By Dan Neil
The 2026 Audi S6 Sportback e-tron is something of a now-you-see-it, now-you-don't affair. Or maybe wish-you-hadn't. Under the skin is the brand's near future, in the form of a drastically improved vehicle architecture known as the Premium Platform Electric (PPE). Some versions of the base model -- the A6 e-tron -- can travel 392 miles on a charge; all can recharge from 10%-80% in 21 minutes (up to a 270 kW maximum).
Our coded-up S6 pushes the sled with a dual-motor, all-wheel drive system, netting an eager and effortless 543 hp and 302 miles of estimated range. Audi clocks the car's acceleration at 3.7 seconds (0-60 mph), hanging in with another speedy electric, BMW's i4 M50. Away from the drag strip, the Audi's rolling acceleration and speed-of-thought overtaking are even more daunting and formidable. This elevator reaches the penthouse in a hurry.
The good news is that the PPE will propel a generation of long-legged, heavy-hitting electrics coming from VW Group, including those from Audi and Porsche. In the interim, however, this technology comes to us wrapped in some unprepossessing, temporized designs, like this fat-bellied seal in a plastic waistcoat. As much as I honor the Sportback's super-clean aero efficiency of 0.24 Cd, this presentation comes dangerously close to chintzy. I'm not sure the dancing LED headlamps close the deal for me.
What you're not seeing: Audi's parent, VW Group, is suffering from a cash crunch that will affect new-product development and timelines for the rest of the decade. Group sales and revenue are down in two markets -- North America and China -- and soft in Europe. At the risk of being reductive, the problem is that these markets each want different things from Audi.
And so we observe the Audi brand now splitting into three distinct product sensibilities. One may be called the Globalist model. In September, at the IAA auto show in Munich, tastemakers got a first look at the Concept C, representing Audi's next design language -- fresh, futurist, aspirational, optimistic. This is the brand's first reimagining since the days of the Nuvolari grille (2003). I love it.
Meanwhile -- as in, simultaneously -- VW Group has been creating a China-only version of the brand, for which the familiar four rings of the brandmark have been replaced with glowing sans-serif lettering on the nose. The China-market Audis will live or die by their cabin technology and connected experience, particularly self driving/automation.
The third channel promises to be a mixed bag of the freshened and familiar, today's icons and tomorrow's sentimental favorites, with the mix heavily tilted toward combustion. It's going to get confusing. Our car, called S6 Sportback e-tron, is a variant of the all-new A6 e-tron. These cars are quite unrelated to the gas-powered A6 line that has been redesigned for 2026.
Following consumer sentiment, Audi's product designers intend to restore physical controls, rotary selectors, switches, even gauges, to their central place in the driver's experience. In the meantime, e-tron cars are going to be buck-wild with screens and haptic switches. In our car, an avionics-like black panel stretches across the dash, conjoining the driver's info and touch-screen interface. Front-seat passengers can have an optional screen of their own.
And yet for all the acreage, the icons at the screen's perimeter are crowded and hard to read. Great. Now I need trifocals. More than once the double and even triple redundancy embedded in the UX had me doubting my sanity. The touchable/clickable switches embedded in the steering wheel are easy to activate inadvertently. I wondered if Audi's human factors engineers had ever met a human.
Below knee level, the hard plastic panels didn't make me feel loved. The piano-black plastic material on the console and around door switches might actually be haunted; fingerprints appear mysteriously overnight.
Suffice to say the accountants have been through this interior like a pack of wolves. You might wonder, where's the value? As a driver, you're sitting on it.
This is one classy chassis. Yes, the car is heavy (5,225 pounds). But it rides on a brilliantly tuned air suspension with adaptive dampers to tie down rebellious momenta. Our S6 also enjoyed a rubber upgrade, from the staggered 20-inch tires to 21-inch summer tires, also staggered. The new car's electronic steering rack is bolted directly to the front subframe, helping conduct richer and more useful feedback to the wheel. When it comes time to take a corner at a sporting pace, the electro Audi just rips.
It makes awesome sounds. In other drive modes (Balanced, Comfort and Efficiency), the feedback is largely on mute. But select Dynamic mode and an ominous thunder instantly appears on the aural horizon. Squeezing the go-pedal brings the tempest closer. Holding it down causes waterspouts to spin up all around you, dancing on their tails, merging and splitting -- the immersiveness comes courtesy of a speaker in the driver's headrest. Batten down the emotional hatches.
Other surprise-and-delight features: The electrochromic roof that can be shaded in zones and patterns; the high-def head-up display, with beautifully animated overlays of augmented reality. I even like the illuminated four-ring logos on the grille and decklid.
The road-trip range is pretty real. I was not sparing any horses during a recent 350-mile tour of eastern North Carolina and I was seeing efficiencies that penciled out to more than 300 miles between charges. The car's balloon-toy curvatures were somewhat redeemed.
Not only that, with a newly available NACS adapter, the Audi can access Tesla's Supercharger network...he said, before reaching into the glovebox and finding no such adapter. Fiddlesticks. I had been pushing the Audi pretty hard. Now I had to fall back on the area's limited fast-charging options. After an hour and a half, charging at a leisurely 70 kW or so, I was back on the road. That's on me.
I'm still not crazy about the S6 Sportback e-tron's looks. One day, before the end of the decade, Audi's progressive aesthetics will catch up with its maturing EV technology. That will be nice.
2025 Audi S6 Sportback e-tron Prestige Package
Price, as tested: $88,390
Propulsion: Battery-electric, with front asynchronous electric motor $(ASM)$ and rear permanently excited synchronous motor $(PSM)$; liquid-cooled 94.4-kWh (net) 800V lithium-ion battery pack; AWD
Peak power: 543 hp (with launch control activated)
Length/wheelbase/width/height: 194.0/116.1/84.1/58.5 inches
Curb weight: 5,225 pounds
0-60 mph: 3.7 seconds
EPA-estimated range: 302 miles (w/ 21" tires)
Charging rate: up to 270 kW; 10-80% in 21 minutes
Luggage space: 26/39 cubic feet (seatback up/folded)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 24, 2025 15:30 ET (20:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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