Gorgeous Audi A6 e-tron concept a preview of the future

Audi is in the midst of an electric car revolution. In the last week alone it unveiled the Q4 e-tron, confirmed Kiwi pricing and specs for its upcoming e-tron GT, and overnight it revealed another EV — the A6 e-tron Concept.

Arguably one of the best looking EVs to break cover in recent times, the A6’s concept status might not stand for long. The car in question looks largely production ready, barring the lack of visible door handles and perhaps the enormous wheels.

Ironically one of the few true oddities about its launch is its name. The A6 has always been a traditional 3-box sedan, while this is a “Sportback”. The sportback version of the A6 has always simply been the A7, which in turn ironically was the subject of an image leak showing its Chinese-market long-wheelbase version to be a sedan instead of a sportback.

Confused? Same here buddy.

Back to the new A6 concept. It’s based on the Porsche-co-developed Premium Platform Electric architecture, making it the first Audi built on this structure to debut. The Q5 and Q6 e-tron pair are expected to also be built on this platform, given that it’s already been slated for the next-gen Porsche Macan.

That design is a stunner, and one we hope goes all the way to production with minimal changes. Audi’s tail light LED bar fascinates, the side profile titillates, and the squinted headlights and round grille carry on some of the styling language of the other e-tron models. The thick, slab-sided profile is the biggest difference between it and the GT. Despite this it has a better drag coefficient than its bigger brother; 0.22 compared to 0.24.

Audi hasn’t shown off pictures of its interior, implying that it isn’t finished. The German firm has however issued some artist impressions of the dashboard, showing some futuristic swoops and big screens.

The concept gets a fairly ample 100kWh battery, paired to the brand’s impressive 800-watt charging capabilities, enabling quick charging with compatible chargers. Audi claims the concept has over 700km of range, but whether this will be reflected in production remains to be seen.

The same goes for performance. The concept comes with dual motors capable of producing a combined 350kW of power and 800Nm of torque, output sent to all four wheels. Audi says there’s also a rear-wheel drive variant with a single motor. The latter is good for a 0–100km/h run of less than seven seconds, while the former can do it in under four.

One of the more interesting details are the A6 concept’s headlights. It gets what Audi calls a pair of Digital Matrix LED headlights, which are apparently capable of projecting images onto walls and other nearby flat surfaces. So if you’re charging your car while out and about, in theory you have your own mobile drive-in theatre or gaming machine to pass the time with.