Yahoo Autos Audi A6 Avant E-Tron concept wants to make you lust after wagons again
Audi previewed the electric version of the next-generation A6 by unveiling the sedan as an eye-catching, close-to-production concept in April 2021. It's only half of the family: The second part is the Avant station wagon, which the firm just introduced as a sporty-looking design study.
Up front, only a small handful of styling cues differentiate the A6 Avant E-Tron concept from its sedan counterpart. Both body styles feature a body-colored insert where you'd expect to find a grille and sharp-looking headlights with Matrix LED technology that will soon be legal in the United States. It's what's beyond the front end that counts: The roof line peaks above the front passengers and gently slopes towards a spoiler mounted above a steeply-raked D-pillar. The rear end is dominated by a light bar with digital OLED elements that are customizable, a feature that illustrates an upcoming way to personalize a car. All told, the Avant's design puts a bigger emphasis on form than on function.
That's intentional: The station wagon segment is shrinking as SUVs and crossovers find their way into more driveways, even in Europe, so pegging a long-roof model as a master of utility is no longer a selling point. Sporty design is what will help wagons stand out in the 2020s.
What you see is mostly what you'll get when the first A6 E-Tron Avant rolls off the assembly line in the not-too-distant future.
"I can promise you that a lot of what we're showing here will be available and seen on the road. That's the beauty of my work: we're working on a concept but at the same time we're also working on the production-bound car, so the fascination that the concept is generating is one that we want to bring to the road. The production model will be about 90% or 95% of what you see here," affirmed Audi designer Wolf Seebers. "Of course, we'll need to change some details like adding door handles; that's not something we can do yet."
