The all-new Q6 e-tron is more than just an electric family carrier.

The Audi Q6 e-tron is all-new for 2025, and it’s an important car for Audi. It’s not just that they updated it, made it look better, and made it drive better; this vehicle is a nod to the future of the brand as it moves toward electrification. Slotting between the smaller Q4 e-tron and the larger Q8 e-tron, the Q6 e-tron sits in a crucial spot. Doing it right potentially means lots of new customers. Doing it wrong will be an expensive mistake.

The Q6 e-tron rides on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture that’s also being used for the Porsche Macan EV. It’s a fundamental part of the Volkswagen Group’s approach for its premium brands, including Bentley, and allows for flexibility to be used in cars or SUVs. The Q6 e-tron also shows off a new interior, updated technology that includes a passenger display screen, and improved driving dynamics. Audi invited CarBuzz to Bilbao, Spain, to see how it made the Q6 e-tron a better electric vehicle.

First Drive events provide our initial impressions of a vehicle in a restricted environment under certain time constraints. Keep an eye on CarBuzz for our comprehensive Test Drive review which will follow soon.

Exterior: A New Look For Audi

The Q6 e-tron combines the more upright posture of an SUV with sleek good looks. Its wheelbase of 113.7 inches to provide plenty of room for passengers, but with short overhangs. This makes it more maneuverable when space is tight and helps keep it from looking heavy or bulky. Its smooth, sculpted surfaces further add to the streamlined appearance with the benefit of helping air flow more smoothly over the vehicle.

There are also what are called ‘quattro blisters,’ a name that is entirely unappealing for a design element that is exactly the opposite. These are the contoured portions of the body that support the A and D pillars and are central to the Audi design principle of “making technology visible.” Regardless of what they choose to call it, the overall impression is one of sportiness combined with luxury, giving the Q6 e-tron plenty of presence.

Up front, the closed Singleframe grille that debuted on the e-tron GT looks great, especially when it’s framed in gloss black on a white car – this alone is a reason to go with a light color rather than something dark. The Q6 e-tron masters the challenging task of taking a vehicle that doesn’t need a grille and still giving it an appealing front end that catches your attention for all the right reasons.

We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention the new active digital light signature; sadly, it only applies to cars outside of the US. These get OLED taillights that can actually communicate with other road users, issuing warnings or indicating parking processes – clever technology that will be available to cars in Europe.

Interior: Practical Luxury

Audi is a luxury automaker and the Q6 e-tron looks the part in every way. Materials are premium from the doors to the dashboard to the headliner. Contrasting colors used judiciously are eye-catching yet muted for a reserved interpretation of luxury that is calming and welcoming. There’s also ambient lighting that accents the simplicity of the design without becoming a garish focal point.

There is an abundance of high-gloss piano black, which is a mixed bag. It looks beautiful, elegant, and very upper crust, but it’s prone to show every fingerprint, every speck of dust, and every rogue drip of coffee from your morning brew. A microfiber cloth in the center console is practically a must-have if you want to keep things looking tidy.

There’s room for five people in the Q6 e-tron and although it’s not as large as the Q8 e-tron, it’s still spacious. The PPE architecture delivers plenty of headroom and legroom with supportive seats that are easy to adjust for the right driving position. When it comes to the rear seat room, even larger adults will find good headroom and legroom, although it might be a tight squeeze for three across.

There’s also space for cargo with 30.2 cubic feet behind the rear seats or 60.2 cubic feet when those 40/20/40 split-folding seats are down. There’s even a 4,400-pound tow rating if you need to haul larger items.

Technology: The Virtual Cockpit Refined

In a short amount of time, our cars have become extensions of our digital lives. What started as a single small screen has become multiple, with displays that span the width of the entire dashboard. now becoming the norm. They contain an endless variety of information that can be configured in an endless number of ways. It sounds like a good idea, but it can create sensory overload, providing too much distraction both visually and mentally. Though this Audi has an abundance of screens, it avoids that pitfall.

Audi has long had what it calls a virtual cockpit. This keeps the focus on the driver. The Q6 e-tron maintains that focus with a wholly new interior called a Digital Stage. It includes an 11.9-inch instrument cluster display for the driver with a 14.5-inch infotainment touchscreen. These are mounted in a single curved display that puts the driver front and center.

For the first time in any Audi, there’s also an available 10.9-inch passenger touchscreen. It’s positioned lower and slightly to the left of the infotainment screen. Active shuttering prevents the driver from seeing it when the car is in motion, but the passenger can help with select functions, including navigation, or they can choose to relax and stream video content. This is one of the cleanest designs we’ve seen for a system with a dedicated passenger screen. It’s as crisp as the infotainment screen when it’s in use, but has a subtle pattern on the screen when not in use, so the passenger isn’t staring at an ugly black rectangle.

Augmented Reality

The final “screen” is an available head-up display. It shows speed, traffic signs, and navigation, which is particularly well done. Arrows point in the direction of your next turn, changing in size and placement as you approach, and then seamlessly reconfiguring to point you toward the next turn. Driving through the endless rotaries that dot European roads, it kept us on our route without a misstep.

There are two available Bang & Olufsen sound systems with a unique setup when the Q6 e-tron is equipped with sports seats. This includes four speakers in the front seat headrests that, for the first time in an Audi, create separate audio zones. It feeds phone calls and navigation directly to the driver, rather than echoing through the entire car. It’s a small detail that has a big impact on comfort.

Audi says there is a new suite of safety features that include:

• Adaptive cruise control
• Lane change warning
• Exit warning
• Collision avoidance assist
• Emergency brake assist
• Traffic sign recognition
• Swerve assist, front and rear turn assist
• Optional: Adaptive cruise assist plus

Finally, there’s a new Audi Assistant, which is a voice-activated assistant that can control more than 800 functions in the vehicle and understands 23 languages. These systems can be rough at times, but this one is better than average. It generally understood commands on the first try, and even recognized whether the driver or front passenger was speaking and responded from the corresponding speakers.

Battery and Charging: Two Performance Options

The Q6 e-tron is available in two configurations (for now: an RS model is set to join the party in 2025). Both are powered by two electric motors with an 800v 100 kWh battery. On a level 2 charger, it takes 11.5 hours to fully charge, but with a DC fast charger it can go from 10 to 80 percent in just 21 minutes.

The base Q6 e-tron has an EPA-estimated range of 307 miles. It delivers 422 horsepower with a boost to 456 hp when launch control is activated. The SQ6 e-tron is the performance option. It comes in with 31 miles less range, but more horsepower – topping out at 509 hp with launch control.

• 2025 Audi Q6 e-tron

  Horsepower

  422 hp (456 hp with Launch Control)

  0-60 MPH

  4.9 seconds

  Top Speed

  130 mph

  Towing Capacity

  4,400 lbs

  Electric Range

  307 miles

• 2025 Audi SQ6 e-tron

  Horsepower

  483 hp (510 hp in launch control)

  0-60 MPH

  4.1 seconds

  Top Speed

  143 mph

  Towing Capacity

  4,400 lbs

  Electric Range

  276 miles

It posts a top speed of 143 mph and hits 0-60 mph in 4.1 seconds – an improvement over the almost five seconds needed in the base Q6 e-tron. It’s not the kind of performance you’ll get from the new top-spec Audi e-tron GT, but it’s still a powerful choice.

Drive Impressions

We drove both the Q6 e-tron and SQ6 e-tron. However, they were European specification vehicles, which makes them slightly different from what we’ll have here in the USA. The differences in the SQ6 e-tron are minimal – other than outputs, obviously – and it’s the one we’d recommend in the lineup, as long as you have the extra cash in your pocket.

Both versions of the Q6 e-tron showed off crisp handling with a low center of gravity that made taking winding European roads effortless. It wasn’t a challenge driving those roads, it was a joy, whether behind the wheel or taking the opportunity to relax as the front passenger. Steering was controlled, but not tiring, so endless switchbacks didn’t become tiresome. The SQ6 e-tron, especially, is truly a driver’s car with a good balance between comfort and sportiness. Drive modes allow for the tailoring of that experience and noticeably tighten up the steering if that’s your preference.

Something that usually takes a bit of getting used to in an EV is regenerative braking. The instant you take your foot off the accelerator, an EV slows as though you’re already pressing the brake pedal. Depending on the aggressiveness of that braking, it can be jarring and even startle passengers as though you’ve suddenly jammed on the brakes. In the Audi SQ6 e-tron, this process was so smooth that it was barely noticeable. That’s exactly how it should work, so kudos to Audi for making that transition as elegant and unfettered as the ride itself.

Adding to the overall positive experience of the Q6 e-tron lineup is how quiet the cars are. It’s not just that there’s no engine, but that road and wind noise are negligible. This is a luxury car, so it’s supposed to be quiet – and it delivered on that expectation beautifully.

Conclusion

Both the Q6 e-tron and the SQ6 e-tron proved to be well-mannered and enjoyable EVs that could convince even the most diehard internal combustion engine fan that going electric is not a bad thing at all. The 2025 Audi Q6 e-tron and SQ6 e-tron are due to arrive in showrooms in the fourth quarter of this year, with trim details and pricing yet to be announced.