Hurrah! It’s the Audi A6 Avant e-tron concept

Remember the Audi A6 e-tron concept from April last year? Well, the one you really want is finally here – yep, it’s the A6 Avant e-tron concept…

This is great news, because as well as being a fantastic looking thing, it’s proof that Audi will stick with estates as it transitions to an all-electric future. The Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo and MG 5 EV will finally have some competition.

Like with the Sportback-bodied A6 that came last year, Audi says that this Avant concept is between 90 and 95 per cent finished. It gets a similar closed grille and rear lightbar to its saloony sibling, plus big wheels, short overhangs and properly boxy arches. Mega isn’t it? Although we hope the shallow rear windows don’t make it feel too cramped in the back.

Audi hasn’t provided any stats for boot space, but we are assured that the Avant will be the “storage champ”. Overall it’s the same size as the Sportback though – 4.96 metres long, 1.96 metres wide and 1.44 metres high – but as expected it is ever so slightly less aerodynamic. A drag coefficient of 0.24 plays 0.22 for the Sportback.

The electric A6 will be based on Audi and Porsche’s upcoming PPE platform, which means 800 volt architecture and fast charging speeds of up to 270kW. The floor-mounted battery will be roughly 100kWh and should provide up to 435 miles of WLTP range in certain specs. 

When the production version finally arrives there’ll be rear-wheel drive/single motor and all-wheel drive/dual motor options. The quickest versions will manage 0-62mph in less than four seconds and 10 minutes of fast charging should offer an extra 186 miles of range. Nice. This won’t be the end of the combustion-engined A6 though – Audi has confirmed that petrol-powered cars will be available in some markets alongside the e-trons for a while yet. 

There’ll also be cameras for door mirrors, a huge rear diffuser and posh Digital Matrix LED headlights that can project video games onto walls for you to play whilst charging. Sounds wild. 

Thoughts on a proper electric estate car, Internet?

TEXT Greg Potts