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EV introduces a new platform and a new design language for Audi

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There are going to be more than a few references to PPE in this road test, but not because we’re about to tell you about face masks. PPE in this case doesn’t stand for personal protective equipment but for Premium Platform Electric, the all-new architecture that underpins the equally new Audi Q6 E-tron.

It’s an important one for Audi, this, because the Q6 is the first completely new model from Ingolstadt since the Audi Q4 E-tron in 2021, and the first car to use this new platform that was developed together with Porsche and will form the basis for a slew of new models, including the Porsche Macan, the Audi A6 E-Tron and other cars that haven’t even been announced yet.

The Q6, as the name suggests, sits right in the middle of the Audi range. Going forward, electric cars get even numbers and piston cars (including hybrids) get odd numbers, so the Q6 is effectively the electric equivalent of Audi’s medium SUV, the Q5. Under the road test microscope this week, in other words, is not just one new car but a whole range of upcoming models from multiple manufacturers. No pressure, then.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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02 Audi Q6 E Tron 2024 review front cornering

You can view the new PPE as the big sibling to the MEB platform used by the Volkswagen ID cars and Audi Q4 E-tron, among others. It’s not here as a replacement but will instead be used for the more expensive cars with fancier technology.

As such, it has an 800V architecture for faster charging and better efficiency (the higher voltage means fewer losses to heat development), with a set of new motors. These motors, much like many modern combustion engines, are of a modular design. In effect, the longer the motor, the more powerful it is. Other design optimisations, such as tighter windings, direct oil cooling and material changes, further improve power density and efficiency. Reducing the energy use in particular was a major goal, given how dire it is in the Audi Q8 E-tron.

The Q6 E-tron has charging ports on both sides of the car. The one on the passenger side has a CCS port for DC rapid charging, the driver’s side a Type 2 port for AC charging. They open and close electrically, but there’s no external button to shut them.

The main motor, on the rear axle, is of the usual permanent magnet synchronous type. The Quattro and SQ6 models gain a secondary motor at the front, for four-wheel drive, but this one is an asynchronous induction motor with no magnets. The benefit is that it can rotate along freely with next to no losses when its services are not required.

From launch, two battery sizes are available: a smaller, 83kWh (75.8kWh usable) one for the entry-level Sport and a 100kWh (94.9kWh usable) one for the single-motor Sport Performance and the dual-motor Quattro and SQ6.

Like the motors, the battery pack is modular, with 12 modules of 180 prismatic cells each in the bigger pack. The smaller one simply has fewer modules. Compared with the Q8 E-tron, the Q6 E-tron uses fewer but larger battery modules, something Audi says reduces the amount of cabling and the number of connections, and thus the amount of energy lost through heat.

Something else not available on MEB cars is air suspension. Even on the Q6, it’s reserved for the SQ6 (although, confusingly, our Launch Edition test car had it). It’s 28mm lower than the coil-sprung cars as standard but can be raised by 45mm in the off-road mode. Most Q6s in the UK will ride on normal coil springs with frequency-selective passive dampers, however.

As well as being completely new mechanically, the Q6 E-tron also introduces a new design language for Audi, which is particularly apparent at the front. The large, single-frame grille is still present, as it has been an Audi design cue since the early 2000s, but it is now less obvious since it is closed off and rendered in body colour. The Q6 also follows the design trend for having split-level headlights and a rear light bar. On the side, character lines on the wheel arches are meant to evoke the box flares on the 1980 Audi Quattro, while a black element on the sill refers to the location of the battery.

INTERIOR

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09 Audi Q6 E Tron 2024 review dashboard

The Q6 E-tron’s interior also represents a change of tack for Audi. Most of the physical buttons have gone, and so has the lower screen for controlling the climate and secondary functions that you got in the Q8 E-tron.

Instead, they have all been replaced with one big, curved screen that consists of a 11.9in driver display and a 14.5in touchscreen infotainment system. Audi calls it the MMI panoramic display. Optionally, the passenger gets a separate touchscreen too. This is, in our view, a significant backwards step, from both usability and design appeal perspectives.

While Volkswagen is getting rid of its touch-sensitive steering wheel buttons, Audi has introduced them. The Q6 has a new steering wheel, and yes, it's easy to accidentally change the media volume by brushing against one of the spokes while turning.

The touchscreen itself runs the familiar Audi MMI system and works reasonably well, as these things go. There is a bar on the bottom that contains the climate controls and a cluster of shortcut buttons on the right. Both are shown permanently, even when using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, each of which can connect wirelessly. The screen responds to taps and swipes quickly, and no longer requires a firm press like Audi touchscreens have done for years.

The menu structures are mostly logical, but some operations do take too many actions, and having to stretch out your left arm and find something on the screen for absolutely everything is just not a luxury experience.

We were also unimpressed by the standard navigation system. Although it uses Google data and looks superficially impressive, it has two major flaws. The map is always displayed in satellite view, which may look pretty but is too busy and not clear enough for use on the move. The system also doesn’t give you the option to select an alternative to the default route.

In general, the interior simply looks like that of a generic modern car, with its simplified dashboard that is little more than just a screen. It also exhibits few of the traditional Audi qualities, as the build quality is nothing special (our test car wasn’t free from the odd creak and rattle), and there are too many hard and shiny materials for the price.

In addition to the screens, there’s a slab of gloss black plastic on the centre console. It includes the few buttons that there are – for the drive modes, stability control and start/stop button, so they quickly get covered in fingerprints. There’s some unappealing plastic around the air vents, and the rough-structured trim inserts don’t look or feel particularly special either.

The space on offer is about average for the mid-sized SUV class – and on a par with a Genesis GV70 – but for a car on a dedicated EV platform, we expected some more rear leg room. The Mercedes EQE SUV does better in this respect.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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19 Audi Q6 E Tron 2024 review performance

When the Porsche Taycan was launched, Porsche was adamant that it could maintain its performance again and again, and this philosophy has clearly been extended to the new PPE platform used by the Macan and the Q6. Our test car bettered its quoted 0-62mph time, regardless of whether the battery was 10% or 90% full, and its 0-120mph times were very consistent too.

Full-bore standing starts elicit a clonk from the driveline that feels violent. We didn’t observe anything like it in other situations, however.

You get into the Q6, press the big start/stop button and turn the car… off. It actually turns on when it detects someone in the driver’s seat and shuts down when you get out. This renders one of the few physical buttons redundant, and means that if you get out to use the boot, you have to disable the lane keep assist and overspeed warning again (because the car has turned itself off and on again).

In mid-range dual-motor Quattro spec, the Q6 doesn’t quite have the explosive overtaking punch of the quickest EVs, but then that’s what you buy the SQ6 for. You don’t really need more than this in a somewhat sensible electric crossover.

More impactful for everyday motoring is the Q6’s sophisticated drivability. Steering wheel paddles let you vary the amount of accelerator-off regen, from freewheeling to fairly strong. Pulling the drive selector back engages the one-pedal mode. In every mode the retardation is easy to control smoothly, whether with the accelerator or the brake pedal. There’s an adaptive mode too, which can be easily toggled on via the home page of the infotainment screen and works about as well as any of these systems, which is to say it’s never 100% predictable.

RIDE & HANDLING

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20 Audi Q6 E Tron 2024 review front cornering

Is the Q6 E-tron an SUV? The Q in its name indicates that Audi is positioning it as such, but when you stand next to it, or sink down into its surprisingly low driver’s seat, it feels more like a wide and slightly tall hatchback. This isn’t helped by the slight sense of sitting in a bathtub with a high scuttle and beltline that afflicts some EVs, including the Q6. Combined with the short bonnet, it makes this big car feel even wider than it already is, even if that doesn’t quite translate into generous interior space.

As a result, the Q6 is slightly difficult to place on the road. We found that setting the seat a bit higher did help, and it must be said that the fundamental driving position is very adjustable. The seats themselves are excellent as well, so it’s easy to get comfortable behind the wheel.

The feeling of considerable girth means it takes a while before you develop real confidence in the car’s road behaviour. The next hurdle is the steering, which in Comfort mode is overly light and nervous around the dead-ahead – not helped by the wheel’s weird shape. Fortunately, setting it to Dynamic mode makes it more intuitive, even if it’s still not quite as it should be.

Once you get used to the steering and the car’s size, you’ll discover what is actually a competent and enjoyable chassis. While you’re aware of the weight in the way the Q6 changes direction, it’s rarely a hindrance as it has plenty of grip and is keen to turn in.

With the chassis loaded up and a bit of lock on, the steering starts to communicate quite nicely about grip levels and as you accelerate out of the corner there’s a clear sense of rear bias in the drivetrain. It’s very stable and not given to losing traction on the road, but you do feel like you are being pushed rather than pulled through the corner.

Track notes

The Q6 E-tron’s handling smarts are confirmed on MIRA’s wet and dry handling courses. In slippery conditions, the motors’ rear bias comes to the fore more clearly, with enough adjustability to allow you to neatly cancel out the stabilising understeer on the power.

On a dry track, which one wouldn’t expect to be an electric SUV’s natural habitat, the Q6 comes alive and gains a willingness to change direction, be trail-braked into corners and power out with a few degrees of opposite lock. A peek at the tyres after a few laps suggested they probably wouldn’t endure a track day’s worth of such abuse, mind. We assume this hidden talent is a by-product of a fundamentally balanced platform rather than a deliberate development aim, as we can’t see many owners taking advantage.

Comfort & isolation

We have yet to try a Q6 E-tron on the standard coil springs that most UK cars are likely to ride on, but in isolation at least air suspension does suit it. Despite the 21in wheels on our test car, it dealt with potholes and rough roads uncannily well. European launch reports claimed it possesses a magic carpet-like glide over choppier roads too, but we need to temper that – if only a bit.

Audi’s air suspension, whether on this or on an Audi A8, tends to be a little more connected than, say, that on a Mercedes, because Ingolstadt’s engineers don’t want you to be completely removed from what’s happening underwheel. That’s fine, and the Q6 adeptly deals with most long-wave inputs. Typical British country roads, which are often bumpier on the outside than in the middle, can introduce some side-to-side head toss to the Q6’s cabin. Overall, though, this is a pretty smooth-riding car.

Assisted driving

The adaptive cruise control systems on VW Group cars tend to be quite mature, and that’s the case with the Q6 E-tron. The cruise control itself is usually smooth and so is the semi-autonomous lane following.

The Q6 suffers from the usual problems, where the lane keeping and speed limit recognition are too often confused, particularly on country roads, although both are relatively easy to disable. A physical button in the centre console takes you to a menu with some toggles.

The main irritation of the assisted driving features is the insistence on showing an ADAS display in the gauge cluster. It reveals the position of vehicles around you, but that’s nothing you can’t clearly see out of the windows. You can’t turn it off, and it’s constantly moving in your peripheral vision and taking up a fifth of the display that could be used for something more informative.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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01 Audi Q6 E Tron 2024 review lead cornering

In addition to the range-topping SQ6 E-tron performance model, there are three trim levels (Sport, S Line and Edition 1) and three powertrain variations: the plain Q6 combines a single rear motor with the smaller battery. Performance adds 53bhp and upgrades the battery to 100kWh, while Quattro combines the big battery with dual motors. Prices start at £60,700, though for an extra £3500 the longer-range Performance seems like a worthwhile upgrade.

Our test car was a temporary Launch Edition, which is roughly equivalent to a Quattro Edition 1 with every option ticked. At £80,650 as tested, that’s only slightly more than an equivalent-spec Genesis Electrified GV70 or Lexus RZ, both of which have a shorter range than the Audi. Meanwhile, it significantly undercuts a similar-spec Porsche Macan 4, Mercedes EQE SUV 350 4Matic or Maserati Grecale Folgore.

For range, efficiency and charging, the Q6 does quite well, even if we expected a bigger step forward from this brand-new platform. In mixed summer motoring, we saw about 2.9mpkWh, which is slightly better than we achieved from our former RZ long-term test car, never mind the disappointing Maserati. Of course, the much bigger battery means that range is significantly better than in the Lexus, and the Audi also charges much more quickly.

That said, our charging test revealed a caveat to the claimed 270kW DC rapid-charging speed. While our test car did indeed hit that peak, it quickly throttled to just under 200kW. Still quick, but slightly oversold.

VERDICT

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21 Audi Q6 E Tron 2024 review static

In some ways, it’s not the improvement we hoped for. Audi has largely abandoned its sharp-yet-restrained styling and clothed the new car in quite a bland body, and that continues inside, where the rock-solid quality and tactility that Audi has long been known for has been replaced with a fairly generic slab of screen.

Even if they don’t set new standards, the new PPE platform’s EV credentials are impressive. The Porsche involvement shines through in surprising handling chops, while, on air suspension at least, ride comfort is a notable highlight as well.

Facelift fixes? Add some style and tactility to the interior; make the looks more distinctive, and improve efficiency and charging.

The Q6 E-tron is a less distinctive, less typical Audi, but it also has enough objective qualities to stand it in good stead in a still-developing class.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As part of Autocar’s road test team, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews, comparison tests, as well as the odd feature and news story. 

Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s eight-page road tests, which are the most rigorous in the business thanks to independent performance, fuel consumption and noise figures.