, which is a very impressive figure and assumes efficiency of nearly 3.9 miles per kWh - that’s the sort of figure we expect to achieve from a small electric hatchback, not a high-performance executive estate.

You can also charge the S6 e-tron at a rate of up to 270kW, which replenishes that massive battery from 10-80% in just 21 minutes.

Under the skin of the S6 Avant sits a pair of electric motors, giving quattro all-wheel drive and a total of 550hp. That’s good for a 0-62mph sprint of 3.9 seconds - matching the BMW i5 Touring M60. Top speed is limited to 149mph.

If that sounds like enough punch for you, check out our best Audi S6 Avant e-tron deals right here. You can see our other great Audi deals here, or find a used Audi for sale here. And remember that when the time comes for car-changing, Carwow’s here to help you sell your old car through our network of trusted dealers.

The S6 Avant e-tron is just £700 shy of £100,000, so it’s certainly an investment. That makes it a few hundred pounds cheaper than a BMW i5 Touring M60, but that’s really splitting hairs when you’re talking about the price of a small house in some parts of the country.

It’s a £1,800 uplift over the sleeker S6 Sportback e-tron, which again isn’t a huge difference - so it really depends which bodystyle tickles your fancy.

At least you won’t need to add many optional extras, with every S6 Avant e-tron coming in fully-loaded Edition 1 specification.