Audi vs Audi: I test the plug-in hybrid A6 Avant against its fully electric cousin

SUVs may be the flavour of the month but there’s a lot to be said for the humble estate car. A good wagon makes fantastic family transport – they’re roomy, with masses of luggage space, but compared to a high-riding SUV they feel low, sleek and agile.

Ten years ago, you probably would have considered diesel the best – or only – option, but these days there are more choices. Audi still sells the A6 Avant as a diesel, but today we’re testing it in its plug-in hybrid form – and pitting it head-to-head with its sister car, the fully-electric A6 Avant e-tron.

These two cars look pretty similar on the outside, but they’re totally different propositions – and depending on your situation, it’s likely you’ll suit one much better than the other. To find out, I’ve compared both cars in every department – what they’re like to drive, how practical they are, how the interiors and technology differ, and crucially how much they’re likely to cost you to run.

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Audi A6 Avant e-tron vs e-hybrid: engines, motors and performance

The e-hybrid version of the A6 Avant uses a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine which is paired up to a powerful electric motor for a total of 299hp powering all four wheels. The benchmark 0-62mph sprint takes 6.0 seconds, but most importantly there’s a large 20.7kWh battery with an electric range – on paper – of 63 miles.

The e-tron comes in three distinct flavours – entry-level, long-range Performance and the high-powered ‘quattro’ with an extra motor and four-wheel drive. There’s also the sporty S6 Avant e-tron available, but we have the most sensible version here – the Performance. It has a 367hp electric motor powering the rear wheels and is good for 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds. The huge 100kWh battery gives a range, on paper, of 445 miles.

The electric e-tron is great to drive. You sit quite high, so it almost feels like an SUV, and while that makes it a little intimidating to thread down tight streets in town it gives you a good view out. It’s absolutely in its element on the motorway, soaking up the miles like they weren’t even there – but on a twisty back road, you’ll find the BMW i5 Touring more engaging.

The e-hybrid has its benefits too. It’s really low-slung and feels really tied-down in the bends – it’s not exactly a sports car, but it doesn’t lean and the steering is nice and weighty. It’s very heavy, though – almost as heavy as the e-tron – so don’t expect it to be agile or nimble. Like the e-tron, it absolutely demolishes a motorway journey, though.

The e-tron’s electric motor means it has a much more immediate character. The accelerator responds instantly and power is totally smooth and linear. The e-hybrid is a little clunkier, though it’s very smooth as hybrids go – and you can stay on electric power right up to motorway speeds. Plus, quattro four-wheel drive is standard, as is rear-wheel steering which means it’s much more manoeuvrable in tight gaps.

Audi A6 Avant e-tron vs e-hybrid: interior and practicality

The two cars have very similar dashboards. Both have the same curved display up top, comprising an 11.9-inch digital instrument panel and a 14.5-inch central touchscreen. Both are also available with a separate display on the passenger side, but our test cars didn’t have these.

That means they have the same advantages and disadvantages – namely, that the infotainment system is quite easy to use, but we miss having a few more physical controls for things like the climate. There’s also an awful lot of glossy black plastic around, which gets marks and fingerprints on it much easier than matte or textured alternatives.

As far as practicality goes, it’s a win for the electric car. The e-tron has a 502-litre boot, plus a 27-litre storage compartment underneath the bonnet. The plug-in hybrid has just 404 litres of space, which is pretty small – and though it’s wide and flat, it’s quite shallow.

The e-tron has better space in the rear as well, with slightly more legroom and a totally flat floor making it better for carrying three passengers. The floor is slightly higher, so you get a bit less support for your thighs, but that’s a minor complaint. Both cars are rated to tow around two tonnes.

Audi A6 Avant e-tron vs e-hybrid: economy, charging and running costs

Here’s where things get a little tricky, as the two cars’ running costs can vary drastically depending on your driving behaviour and how you charge them.

For the e-hybrid, we used the manufacturer’s official mpg and electric range figures, and calculated the running costs over 8,000 miles a year assuming one full home charge per week at the average EV electric tariff rate of 8p/kWh.

The e-tron gets three sets of figures – for home charging, slow public charging at 54p/kWh and fast charging at 79p/kWh (all figures from Zapmap). This is how the running costs stack up over 8,000 miles.

Car and charging method	Annual energy/fuel cost
A6 Avant e-Hybrid: 1 charge per week plus petrol	£572.89 (electricity £86.11, petrol £486.78)
A6 Avant e-tron: home charging	£156.10
A6 Avant e-tron: slow public charging	£1,053.66
A6 Avant e-tron: fast public charging	£1,541.46

As you can see, home-charging the A6 Avant e-tron is by far the cheapest of the bunch, but add a lot of public charging into the mix and it begins to skew heavily back to the hybrid.

It’s difficult to compare these two precisely, though. For example, longer journeys in the hybrid will cost much more, because the car is forced to use its petrol engine more after it runs out of battery. With a totally discharged battery the A6 Avant e-hybrid returns around 42mpg, so if you never plugged in at all you’d be looking at a figure of £1,350.87 over 8,000 miles.

It’s unlikely that you’ll stick to one charging method in the e-tron, either. Most electric car owners charge at home a majority of the time, with the occasional fast charge in the middle of a long trip. So you may need to do your own calculations for both of these cars depending on your driving and charging behaviour. Still, it’s the A6 e-tron which has the potential to be the cheapest – perhaps even less if you have a solar array at home.

What about other running costs? Well, the A6 Avant e-Hybrid is marginally cheaper to buy – the S line model is quite a bit cheaper than the e-tron Performance we recommend. That’s the case with leasing, too – the e-tron is about £85 a month pricier than the e-hybrid.

Company car costs heavily favour the e-tron, though. Pure electric vehicles attract a 4% benefit-in-kind rate – for a 40% taxpayer, that equates to about £100 a month. The e-hybrid model we have here emits 54g/km of CO2, so it attracts a 17% BiK figure, which is £415 per month. That’s an extra £3,780 per year.

Verdict

Which of these two cars is best for you? Well, that depends on your situation.

The A6 Avant e-tron is a great electric car. It’s super-comfortable, has a long range and is noticeably more practical than the e-hybrid, with more passenger space and a much larger boot. Charge it at home and it should also be extremely cheap to run, while its low company-car tax makes it the obvious choice for business users.

But without access to cheap home charging, the sums become much less convincing. Rely mainly on public chargers and the e-tron could cost more to power than the e-hybrid, despite being the fully electric option. You also still have to factor charging stops into longer journeys, even if its excellent range and rapid charging make that less of a nuisance than in most EVs.

The e-hybrid is the more flexible choice. Its electric range is long enough to make a meaningful dent in everyday fuel use, while the petrol engine means you can cover hundreds of miles without planning your journey around chargers. It’s slightly nicer to drive, easier to manoeuvre and cheaper to buy or lease, too. The trade-off is that it’s less practical, more mechanically complicated and dramatically more expensive as a company car.

For most private buyers with a driveway and a cheap overnight electricity tariff, we’d choose the A6 Avant e-tron. It’s the roomier, faster and potentially much cheaper car to run. But if you can’t charge reliably at home, regularly cover long distances or simply don’t want to depend on the public charging network, the e-hybrid remains the safer and more convenient bet.

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