{"id":1984252,"date":"2026-06-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1984252"},"modified":"2026-06-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:00:00","slug":"audi-a6-sportback-e-tron-long-term-review-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1984252","title":{"rendered":"Audi A6 Sportback e-Tron – long-term review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s a bit of a clich\u00e9 in the electric car world, but as the warmer months rolls around, EV owners tend to start getting a little smug and notice improved battery life \u2014 and with it, a welcome bump in range. So I hate to get a little smug, but the\u202fAudi A6 e-tron\u202fis playing this game too.<\/p>\n

However, I suspect there\u2019s an additional catch with the A6\u2026 and it\u2019s me.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You see, I like to think of myself as something of a driving talent. A natural, even. After all, I once harboured dreams of becoming a racing driver. And while that particular career path didn\u2019t quite materialise (largely due to a lack of talent, funding, discipline, and\u2026 ability), I can still hold my own in a karting session with the\u202fTop Gear lot. In fact \u2014 and I don\u2019t like to bring this up \u2014 I once beat all the road testers. Once. It counts.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the problem. Proper racing drivers aren\u2019t just quick, they\u2019re adaptable. They adjust, refine, and extract every ounce of performance from whatever they\u2019re driving. Unless, of course, you\u2019re The Stig, who appears to have been assembled in a lab using equal parts carbon fibre and witchcraft. He doesn\u2019t adapt \u2014 he simply arrives ready.<\/p>\n

So, my lack of adaptability has led me to drive the A6 like, well, a normal road car. Gas, brake, turn. Job done. I shouldn\u2019t have done that. Because the more you let (or trust) the A6 to do the driving \u2013 well, the slowing down anyway \u2013 the better the efficiency gets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve gone from 2.8\/3 to 3.8 mi\/kWh over the space of a few months, which on paper sounds like I\u2019ve suddenly discovered a hidden reserve of Prost-like smoothness. In reality, I\u2019ve just stopped fighting the car\u2019s re-gen tech quite so much. It\u2019s a bizarre driving experience, and one I\u2019m still not entirely comfortable with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At times it feels less like I\u2019m driving and more like I\u2019m supervising something that has already decided what it\u2019s going to do. And that can be disconcerting. It lulls you into a slightly false sense of security: you lift off earlier than you normally would, let the A6 do its thing \u2014 quietly assess the road ahead with what can only be described as digital intuition withcraft, ramp up the re-gen, and slow the car gently \u2014 but crucially, it will not bring you to a complete stop. It\u2019ll manage the energy, sure. The final judgement, though, is still yours.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With warmer months still to come, I\u2019m intrigued to see if range improves further. Talking of range, I managed to have a quick go in the new BMW iX3 and boy is it impressive. Unlike the A6 experience, it didn\u2019t feel like I needed to fundamentally change my driving style just to get anywhere near the claimed 500 miles.<\/p>\n

Whichever way you look at it, it says quite a lot. EVs are evolving fast, and after ceding a lot of ground to Californian start-ups, it seems the Germans are quietly, meticulously and inevitably hitting the front, when it comes to premium models anyway. Will that save them from the Chinese? Time will tell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a bit of a clich\u00e9 in the electric car world, but as the warmer months rolls around, EV owners tend to start getting a little smug and notice improved battery life \u2014 and with it, a welcome bump in range. So I hate to get a little smug, but the\u202fAudi A6 e-tron\u202fis playing this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1984252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1984252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1984252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1984252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1984252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}