I was delighted to see our long-term Audi A6 Avant e-tron arrive in Malpelo blue, a greeny-blue metallic. It’s a £775 option and definitely my pick of the available colours that otherwise amount to black, white, a navy blue and two greys. There isn’t even a red!
So, we got the right colour and I’m a big fan of the low, long estate shape. What I’m less keen on are the elements that mark the A6 e-tron out as an EV.
To my eyes, the standard A6 is a much more handsome car. Where it gets a wide front grille, the e-tron has a body-coloured panel between two-element headlights that seems less impactful.
The biggest change, though, is down the sides, where the black plastic panel along the e-tron’s sills looks cheap. A petrol or hybrid A6 has simple sculpted flanks, but those cars is 1,457mm tall. The A6 e-tron is 1,527mm by virtue of being based on VW’s PPE electric car platform, with a battery under the floor.
The black panel serves to visually disguise some of the extra height, but to my eyes at least, it looks out of place on a £70k Audi. Maybe a nice dark grey or black paint to hide it would have been the way to go after all…
Audi A6 Avant S line e-tron Performance: first report
Estate tees off its time on our fleet with a round at the golf course
