Long-term test: Audi A6 Avant S line e-tron Performance
First fleetwatch report: the A6 e-tron’s colour and long, low estate shape are hard to fault, but some of its EV-specific styling looks out of place on a £70k Audi
I was delighted to see our long-term Audi A6 Avant e-tron arrive in Malpelo blue, a greeny-blue metallic. It’s a £775 option and definitely my pick of the available colours that otherwise amount to black, white, a navy blue and two greys. There isn’t even a red!
So, we got the right colour and I’m a big fan of the low, long estate shape. What I’m less keen on are the elements that mark the A6 e-tron out as an EV.
To my eyes, the standard A6 is a much more handsome car. Where it gets a wide front grille, the e-tron has a body-coloured panel between two-element headlights that seems less impactful.
The biggest change, though, is down the sides, where the black plastic panel along the e-tron’s sills looks cheap. A petrol or hybrid A6 has simple sculpted flanks, but those cars is 1,457mm tall. The A6 e-tron is 1,527mm by virtue of being based on VW’s PPE electric car platform, with a battery under the floor.
The black panel serves to visually disguise some of the extra height, but to my eyes at least, it looks out of place on a £70k Audi. Maybe a nice dark grey or black paint to hide it would have been the way to go after all…
Audi A6 Avant S line e-tron Performance: first report
Estate tees off its time on our fleet with a round at the golf course
Used - available now
- Mileage: 1,070 miles
- Efficiency: 3.2mi/kWh
It’s said that more business is done on the golf course than in the office, so we knew where to take the Audi A6 Avant e-tron for the introduction to its long-term test Golf courses have been a stereotypical stomping ground for executives and their cars down the years, but today’s market is much more complicated. We’re teeing-off on a long-term test to discover where our car fits in.
We’re evaluating Audi’s large executive car in its latest e-tron all-electric guise and the estate bodystyle. The powertrain is fitting because today’s company-car tax regime has funnelled most remaining business-car users into electric cars of one kind or another. The more practical Avant body shape feels ideal in light of how more versatile premium SUVs have sucked customers away from traditional executive models. In these respects, this A6 is the blueprint for the modern exec car.
In the old days, those skilled at shimmying up corporate ladders would qualify for a salubrious saloon on their company-car plan. It would, in all likelihood, be German and a chief concern in the selection process would be how it would look in the golf club car park. Even high flyers with no intention of picking up a putter will have been aware of this default measure of company-car cachet.
Our A6 – Large Company Car of the Year in our New Car Awards – can hold its own in the most upmarket of parking areas. It’s certainly a sleeker shape than the average SUV, helped by the long roofline on the low estate body. The Malpelo Blue metallic paint (£775) makes a welcome change from the sober shades that dominate the new-car colour pallet in 2026.
I’m not a fan of the blanked-off grille, the squinty headlights or the black plastic inserts along the sills – a common addition on EVs when designers want to disguise the bulk of an underfloor battery. But the estate shape and the purposeful back end do appeal. I’ll leave you to make your own mind up.
Aside from the paint, the Technology Pack (here discounted to £150, it retails for £3,195) with its augmented reality head-up display, is the only option fitted. As is increasingly the case with new cars, the range of options on the A6 is quite limited. S line gets you different bumpers and a special 20-inch wheel design, plus a nicer three-spoke steering wheel and sports seats inside. Our car has cloth seats (a no-cost option), which have been much appreciated in the hot weather.
It all means the total price of £75,085 for our A6 S line e-tron Performance is representative of what most customers will pay. A BMW i5 Touring in M Sport trim starts at £76,455.
The Performance powertrain is the mid-range choice in the e-tron line-up above the standard car, with less power and a smaller battery, but below the all-wheel-drive e-tron quattro. You get a 94.9kWh usable battery capacity and an official WLTP range of 443 miles. So far, I have been able to match the official figure of 4.0 miles per kWh, but only on a 50mph stop-start cruise round a busy M25. In normal driving, 3.2 miles per kWh seems more realistic, but the weather has been warm since our test started, so that figure may be as good as it gets.
Performance is lively. The 362bhp output can be briefly increased to 375bhp if you use launch control, but a big family estate car needs launch control about as much as it does square wheels. It’s enough for 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds, but in the real world it means more than enough acceleration to join motorways and get swiftly out of junctions.
The 502-litre boot easily swallows three golf bags with the drivers removed, plus you’ve got a 27-litre ‘frunk’ in the nose. An early observation from the larger of our offspring (a 14-year-old who is close to six feet tall) is that under-thigh support in the rear could be better, because the seat base is low to the floor and he has to bunch his knees up. The touch-to-open electric charging flaps – one on each side of the car – are neat, but not when you’re trying to wash the car and they keep opening.
| Rating: | 4.5 stars |
| Model tested: | Audi A6 Avant S line e-tron Performance |
| On fleet since: | June 2026 |
| Price new: | £74,935 |
| Powertrain: | 94.9kWh battery, 1x e-motor |
| Power/torque: | 362bhp/565Nm |
| CO2/BiK: | 0g/km/4% |
| Options: | Metallic paint (£775), Technology pack (£150) |
| Insurance: | Group: 45 Quote: £1,401 |
| Mileage/efficiency: | 1,070/3.2mi/kWh |
| Any problems? | None so far |
*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.
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