Audi Q6 Sportback e-tron review - new sexy roof, same solid EV

The Q6 e-tron comes across as Audi’s most convincing electric car to date. The Sportback version gives improved EV range and a sportier shape for a modest reduction in practicality, and a £2,500 premium. The car is still very much in the familiar Audi vein - solid, secure, comfortable and classy but without necessarily entertaining the driver as much as some rivals can.  

With its Sportback models Audi has absolutely nailed the commodification of the curvy car roofline. Right across the German brand’s range customers are invited to sacrifice a couple of thousand pounds, and a little boot space, for the sleeker, coupe-like profile created when a car’s roof curls gently down at the rear rather than diving abruptly off the cliff of a tailgate. The Audi Q6 Sportback e-tron is simply another variation on that popular theme.

It’s expected that around 20 per cent of the UK buyers going for an Audi Q6 e-tron mid-size SUV will choose a Sportback. They’ll get a somewhat sexier roofline that’s achieved by reworking the entire top of the car. The windscreen slopes more dramatically than on the standard Q6 SUV, facilitated by more steeply angled A-pillars. The roof itself is 37mm lower, and above the heads of the rear seat passengers it begins its gentle arch down to a subtle spoiler on the tiny boot lid. 

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Does it look better? I’ll let you be the judge. I’m not a fan of the whole coupe SUV experiment mainly because, to my eyes, the classic coupe design themes depend on a low, ground-hugging car shape to work properly. Perched atop a chunky, high-riding SUV they often look ungainly. Thousands of car buyers can’t be wrong though and I will say that the Q6 Sportback is one of the better executed coupe SUV designs out there - its wide stance, powerful haunches and short overhangs helping the cause. 

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Let’s get back to a more factual analysis though. In choosing the Sportback body style, Audi Q6 e-tron buyers are paying an extra £2,500 over the standard 5-door SUV. Also in the minus column go a 15-litre reduction in boot capacity and less headroom in the cabin. 

On the plus side, the Q6 Sportback e-tron is more aerodynamic than the SUV and that yields a maximum WLTP combined range of 334 miles in the entry-level model compared to 325 miles in the standard Q6 equivalent. How you view that trade-off will determine whether you’re a Sportback kinda person or not. 

Once you’ve settled on the Sportback bodystyle there are four powertrain options to choose from. The Sport version has 249bhp while the Performance has 302bhp. Both of these cars are rear-wheel drive and the Performance model is expected to be the biggest seller in the UK. It has the larger 94.9kWh battery (the Sport’s battery is 75.8kWh) and delivers the Q6’s biggest driving range, a highly impressive 402 miles. 

Above that are the four-wheel drive ‘quattro’ cars, all with the larger battery and an electric motor on each axle. The standard quattro has 383bhp and the SQ6 Sportback e-tron quattro offers 483bhp; the driving ranges are 390 miles and 367 miles respectively. Big battery models can charge at up to 260kW (225kW for the smaller battery) so you could add 164 miles to the Performance model in 10 minutes with the right charger. Audi has thoughtfully included charging sockets on both sides of the car, too. Although, only one accepts rapid charging.

All the Q6 e-tron models can also achieve a temporary 30bhp boost to their max power figures by way of the standard launch control mode. Using this, and a long enough piece of road, the official 0-62mph times range between 7.6s in the Sport and 4.3s in the SQ6, so no Q6 e-tron sportback could be described as slow.

We tried the rear-wheel drive Performance variant and the quattro on the super-smooth roads around Munich in Germany, and the Q6 comes across as a very capable and comfortable machine in both guises. The standard air suspension mostly served-up a composed ride over undulations and absorbed what bumps there were on our test route very well. Things can get a little busy at higher speeds where the Q6 has a tendency to wiggle from side-to-side where the opposing wheels encounter different surfaces or cambers.

There’s little body roll but the high kerb weight (2,200kg in the ‘lighter’ Performance model) is obvious in the planted but somewhat leaden-footed feel through direction changes. We found that the steering feel is better in the Performance model, which seemed slightly less direct around the straight ahead than the quattro. This made it that bit easier to place on the motorway without constant inputs. Generally, the steering is well judged, light around town then gaining weight at speed and in corners, but with no feedback to communicate what the wheels are up to.  

Grip seems plentiful with no indication that the powertrain in the RWD cars has enough about it to unsettle the car in dry conditions. The quattro feels even more secure, its all-wheel drive more than cancelling out its extra power. 

The brakes are very powerful and really inspire confidence once you get used to the stopping power. The adaptive brake energy regeneration system, that alters the level of automatic braking according to the route and driving conditions, can make the response you get when lifting off the throttle a little unpredictable, though. 

We found it best to select ‘B’ mode - which gives true one-pedal driving by gradually bringing the car to a complete stop - around town and disable adaptive braking the rest of the time. If you want to persevere with it, the strength of the braking effect can be controlled by the steering wheel paddles.    

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Refinement is impressive, the electric motor barely ever audible from inside the car and wind noise well suppressed until you get up to autobahn speeds. There’s also very little road noise other than on really rough surfaces.  

From the driver’s seat of the Q6 you feel quite enclosed by the wide centre console, the high dashboard and the relatively slim windscreen aperture. There’s an unusual raised lip along the bottom edge of this windscreen that compounds this letterbox effect and if you like sitting low in the car, it means you can’t see the bonnet at all. That removes a useful point of reference when threading through gaps.

The Q6 sits above the Q4 in Audi’s range but it doesn’t feel significantly more spacious inside than the smaller model. It’s the first Audi to use the new PPE architecture that was developed with Porsche to also underpin the electric Porsche Macan and there’s definitely a sporty feel to the interior of the Sportback, thanks in part to its slim glass area. 

The rear bench can seat two adults and has just about enough legroom for someone six-foot tall to sit behind a similarly tall driver. There’s space under the front seats for your feet but the low roof is going to put anyone tall in contact with the headlining. The middle seat is on the slim side.

The boot has a 511-litre capacity and what you lose in the Sportback conversion is really just height - the floor space is the same. There’s a deep storage space beneath the floor that’s easily big enough for the charging cables but if you’ve got a full load of luggage, there’s also the 64-litre frunk (part of the optional Storage Pack) under the bonnet where you could put them. Fold the seats down and there’s a 1,373-litre space to make use of. 

Quality is hard to fault with Audi’s usual high class materials in evidence and the display screens ( an 11.9” instrument panel and a 14.5-inch touchscreen) offering crisp, clear graphics. The complex menu systems take some getting used to but there are shortcut buttons to disable the driver assistance tech and to choose the different driving modes.  

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In terms of trim levels, the range opens with the Sport at £64,000. This has 19” wheels, sports seats, LED lighting all round and a heat pump to boost cold weather range. S line trim has 20” wheels and a load of sporty styling add-ons for £3,000 more. 

Then you have the fully-loaded Edition 1 for another £5,000. It gets 21” wheels and sports suspension, LED Matrix lights, and an extra touchscreen for the front passenger. Strangely, it’s also the only version with electric front seat adjustment. 

The SQ6 flagship models only come in Edition 1 spec for over £95,000 but the other powertrain options can be had in any trim. As you can no doubt imagine, the costs mount-up quite quickly as you climb the range, but no premium electric SUV comes cheap. The closely related Porsche Macan Electric starts at £69,000 and will be a tempting alternative for Q6 e-tron Sportback customers. Otherwise the spacious Polestar 3 starts at around £70,000.
 

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