Audi S6 Avant e-tron Review & Prices

The Audi S6 Avant e-tron is a fast, sleek, all-electric estate with lots of power, rapid acceleration, and the reassurance of four-wheel drive. In that, it should be right in Audi’s traditional heartland — after all, Audi has an amazing back catalogue of fast estates, and more recently some brilliant electric cars, such as the e-tron GT.

It’s a bit like one of those celebrity football teams made up of the greatest players from the biggest clubs — all of the strongest performers coming together at once.

It’s also a car without many direct alternatives — currently only BMW’s i5 M60 Touring follows the same fast, expensive, estate car formula. Mercedes doesn’t make an electric estate at all, as yet, and neither does Tesla. You could kind of count the Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer GTX — estate space, 340hp pace — but it’s much less powerful than the S6, and in a different country in terms of price.

Really, you need to look at SUVs as alternatives here, including Audi’s own SQ6 e-tron (using the same mechanical underpinnings and batteries) and the AMG versions of the Mercedes EQE SUV.

The S6 Avant e-tron, not surprisingly, shares a lot of its styling with the taller SQ6 — the same slim daytime running lights stacked above larger headlamps below, the same massive blanked-off grille, and the same full-width rear light bar with a light-up Audi four-rings logo. It’s a very handsome car, even if the deep sides don’t quite gel with the shallow windows.

Audi S6 Avant e-tron: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 388-402 miles
Efficiency: 3.9 miles per kWh
Battery size: 94kWh
Max charge speed: 270kW
Charge time AC: 12-13 hours
Charge time DC: 21 minutes
Charge port location: Left rear, right rear (AC only)
Power outputs: 550hp

The S6 is currently the most expensive model in the Audi A6 e-tron lineup, and for now it’s only available in the ritzy Edition 1 specification, including 21-inch alloy wheels and Audi’s clever Matrix LED headlamps, with configurable LED daytime running lights that can display a number of patterns.

Other standard kit includes sports air suspension, and a big glass roof, while you can take your ears off with a Bang & Olufsen ‘3D’ sound system. There’s a massive, curved screen setup on top of the dashboard, with a 14.5-inch infotainment screen, and an 11.9-inch instrument panel. These work well, but as with many such systems could really do with more physical buttons, while BMW’s big screen arrangement is a little better to use. Oh, and the optional passenger-side screen is almost entirely superfluous.

Mostly, the S6’s cabin quality is good, and the front seats are brilliant, but there are too many cheap plastics, which are too easy to find for a £100k car. Space in the back is fine, although the roof is quite low, but the boot runs only to 502 litres, which is much less space than you get in the BMW i5 Touring. At least there’s no load lip, and you can actually stash the luggage cover under the floor when you don’t need it.

Slick aerodynamics and a huge battery for the S6 Avant mean that there’s a fabulous on-paper range, as much as 388-402 miles. However, if you’re using the S6’s massive 550hp (produced in Launch Control mode, 503hp the rest of the time) then that range is going to plummet — we saw more like 250 miles on our test, and that with the aero-improving optional door-cameras instead of traditional mirrors. For reference, Audi claims 3.9 miles per kWh efficiency, whereas we were getting more like 2.1 miles per kWh.

On the upside, you can charge the battery up in no time — thanks to the S6’s 800-volt charging system, you can charge the Audi at up to 270kW from a high-speed DC charging station, which replenishes that massive battery from 10-80% in just 21 minutes.

If the range isn’t fabulous, then at least the performance is. Two electric motors mean quattro all-wheel drive, and the S6 can blast from 0-62mph in just 3.9 seconds, and on to a top speed of 149mph, where the electronic limiter kicks in.

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.

Across the whole model range, the standard A6 e-tron is actually better-priced than the rival BMW i5 or the Mercedes EQE, but when it comes to this high-performance S6 Avant e-tron, it’s most assuredly not cheap. In fact, in Avant form the S6 e-tron just tips over into six-figure territory which is serious cash. True, the i5 M60 Touring, which has the same performance, is around the same price, but at least the i5 has a bigger boot, so you are getting slightly more for your money (the i5 M60 is worse for range, though).

Other alternatives come from the SUV world, including Audi’s own SQ6 e-tron, and indeed the Porsche Macan Electric that shares the same platform. In fact, you could get a Porsche Macan 4S with almost the same power and performance, and similar range, for quite a bit less than this S6 Avant. Like, £25,000 less (although that’s with no options, which will bump up the price dramatically). That surely puts the high-powered Audi into a very difficult position.

Others are more fun, but the S6 Avant e-tron strikes a great balance between performance, comfort, and back-road agility. A shame that the visibility’s not very good in town

In town

There’s a handy one-pedal driving mode for the Audi S6 Avant e-tron, and that gives you much more control when you’re bimbling around town at low speeds as do the handy paddles behind the steering wheel which, instead of controlling gears, control the regen braking.

In Comfort mode, the S6’s air suspension is really good over bumps, keeping the bodywork nice and flat, but still feeling soft and comfy. The standard coil springs on the regular A6 Avant e-tron are fine too, as it happens, but you’ll really want the air suspension.

There’s light steering, and the turning circle — although big — isn’t too bad for such a large car. The all-round camera system really helps in tight spaces, too. The way that the indicator flash is repeated on the big sweeping LED light bar behind the dash helps too, as it reminds you to flick your eyes to either the door mirror, or to the camera screen for the mirror-cams.

That’s all good, but then it needs to be because visibility in the S6 e-tron isn’t great. The roof is low and the windows are shallow, while the rear windscreen is quite small. It’s not great for something that’s supposed to be a practical family car, and the tall screens and bulky mirror-cam screens in the front don’t help either.

On the motorway

Most EVs have muscular acceleration, but while the S6 isn’t quite the quickest battery-powered car around, honestly there’s no need to have anything faster than this for accelerating between 40mph and 70mph, as you’d be doing heading up a motorway on-ramp. It takes just a handful of seconds to hit the legal limit, and overall the S6 e-tron is blooming fast.

In spite of its supposedly sporty nature, the S6 Avant e-tron is also a very luxurious and comfortable car, and it feels great on a long cruise. It’s quiet and smooth, especially on those air springs, it feels planted… basically, it’s nice, if that’s not too bland a word.

However… efficiency on a long run isn’t great. On our test of the S6, we averaged only 2.6 miles per kWh, which will limit you to a range of around 250 miles, against a claim of 388 miles on the official WLTP test. To be fair, you’d probably get better efficiency when driving the S6 gently (our time with the car includes performance tests) but even so, it’s not as long-legged as you’d want it to be, a common issue with electric Audis so far.

On a twisty road

That massive 100kWh battery pack means that the S6 is a heavy car. Very heavy. In fact with a driver on board, it weighs 2,400kg and the battery makes up 700kg of that. And that heft really makes itself felt when you’re pushing the S6 Avant through a series of bends. The suspension becomes a bit busy in Dynamic mode on a bumpy British B-road, so to be honest you’re better off having it in Comfort, as the ride smooths out and you can concentrate on your driving.

Once you allow for the weight, the S6 Avant e-tron handles exactly as well as you’d want in a car like this — it’s too heavy to be chuckable, but if you’re smooth with it and take a slow-in, fast-out approach, it feels pretty good. True, a Porsche Taycan does feel more agile, and a BMW i5 M60 Touring is a little more fun, but the Audi’s darned good, and strikes a great day-to-day balance.

Oh, and it’ll rip off a 3.7 second 0-60mph run, easily. Just activate launch control, plant your foot, and let the quattro four-wheel drive do the rest.

Interior passenger space is excellent, but the trade-off is that the boot is small, even in its most spacious configuration

There’s plenty of storage space in the front of the Audi S6 Avant e-tron. There’s a good-sized storage box under the front-seat armrest, although the armrest itself is rear-hinged, not a ‘butterfly’ style one, so it’s a little more awkward to use when you’re driving. There are two cupholders under a sliding cover on the centre console, and there’s more storage in front of those, with a wireless charging pad that has a handy clip to hold your phone in place, as well as cooling vents to make sure nothing gets too hot. You’ll find two USB-C sockets and a 12-volt connection down there too. Both the door bins and the glovebox are reasonably big too but the plastics on the door bins feel cheap.

Space in the back seats

There is more storage in the back seats, but Audi insists on using seatback nets, which just aren’t as practical as a proper storage pocket, and which look and feel cheaper too - although at least you won’t forget your phone or your earbuds down the bottom. The door bins are again a good size, but they're not lined, so they’re very rattly. If the Skoda Superb gets lined rear door bins, why not the far more expensive Audi S6?

Kneeroom and headroom are both fine in the back, although taller passengers will have to mind not to hit their heads on the roof when getting in as it comes down deeper into the door opening than you’d imagine. There’s good space for feet too, but the battery means that the floor in the back is quite high, which means taller rear seat passengers will have their knees up in the air, and that’s not great on longer journeys as it means your thighs aren’t being properly supported. Again, Skoda does this better.

The middle rear seat is too narrow for squeezing three adult rear passengers in, at least not in any kind of comfort, but at least the rear ISOFIX anchors are easy to get at, with hinged covers which means you won’t lose them. There’s another ISOFIX point in the front passenger seat, incidentally.

There is a fold-down armrest in the back, with cupholders, but there’s no cover for them so your elbow drops uncomfortably in.

Boot space

Oddly, the S6 Avant — Audi-speak for estate — has the same 502 litre capacity, up to the luggage cover, as the fastback saloon version. That means that the Audi is some way behind the rival BMW i5 M60 Touring’s 570 litres of boot space.

There is some good news though — the luggage cover automatically retracts out of the way when you open the boot (electrically, of course) and slides back into place when you close it, and there’s space under the boot floor to stash that luggage cover when you want to fold down the back seats, although it is a bit fiddly to get it in there. There are also handy spaces at the side of the boot with retaining nets, and a 12-volt socket. There are also luggage hooks, and levers for tumbling the rear seat backs, which split 60:40, but which also have a load-through hatch for long, narrow items.

The seats don’t fold fully flat — there’s a slight upward angle — but the boot floor is continuous and there’s no load lip, so getting larger items in is easy enough. There’s 1,422 litres of cargo space with the back seats folded, which is useful but again some way behind the 1,700 litres you get with the BMW i5 Touring.

However, the Audi does have a bonus 27 litres of storage in the nose, which makes it the first Audi with a frunk. It’s not massive, but it’s enough to get your charging cable in.

Minimalist style and a brilliantly responsive infotainment system appeal, but the digital driver’s display isn’t great

The Audi S6 Avant e-tron lifts lots of its cabin from other recent Audis, including the new Q5 and, the A5 saloon, and of course the ‘other’ A6; the one with the petrol, diesel, and hybrid engines. It’s not bad, but we do feel that some of Audi’s interior design has gone off the boil lately.

Take the big, curved screen for a start. It’s actually two screens — one for instruments and one for infotainment. There’s a lot of bezel, space outside the displays, that looks a bit clunky, and we feel that BMW does the big, curved screen thing slightly better.

Audi has updated the software running on the screens and it is fast and responsive, but operating the climate control through the touchscreen, rather than physical buttons, is never as good, even if the climate controls are always available at the bottom of the screen, no matter which other menus you’re looking at.

In the instrument panel, the graphics are definitely sharper than in older Audis, but the design isn’t as satisfying, and it’s a bit more awkward to setup the layout as you’d like it, not least because the touch sensitive buttons on the steering wheel (cheaper to make than real buttons…) are fiddly to use.

The optional screen for the passenger side is pretty superfluous. Yes, your front seat passenger can control the stereo and the sat-nav from there, but do you really want them to? Anyway, they’re just going to be on Instagram or TikTok on their own phone, surely? The extra screen is a bit of a waste of pixels.

Up top, the material quality is excellent, especially the stalks behind the steering wheel, and the suede-style material on the dashboard. But dig a little deeper and you soon start to find some cheap and nasty plastics, and there’s more in the back, which have no place on a car costing £100,000. There’s a lot more plastic-y cheapness, and it does feel like Audi’s cutting costs.

The digital door mirrors — mirror-cams — seem like a cool idea, with those slim camera mounts on the outside instead of mirrors, but they’re not worth the £1,500-odd that Audi asks for them. They stick out a long way, for a start, which makes them vulnerable to damage. It’s also an odd sensation, using the screens in the car, as they just aren’t in the place you’re used to your mirror being, and they give you no sense of depth perception.

Meanwhile, the touch-sensitive controls on the steering wheel and the door panel feel cheap, and they’re fiddly to use. Proper buttons, please, Audi. Proper quality too, as our test model had already developed a rattle, right by the driver’s ear, in the seatbelt height adjuster.

There’s no option for a light-colour interior trim for the S6 (there is for the regular A6) which means you’re stuck with depressing black trim everywhere.

At least you do get adaptive cruise control as standard, while the excellent surround-view camera system is also standard. The head-up display is also one of the best in the business, able to ‘paint’ lines on the road to help you stay in your lane, and helpful speed and sat-nav info too. It’s an option on lesser A6 e-trons, but standard on this S6, along with a brilliant Bang & Olufsen stereo, and cabin ambient lighting.

The voice control assistant gets a ChatGPT connection, so if you ask the Audi something it can’t answer, it can hand over to the AI to see if it can give you a useful response. It’s not bad, but like most such systems it’s just as likely to return the computer equivalent of a shoulder shrug as it is to give you an actually useful answer.

The S6 Avant e-tron’s main charging port cover, on the left rear, is enormous and it’s a powered cover which seems to take forever to open. It’s not all bad, though, as there is a second charging point — AC only — on the right rear, which is great if you’re trying to access a kerbside charger on a one-way street.

However, once you get the charging port connected, the S6 Avant e-tron can charge up almost dramatically quickly. Audi has given it a high-tech 800-volt charging system, so it can cope with up to 270kW of DC fast charging power, giving you a potential 10-80% charge in just 21 minutes, assuming everything’s working well. That’s seriously fast.

Then again, it has to be because the S6 struggles to hit its range targets. Audi quotes a maximum range for this model of 388-402 miles, but on our test we were seeing more like 250 miles. In fairness, that test includes plenty of motorway miles, 0-60mph sprints, and high-performance testing, so you’ll probably get better in real-world driving, but like the Q6 e-tron to which this S6 is closely related, it’s another electric Audi that can’t seem to replicate its on-paper performance in the real world.

With such a big battery, the S6 is going to take quite some time to charge up at night. It will charge at up to 11kW on AC power, which is good for using kerb-side public chargers, but at home on a 7.4kW wallbox charger, you’re looking at nearly 13 hours to fully charge the 94kWh usable capacity.

In terms of tax, as an EV the S6 Avant e-tron qualifies for the lowest rate of VED road tax, at just £10. However, because the S6 is so expensive — more than £100,000 for this Avant estate version — you’ll also be stung for the £420 expensive car tax supplement in years two-to-six.

If you’re getting the S6 Avant e-tron as a company car, which seems quite likely, then the good news is that you’ll only have to pay around £50 a month in Benefit in Kind (BIK) tax.

The Audi S6 Avant e-tron’s OLED lights, front and rear, aren’t just super-bright, and don’t just come with adaptive high beams, but they also have ‘car-to-X’ technology, which means that they can flash warning symbols to cars behind you if there’s information on an accident or slippery surface ahead.

The A6 e-tron lineup, of which this S6 Avant is of course part, racked up a very impressive safety score from Euro NCAP when it was tested. The A6 took home a five-star score, with a 92% rating for adult occupants, 91% for child occupants, 75% for vulnerable road user protection, and 80% for its electronic safety systems.

Standard safety kit for this S6 Avant include an upgraded adaptive cruise control, active speed limiter, surround-view cameras, blind spot monitoring, exit alert for when you’re opening the doors, and an augmented reality head-up display.

The Audi S6 Avant e-tron is based on the relatively new ‘PPE’ electric car platform, which is also used by the Audi Q6 and the Porsche Macan Electric. The Porsche has proven fairly reliable so far, although there has been a recall for the headlights, and some owners have reported issues with the charging system.

The S6 is too new to have featured in the most recent Driver Power survey, but Audi as a brand had a poor finish, coming in 27th out of 32 brand, with 21.3% of owners reporting faults with their cars.