Audi preview the electric version of the next generation A6 by unveiling the sedan as an eye-catching concept, coming to production in April 2021. It’s only half of the family: The second part is the Avant station wagon, which the company has just introduced as a research Sporty design.
Up front, there are only a handful of styling cues that differentiate the A6 Avant E-Tron . concept its sedan counterpart. Both body styles feature body-color inserts where you’d expect to find a sharp grille and headlights with Matrix LED technology will soon legal in the United States of America. That’s what outside of the front end counts: The roofline peaks above the front passenger and slopes slightly towards the spoiler mounted above a steeply sloping D-pillar. The rear end is dominated by a light bar with customizable digital OLED elements, a feature that illustrates an upcoming way to personalize a car. All told, Avant’s design places more emphasis on form than function.
It’s intentional: The scooter segment is shrinking as SUVs and intersect finds its way into more driveways, even in Europe, so mounting a long-top model like a utility guru is no longer a hot-selling point. The sporty design is what will help the wagon stand out in the 2020s.
What you see is mostly what you’ll get when the first A6 E-Tron Avant ships in the not-too-distant future.
“I can promise you that a lot of what we’re showing here will be available and seen on the road. That’s the beauty of my work: we’re working on a concept but at the same time. We were also working on production cars at the time, so the appeal that the concept was creating was exactly what we wanted to bring to the road.The production model would be about 90% or 95% of what you see. seen here,” asserts Audi designer Wolf Seebers. “Of course, we’ll need to change some details like adding door handles; that’s still not something we can do.”
The snap-brake-like metal plate conceals the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture that Audi is using develop together with sister company Porsche for a variety of Electric Car. It’s modular enough to underpin relatively tall riding models, like The next generation Macan and Q6 E-Tron coming soon, and lower cars like the A6 duo. Larger and smaller models built on PPE are also being rolled out.
Like the sedan, the Avant is powered by 100 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion the battery packaged and fitted a pair of electric motors (one per axle) for Quattro all-terrain four-wheel drive. Total system output comes in at 469 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque, and Audi quotes a maximum driving range of about 434 miles, according to the test cycle used in Europe. Fast-charging technology built around an 800-volt system will allow drivers to use a battery pack with a range of about 186 miles in 10 minutes using a 270-kilowatt fast charger.
Going forward, the lineup will grow with a single-engine, rear-wheel drive variant that will offer more driving range. Are you wondering what the future holds? RS6 Avant spits fire? We, too; Audi has told us that the PPE platform is, in theory, modular enough to underpin a high-performance model worthy of the RS badge, but nothing is official at this point. Similarly, no decision has been made about an Allroad.
Like the A6 E-Tron sedan, the Avant has already entered production and sales should begin before the end of 2023. Don’t get too excited, though, if you like what you see: Audi insists that the wagon is won’t be sold in the United States for the same basic reasons that very few automakers bother bringing their long convertible models to our pond side. As for the current A6, you have yet to see its final one.
“Current generation A6 was released in 2018, so it’s a pretty young car; it’s still fresh. And of course, once this generation retires, we’ll still have a member of the internal combustion-powered A6 family. Of course, it won’t be built on the PPE platform, but we will offer both electric and internal combustion A6 cars in parallel,” an Audi spokesperson told us.
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