Order books for the new Audi A6 have opened, with the executive car priced from £69,900 in saloon form and £71,700 as an estate.
It is available solely as an electric car, taking the fight to the BMW i5 and Mercedes EQE with up to 543bhp and 463 miles of range.
Unlike its primary rivals, which run adjacent to the combustion-engined E-Class and 5 Series, Audi has opted to transition one of its most important models to solely electric power. In turn, the outgoing petrol and diesel A6 will adopt the A7 moniker – previously reserved for Audi’s luxury four-door coupé – for a new generation that will arrive next year.
Visually, the new A6 E-tron remains faithful to the concept of the same name that was shown three years ago. The addition of equipment required for production – larger air intakes, full-size headlights and ADAS sensors – has made for a lightly restyled front end, but the sleek, muscular proportions remain intact.
The saloon follows its high-riding stablemate, the Q6 E-tron, onto the new Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture, offering 800V electrics as well as a broad range of battery packs and powertrains.
The headline performance statistic is the range-topping Sportback’s officail more than 463 miles, which eclipses the official figures for the equivalent i5 (356 miles) and EQE (429 miles). The estate-bodied A6 E-tron Avant concedes 26 miles of range, owing to its less aerodynamic shape, pegging it at a claimed 437 miles.
A key component in achieving those figures is a new and more efficient 94.9kWh (usable capacity) battery, which has been designed specifically for the PPE platform and comprises 12 modules and 180 cells. Audi has also confirmed that a 10-module 79kWh unit will become available shortly after the new A6’s launch.
Both batteries use a new lithium ion nickel-manganesecobalt make-up that is said to enable a 30% improvement in cell density over with the packs in the Q8 E-tron and E-tron GT.