Latest news with #quattro
Forbes
11-07-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Test-Driving The Audi A6 E-Tron Avant
Audi A6 e-tron driving £87,360 ($118,566) is how much my Audi A6 e-tron loaner cost—my first house didn't even cost that much. Being the Launch Edition guise, the A6 e-tron, however, included a few extra features, some good and some subpar, a slightly bigger battery and a more powerful motor. Audi A6 E-Tron Specifications Depending on preference, you can have the Audi A6 e-tron as a Sportback or an Avant in the UK. £62,540 gets you the former and £64,430 for the latter. America get the Sportback only, priced from $65,900. Entry-level UK cars get a 75.8kWh (usable) battery and 286 PS (326 under launch control), meaning 0-to-62 mph takes a leisurely seven seconds. Upgrade to Performance, like the one I had, for an additional £7,400 and battery capacity rises to 94.9kWh, while power is increased to 367 PS (380 under launch control), dropping the 0-to-62 mph time to 5.4 seconds. Finally, the e-tron quattro ups power to 428 and 462PS and shares the Performance battery. Audi A6 e-tron The sweet spot is the Performance powertrain. Audi claims an electric range of 419 to 464 miles, while the base car is 346 to 384 miles; the e-tron 400 to 440 miles. American cars come in three trims: Premium, Premium Plus and Prestige. Powertrains include Premium, 375 bhp and a circa 370-mile range, and quattro, 456 bhp and a 333-mile range. Life With The Audi A6 E-Tron After one week and 130 miles, the A6 e-tron left me feeling ambivalent. It might be cutting-edge gorgeous, be packed with impressive tech and have a decent range, but I struggled to see 87 grand, even with my glasses on. Adjusting to the A6 e-tron's avant-garde interior took time; it was overwhelming at first, having more screens than the Starship Enterprise, but I was ready to go after watching various 'How to' YouTube tutorials and fiddling with menus. The authors loan vehicle 303 miles with 99% charge; 116 miles off Audi's claimed figure. In some electric cars, like the Ford Mach-E, resetting the trip computer often refreshes the car's range, but not the A6 e-tron. Resetting the various trip screens and selecting the 'Efficiency Plus' drive mode made no difference. It wasn't the most efficient EV either, returning just 3.1 mi/kWh on most runs, but it is a large and comfortable car packed with mod cons, after all. My loaner also had the 10.9" co-pilot MMI screen, which allows passenger princesses or princes to wreak havoc. Word of advice: don't annoy your co-pilot before, or you could find yourself listening to a loop of 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy' by Rod Stewart for your journey's duration while en route to the moon, because they've tampered with the sat-nav. Audi A6 e-tron interior The co-pilot screen is only available on Launch Edition and Edition 1 cars; anything below gets a slab of plastic. On the road, the A6 e-tron handles wonderfully, as you'd expect from a low-slung EV. And despite being the rear-wheel drive guise, its wheels never slipped under harsh acceleration; it was all very polite, and behaved exactly as a luxury electric barge should. Stomping the throttle pushes your passengers backwards, you'll hear some 'ohs and ahs', but it quickly runs out of steam at around 60 mph. This said, it's no slouch: 30 to 70 mph takes just 4.2 seconds, putting it just 0.2 of a second behind a Genesis GV60 Performance. Audi a6 e-tron camera mirrors Motorway driving is its forte, however. The A6 e-tron effortlessly glided along Britain's questionable motorway network, its air suspension soaking up bumps and ruts. Similarly, my sound meter recorded 63.6 dB at 70 mph, putting the A6 e-tron just 1.6 dB behind a Rolls-Royce Cullinan II. If you own dogs, or have ginormous friends over 6ft, you'll be pleased to know the A6-etron has ample boot space, head and leg room. Likewise, my Akita pooch was incredibly comfortable in the A6 e-tron's 502-litre boot, while my Husky enjoyed the back seats, the rear featuring door pillar-mounted air vents, in her Dog Pod bed. Author's dog in rear seat Audi A6 E-Tron Verdict You don't need a mortgage to own an A6 e-tron, but it's worth noting that lower-spec cars aren't available with plush air suspension or 4WD. However, the 2WD car is ideal for everyday use. The cabin, as pretty as it is, had questionable materials in places, which largely had me questioning the sticker price. There's lots of Alcantara and lovely leather throughout, but scratchy plastics could be felt low on the doors and under the dash. Then there's the cup holder cover, a small detail, but it feels tawdry and lets the expensive-feeling cabin down a bit. Authors dog in A6 e-tron's boot And finally, the camera mirrors, which fold when locking. These are hopeless. It made parking awful and even conjured motion sickness when combined with the reversing camera that pans from left to right when the steering wheel is turned. These points aside, the A6 e-tron is reasonably priced in base form when compared with its competitors. Its refinement is excellent, it's quiet, smooth, and you'll never get bored of looking at it. Follow me on Instagram
Top Gear
16-06-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Audi Q6 Sportback e-tron Driving, Engines & Performance
Driving What is it like to drive? It might sound like damning with faint praise, but one of the virtues of the Q6 Sportback e-tron is that it's the sort of car that you can just jump in and get on with driving. It feels large on the move (visibility could be better, it's hard to judge where the car's extremities are), but will lollop along in a laidback manner. On the smooth roads around Munich we could immediately see how Audi has largely catered the car to the tastes of its home market. It's remarkably refined on the autobahn, keeping things hushed all the way past speeds that in the UK would see you in the queue for a bus pass almost as quickly. Advertisement - Page continues below So not really that fun to drive then? The bulk of the range does a very professional, competent job of getting you about the place, but another surprise is the SQ6, which while falling short of being what you might call 'fun' at least combines a startling turn of speed (4.3 seconds to 62mph) with perky handling that tricks you into thinking the car is more lithe and slinky than it really is. The quattro four-wheel-drive system is more of a psychological boost than a practical one in everyday driving. You'd be perfectly happy in the rear-wheel-drive version, which never really feels like it's going to trouble the electronic safety wizardry. Whether we'd say the same thing on greasy December roads is another thing. What about range and powertrain options? Official WLTP range is 339 miles in the 83kWh car, 408 miles in the RWD performance spec car, 395 in the quattro AWD model and 377 miles in the S-badged car. But how close you get to those numbers depends on how much of the performance you try and use. There are three flavours of powertrain – your standard setup, then 'performance' and 'quattro'. The entry one only comes with the 83kWh battery and produces 249bhp, upping it to 288bhp for brief periods if you use the launch control feature, when it'll do 0–62mph in 7.0s (7.6s if you don't – on all the other models where it's featured, it only makes a 0.1s difference). Advertisement - Page continues below Performance comes with the big battery and unlocks a higher power of 302bhp, which rises to 322bhp in launch control mode and 6.6s to 62mph. Quattro offers 383bhp whether you like or not (5.9s to 62mph) and the SQ5 is the perkiest with three e-motors producing 482bhp/510bhp and getting the car to 62mph in 4.3s. Top speed is 130mph unless you're in the SQ5, then it's 143mph. Phew. We've seen fewer numbers in a sudoku. And charging? How delicately can we put this – there's been a temptation with some of the EVs emerging out of the Volkswagen Group to chase headline charging figures that you'll manage for about 30 seconds on an extension cable coming out the side of a nuclear power station, after which electricity dribbles in. The Q6 Sportback e-tron manages to avoid the worst of this through 800V charging, improved thermal management, and the sheer size of its batteries. But peak charge speeds are 225kW for the smaller battery, 260kW for the larger batteried RWD car and 270kW for the others. Audi says the RWD performance car will get from 10 to 80 per cent in 22 minutes, or to put it another way you'll get 165 miles in 10 minutes at an appropriately powerful plug. If all you can find is a 50kW charger you'll be there for weeks with batteries this size, mind. Highlights from the range the fastest 285kW Quattro 100kWh S Line 5dr Auto [S+V] 0-62 5.9s CO2 0 BHP 382.2 MPG Price £74,950 the cheapest 185kW 83kWh Sport 5dr Auto 0-62 7.6s CO2 0 BHP 248.1 MPG Price £62,950 the greenest 285kW Quattro 100kWh S Line 5dr Auto [S+V] 0-62 5.9s CO2 0 BHP 382.2 MPG Price £74,950
Car and Driver
11-06-2025
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
2025 Audi Q5 and SQ5 Get the Right Minor Tweaks
In the midst of a barrage of new electric-vehicle launches, Audi hasn't forgotten about its bestselling duo, the Q5 compact crossover and its medium-spicy SQ5 sibling. They're new for the 2025 model year and replace outgoing versions that are also being sold as 2025s alongside them. Even if you can't discern the differences based on model year alone, the thoroughly updated Q5 lineup sets itself apart visually and dynamically. Caught in the Headlights Following in the footsteps of other recent Audis, the Q5's sheetmetal goes from smooth to sculpted, while the lighting elements at both ends add some welcome aggression. The headlights have a more squinty look, and the taillights get the full-width treatment. View Exterior Photos Audi The LED Headlights Plus, standard on the SQ5 and upper Q5 trims, incorporate animations for startup and shutdown, while OLED taillights come on the Prestige versions of both models. The owner can select from among eight different lighting-signature designs with the fancy DRLs and taillights. And since Audi treasures its lighting-tech supremacy, the SQ5 adds projection capability to its third brake light. It lights up like normal but also casts a glow down on the hatch glass below, giving it more surface area while looking something like a nicely applied window banner with "quattro" text flanked by tapering tick marks. View Interior Photos Audi Screening Room Hop in, and more light meets your eye. Audi's Digital Stage screen setup includes an 11.9-inch screen for gauge duty and a 14.5-incher running the latest version of Audi's MMI infotainment system. The far edge of the touchscreen is curved toward the driver less for visibility and more for improved reach, a welcome touch that makes it feel less like a gaming setup. Ideally, you shouldn't have to pull your right shoulder away from the seat to touch the display, or at least that movement should be limited. This not-tall driver had no issues. The only height-related issue we had was with the SQ5's gauge screen, the top of which was cropped from our vision by the flat-brim steering wheel. An optional passenger-side display adds redundant controls and features an active filter that prevents the driver from seeing videos or games, lest they be distracted by movement on yet another screen. Aside from a slight drop in headroom, passenger-space measurements are roughly the same as before. The Q5 does see a slight growth spurt, with 1.4 inches more length, which benefits the cargo area; with all seats in place, volume increases by 1.7 cubic feet to 27.6, while the 56.9-cube max with the rear seats folded is 2.8 better than that outgoing 2025 Q5. A rear seat with adjustable tilt and 4.0 inches of fore-aft slide lets you dial in the right amount of space for people or inanimate objects. Power and More Power As before, the greatest differentiation between the standard-strength Q5 and its sportier SQ5 sibling comes in the engine room. Both use evolved versions of their previous engines, adding a smidge more output. The new Q5's sole engine offering, a turbocharged 2.0-liter four sits at 268 horsepower and 295 pound-feet, which is seven more horsepower and 22 extra pound-feet of torque than last year's step-up powertrain, which was briefly called 45 TFSI to differentiate it from the 40's 201-hp tune. The SQ5's turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 is up 13 horses and a healthy 37 pound-feet, for totals of 362 and 406. The Q5 and SQ5 now use a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic in place of the last generation's eight-speed autos. View Interior Photos Audi If no one told us this was a dual-clutch auto, it would have been tough to suss out, as shifts were near-imperceptible and there was none of the lumpy operation that can plague these transmissions at low speeds. We found no issues with the amount or delivery of power over our varied drive of highways and twisties. The Q5's powertrain is adequate, while the SQ5's is more so, and the precise burble that comes at startup in the S model adds just a bit to the car's subtle drama. Audi claims a 5.8-second zero-to-60-mph sprint for the Q5 and a brisk 4.6 seconds for the SQ5 model. For comparison, we got bests of 5.5 and 4.8 seconds for the last-gen models, so these new estimates feel a tad conservative. On both versions, the steering sees some improvements with the rack having a more direct connection to the body, which ups the immediacy of input-to-output translation. But it still doesn't load up noticeably through tight bends, keeping the driver a bit distant from the proceedings for our liking. An air-spring suspension is standard on the SQ5 and was fitted to the Q5s we drove. It kept things comfortable and can be adjusted along with the drive modes if you're feeling frisky or want a bit more give. View Exterior Photos Audi To that end, Audi has added a new Balanced mode between Comfort and Dynamic. Balanced strikes the right, uh, chord for most driving, and we found ourselves leaving it there when not attacking some of Colorado's best roads on the way in and out of Aspen. There's still an Individual mode that lets you pick and choose your preferences for the various systems—steering, powertrain, and both suspension height and damping. A new Offroad Plus mode loosens the traction- and stability-control systems' reins compared to standard Offroad, letting you play rally driver should the opportunity arise. The newest 2025 Q5 and SQ5 are now at dealers next to the older ones, and Audi is promising tariff-free pricing on all its wares through this month. Sportback body styles are also on sale now. Pricing for the SUVs seen here starts at $53,495 for the Q5 and $66,095 for the SQ5, which is just a tad higher than before. If shopping for a compact luxury SUV, we'd pick the newer models on looks alone, so keep your eyes peeled when roaming those confusing dealer lots. View Exterior Photos Audi Specifications Specifications 2025 Audi Q5 and SQ5 Vehicle Type: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon PRICE Base: Premium Q5, $53,495; Premium Plus Q5, $57,995; Prestige Q5, $61,895; Premium SQ5, $66,095; Premium Plus SQ5, $69,595; Prestige SQ5, $72,495 ENGINES turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve 2.0-liter inline-4, 268 hp, 295 lb-ft; turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve 3.0-liter V-6, 362 hp, 406 lb-ft TRANSMISSION 7-speed dual-clutch automatic DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 110.9–111.0 in Length: 185.7 in Width: 74.8 in Height: 65.7–65.8 in Passenger Volume, F/R: 52/46 ft3 Cargo Volume, Behind F/R: 28/57 ft3 Curb Weight (C/D est): 4200–4500 lb PERFORMANCE (C/D EST) 60 mph: 4.6–5.5 sec 100 mph: 12.3–15.1 sec 1/4-Mile: 13.3–14.1 sec Top Speed: 130–155 mph EPA FUEL ECONOMY Combined/City/Highway: 22–25/19–22/26–30 mpg Reviewed by David Gluckman Contributing Editor Ever since David was a wee Car and Driver intern, he has kept a spreadsheet listing all the vehicles he's driven and tested. David really likes spreadsheets. He can parallel-park a school bus and once drove a Lincoln Town Car 63 mph in reverse. After taking a break from journalism to work on autonomous vehicles, he's back writing for this and other automotive publications. When David's not searching for the perfect used car, you can find him sampling the latest in gimmicky, limited-edition foodstuffs.
Top Gear
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Audi's new £88k entry-level e-tron GT ‘quattro' will pack up to 576bhp*
Electric *When launch control's engaged. Otherwise it's 496bhp. Still enough, we reckon Skip 4 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Audi's serving up a new entry-level model for the e-tron GT family of sports saloons, with the standard 'quattro' now starting from £88,555. Interestingly, that's £355 dearer than a completely boggo Porsche Taycan which starts at £88,200. The e-tron does have a big statistical advantage though: its dual-motor powertrain produces a minimum of 496bhp (already 67 more than the Taycan), and a peak of 576bhp with launch control engaged. With its electrons at full pelt, it'll get to 62mph in four secs flat - eight-tenths quicker than the car it shares platforms with. Advertisement - Page continues below An improved 105kWh battery yields up to 384 miles of range - that's 40ish short of the Taycan - and 320kW charge speeds mean 177 miles can be topped up in just 10 minutes. Stick around for another eight, and you'll regain all of 80 per cent. Other bits worth mentioning include adaptive air suspension as standard, with Audi's quattro drivetrain stuffed with torque vectoring capabilities between both axles. This new entry-level also weighs 30kg less than the next-up 'S' version, as Audi has rightfully pointed out. It's still some 2.3-tonnes, mind. You might like Anyway, let's move on to the trim grades. The base spec comes with 20in five-spoke aero wheels and LED Matrix headlights. Inside, there's a panoramic glass roof and heated seats, with a strong tech suite comprising a 12.3in virtual cockpit and 10.1in multimedia hub. There's a healthy 405 litres of storage space at the back and an extra 77 litres at the 'frunk' - more than enough for a week-long blitz across Europe. It is a GT and all, don't forget. Or you can send an extra £20k Audi's way and it'll point you towards the fancier 'Vorsprung' edition. It gets all-wheel steering, more carbon - both inside and out - a pano roof with switchable transparency plus massage seats cloaked in Nappa leather. The sounds are given a boost as well with a Bang & Olufsen speaker system, while a head-up display rounds everything off. Advertisement - Page continues below The new e-tron GT quattro will be available to order from late June, with deliveries pencilled in for August onwards. Reckon it's now a more attractive proposition than the Taycan? Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.
