2025 Audi Q6 e-tron Quattro First Drive Review

Audi's newest electric SUV is comfortable, fun, and loaded with tech.

Tim Stevens | 

Dec 19, 2024 | 5 min read

Tim Stevens

Don't assume Audi simply swaps the gas engine for electric motors and the gas tank for batteries. The Q6 e-tron is a fundamentally different machine from the Q5. It is slightly larger on the outside and roomier inside, offering far greater performance and new technology that properly positions this new SUV in a tier above.

It's also priced a tier above. The Q6 e-tron and its SQ6 e-tron performance-oriented variant start in the mid-$60,000s and the mid-$70,000s, respectively, including the destination charge. Those are some premium prices. Are they worth it? After a rainy, slippery day winding through the Northern California hills, I'm inclined to say yes.

Tim Stevens

A New Architecture for the Audi Q6 e-tron

In an age of iterative, minor evolutions of SUVs, the Audi Q6 e-tron is something truly new — well, except for its Porsche-badged relative, the Macan Electric. Both are built on a new platform called PPE and are designed to be fully electric from the beginning.

The Q6 e-tron features a 94.4-kWh battery pack with a maximum charge rate of 270 kW. That means going from 10% to 80% on a DC fast charger will take just 22 minutes. At home, on a Level 2 charger, you're looking at 14 hours.

Audi situates the battery under the Q6 e-tron's floor, creating a flat, open area to house a fresh, roomy interior. For a relatively compact SUV, the Q6 offers comfortable seating for five, with generous head- and legroom in the second row. There's good cargo space, too. It measures 30.2 cubic-feet behind the rear seats, almost doubling to 60.2 cu-ft when folded down. There's also a little room under the hood, where a frunk offers 2.2 cu-ft.

Tim Stevens

That battery powers a single-motor rear-wheel-drive (RWD) or dual-motor Quattro all-wheel-drive (AWD) propulsion system. The single-motor rear driver offers 322 horsepower with launch control enabled or 302 when just driving around town, and can travel 321 miles on a charge.

Step up to the dual-motor Quattro, and output jumps to 456 horsepower in launch mode and 422 horsepower otherwise, with 307 miles of range. If that's not enough, the sportier SQ6 e-tron supplies 509 horsepower to all four wheels in launch mode, 483 horsepower without, and 275 miles of range.

For this review, I tested a 2025 Q6 e-tron Quattro with Prestige trim, the Warm Weather package, Plasma blue metallic paint, and 20-inch wheels. The manufacturer's suggested retail price was $76,790, including the $1,295 destination charge.

Tim Stevens

Refined Performance in the Q6 e-tron

With up to 456 horsepower on tap, the Q6 e-tron Quattro is far from a slouch in the acceleration department, but it's not a rocket ship. Even in its most dynamic driving mode, aptly called Dynamic, the Q6 felt eager but not manic, surging forward as quickly as the grip from its tires would allow.

The Q6 offers three levels of regenerative braking, accessed via the steering wheel paddles. However, even the maximum mode may be too light for some. Thankfully, pulling back on the puck-shaped gear selector engages B mode, which provides full, one-pedal driving. In B mode, the Q6 eagerly decelerates when you lift off the accelerator and will come to a complete stop. This is a positive development given Audi's former reluctance to embrace one-pedal driving.

The available adaptive air suspension offers commendable ride quality and handling capability, with good compliance and isolation from the road surface. However, on bumpy stretches of asphalt, the SUV moved around more than I'd expected, making the ride feel somewhat disjointed.

Tim Stevens

A Display-Forward Interior in the Q6 e-tron

Equip your Q6 e-tron with the Prestige Package, and you'll have not one, not two, but three Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) displays spread across the dashboard. On the left is an 11.9-inch virtual gauge cluster. In the center is a 14.5-inch infotainment screen. On the right is a 10.9-inch passenger display.

OLED technology means these displays have vivid colors, striking contrast, and black sections that are truly black. There's no constant glow like you get from an LCD at night. The displays look great, and while Audi's dark and moody Multi Media Interface doesn't do much to show off their vibrancy, the software is responsive and bug-free.

The capacitive touch interface on the steering wheel was more problematic. I found myself constantly hitting the volume-up control while driving, its placement on the top of the steering wheel's right spoke catching my right palm.

The augmented reality head-up display was less problematic. It is positioned directly in the driver's line of sight and virtually projects navigation and other information onto the road ahead. That includes floating blue indicators showing where to turn, traffic highlights, and even speed limits digitally painted on the asphalt.

Tim Stevens

A Worthy, Premium Competitor

Despite occasionally feeling unsteady on bumpy roads, the 2025 Audi Q6 e-tron generally offered an engaging yet compliant ride, combined with a premium, tech-forward interior that sets it apart from most other compact SUVs.

Its most direct competitor is the Porsche Macan Electric, a corporate cousin equipped with near-identical mechanical underpinnings and similar tech offerings. The Porsche is the more engaging of the two to drive, but the Audi is far more affordable and has one-pedal driving.

In addition to the Porsche, the alternatives to Audi's latest even-numbered electric SUV include the Acura ZDX, Cadillac Lyriq, and Genesis Electrified GV70.

Audi provided the vehicle for this 2025 Q6 e-tron review and paid for airfare, lodging, and meals during the evaluation period.

Tim Stevens

Tim is a freelance automotive and technology journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He is a frequent contributor to major domestic and international online, print, and broadcast news outlets, sharing his insights and perspectives on everything from cybersecurity to supercars. Tim also serves as a juror for the World Car Awards and regularly acts as speaker and moderator at major industry events such as CES, Web Summit, SXSW, NAIAS, and AutoMobility LA. He formerly served as editor-at-large and vice president of content at CNET. Before that he was editor-in-chief of Engadget and editorial director at AOL Tech.