• Choice of rear-wheel-drive and Quattro all-wheel-drive 
• Sportier SQ6 E-Tron tops the line-up
• Regular Q6 focuses more on comfort than outright thrills

Audi Q6 E-Tron electric motors

The Q6 E-Tron line-up starts with the ‘Sport’ powertrain, which uses a 252hp electric motor mounted at the rear, enabling a 0-62mph time of 7.6 seconds and a 130mph top speed. That latter figure is the same across every Q6, incidentally.

Next up is the ‘Sport Performance’ powertrain, which gets a more powerful 302hp motor and, importantly, a larger battery that unlocks extra driving range. More about that in the next section of this review, but that additional poke reduces the 0-62mph sprint time to 6.7 seconds. 

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However, the only version we’ve tested so far is the ‘Sport Quattro’, which features twin electric motors enabling four-wheel-drive, turning the power up to 388hp, and reducing the 0-62mph time to 5.9 seconds.

At the very top of the line-up is the SQ6 E-Tron. This performance variant’s twin-motor setup produces up to 517hp when launch control is activated, and reduces the 0-62mph sprint time to 4.4 seconds. 

What’s it like to drive?

• Very comfortable, with excellent refinement
• Polished steering and handling
• Not as thrilling as a Porsche Macan EV

Remember we said the Audi Q6 E-Tron was co-developed with sports car royalty? It shares its new PPE platform with the Porsche Macan EV. The Audi foregoes the rear-wheel steer of that car but otherwise many components are identical. It shows in how the Q6 drives.

There’s a pleasing polish to this electric Audi: refinement is first class, as you’d expect in an EV, but road and wind noise are as well contained as the hubbub of the motor, making for a very relaxing drive.

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The suspension is comfort-oriented and we found that the car absorbs most of the road scars and acne of our usual test route threw at it. Yet when you spear off the main road in search of twisting back roads, the Q6 doesn’t lose composure. It handles better than a 2.4-tonne SUV has a right to.

One proviso to this is that so far we’ve only been able to try the air suspension. which was a part of the initial Launch Edition car but isn’t available on other models. We will report back when we’ve been able to try this electric SUV on its regular suspension setup. 

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A feature that caught us out was the regenerative braking mode. There are four stepped levels of regen, where the electric motors provide old-school ‘engine braking’ to harvest energy wasted during braking. Drivers can use the steering wheel paddles to spool regen up or down – or go to maximum one-pedal driving B (for Braking) mode, which provides maximum deceleration when you lift off.

It’s a little confusing because the car always defaults to Auto mode unless you select B, meaning you regularly have to tap the paddles to maintain regen braking.