Audi EVs Power Ahead with New A6 e-tron Sportback and Avant

• Audi will bring in three new 2025 e-tron A6s to the US later this year, with RWD, quattro, and S6 drivetrain configurations.

• As usual with these things, the Europeans get more models than we do, along with more options like cool outside mirrors and lights.

• No pricing, curb weight, or EPA range figures are released yet, but expect the starting prices to range from $70,000 to $90,000. Order books open in September.

While other large automakers dial back the rheostat on electric cars, Audi is cranking the electronic throttle-by-wire full tilt forward. There will be three new 2025 A6 e-trons from Ingolstadt later this year, in RWD, quattro and S6 configurations.

To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, “If you can keep to your product plan while all those about you are changing theirs because of a plateau in the market…”

Audi still offers gasoline-fueled versions of the A6 in sedan, Sportback, allroad quattro, and Avant versions. The nomenclature for the gasoline Audis will be odd numbers, while the EVs get even numbers. So gasoline will still be around—Audi’s not completely EV-crazy. But buyers of luxury performance midsize vehicles will soon have even more options.

While you can still buy a 2024 A6 allroad quattro and RS 6 Avant in wagon form, the long roof is not available as an all-electric e-tron here in the States. They do get it in Europe.

They also get those cool Star Wars-like virtual exterior mirrors, which help lower the drag coefficient of European A6 e-trons to 0.21. And, due to further US regulations, Audi says certain lighting functionalities such as adaptive matrix LED headlights, car-to-X communication, and active digital light signatures are not available on our shores. Dang them bureaucrats!

The rest of the spec sheet is promising. Each of the three new US-spec A6 e-tron models will get its own output, from the single-motor, rear-wheel-drive Sportback’s 362 hp and the quattro Sportback’s 422 hp to the mighty S6 Sportback’s 496 ponies, the latter with a full 543 hp in launch control.

Zero-to-60 mph drops from 5.2 seconds for the RWD model to 4.3 seconds for the quattro and just 3.7 seconds for the S6 with launch control. There is no EV range mentioned in today’s announcement.

That figure, too, will come out closer to launch later this year. But with 100 kWh of battery—94.3 kWh net—it should be substantial. On the European WLTP scale Audi says it’ll go 466 miles. Using common conversion ratios, that WLTP figure could work out to 350 miles of EPA range. We’ll see.

DC fast charging can be had at up to 270 kW, which Audi says can recharge your car and its 800-volt system from 10% to 80% in 21 minutes. That’s assuming you can find a charger with that much output that’s not broken, not vandalized, and not in use.

Pricing will be released closer to the cars’ on-sale date, but published estimates say to expect the RWD model to start at around $70,000, the quattro around $80,000, and the S6 for over $90,000 when the latter model goes on sale late next spring.

What do you think of Audi’s EV strategy with the new A6 e-tron lineup? Please comment below.