Audi Q6 E-tron 55 prototype

Good things happen when Porsche and Audi collaborate - Ingolstadt ergonomics and Stuttgart firepower generally making for an intoxicating blend of charisma, subtlety, panache and practicality.

Indeed, the Stuttgart-fettled Audi RS2 Avant of 1995 remains relevant to this day as a go-to answer for the ever-difficult question: can a family car ever truly be a driver’s car? So too does today’s Audi E-tron GT stand proudly above rivals as one of the most engaging, captivating and aspirational electric saloons on the market - second only perhaps to the Porsche Taycan, with which it shares a platform.

All of which is to say that expectations are high for the new PPE electric vehicle architecture the two firms have been developing for the past four years.

PPE has been conceived specifically for EVs of the ‘premium’ variety, and so – at least initially – will not be used by cars from the more volume-oriented VW Group brands - Volkswagen, Skoda, Cupra and Seat. The structure takes learnings from the VW Group’s ubiquitous MEB platform, but has been engineered to better accommodate longer, more capacious, faster and more dynamically oriented EVs, to better differentiate Audi and Porsche products from their mass-market cousins.

The PPE’s long-awaited debut in a production car comes early next year with the launch of the Audi Q6 E-tron, a sibling car for the keenly anticipated electric Porsche Macan and the final piece of Audi’s electric SUV puzzle, slotting logically in between Qs 4 and 8. After that, the platform will be deployed for “dynamic, elegant” electric successors to the Audi A4, A6 and A8, as well as an electric Porsche Cayenne.

The gestation of the PPE has been a protracted one. It was first announced in 2019, with the Q6 E-tron and E-Macan due in dealerships in 2023, but various delays – including well-publicised setbacks at Cariad, the VW Group’s in-house software division – have pushed back the roll-out to 2024. Despite that, though, the lightly camouflaged prototype we’ve driven here is described as being around 90% ready for showrooms and gives decent, informative exposure to the capabilities of the important bits: chassis, drivetrain and cabin.

The Q6 E-tron is an electric entrant into what Audi calls “the most important segment” on the market, and has an especially significant role to play in serving as an electric alternative to the hugely popular Audi Q5.

The Q6 E-tron 55 tested here is equipped with an asynchronous motor at the front and a permanent-magnet synchronous unit at the rear (both developed in-house) for "optimum efficiency" and a combined output of 396bhp. Between the axles is a circa-100kWh battery pack, equipped with 800V hardware (touted as among the PPE’s most revolutionary features) for charging at speeds of up to 270kW, where infrastructure permits.