FIRST DRIVE
“THIS COULD NEVER HAPPEN IN Southern Ontario where I live,” I joked to my driving partner as we rounded a severe lefthand turn followed in quick succession by a sharp right and then a steep uphill climb before plunging hurriedly back down toward the crashing waves off the coast of San Sebastien at speeds exceeding the posted limit, but keeping pace with the locals. Roads like this don’t exist in Canada and I am not convinced we would even know how to construct them. But they do in Spain and, as a character in Seinfeld once claimed while referencing something completely different and not created by man, “They’re real and they’re spectacular!” The 2025 Audi Q6 e-tron is the third in a series of electric SUVs and it now completes the set standing squarely between the Q4 e-tron and Q8 e-tron. In Audi SUV speak, three seems to be the perfect number as the Q6 assumes the roll of the middle child, with seating for up to five occupants and plenty of rear storage to satisfy any adventure, weekend or longer. It was my privilege last year to test drive the camouflaged prototype of the Q6 on the bucket list destination of the Faroe Islands. Back then, the dash was draped with black cloth to keep us from probing too deeply what was coming in 2025 and ruin the surprise. The wait was worth it. The production vehicle is not only attractive both inside and out, but it feels as agile and worthy of spirited driving as it did back then. While recent industry rumblings seem to indicate a global slowing down of electric vehicle production is taking place, it is one of those narratives where it pays to read between the lines. As we learned in the backgrounder before spending the day test driving the new Q6 e-tron, Audi is fully committed to an electric future, it just won’t be their only course of action. Their plan is to have an electrified version
of every model they sell by 2027, so don’t expect them to take their foot off the accelerator anytime soon. The goal for the new Audi Q6 e-tron is multi-facetted. To be a dominant player in the burgeoning luxury SUV BEV market, it needed to deliver on three key factors: power, class-leading electric range and the ability to charge quickly. To this end, Audi took the opportunity to rethink the process of electric power delivery and battery design as a whole. The new Premium Platform Electric architecture (PPE) has been designed in collaboration with Porsche and in particular, the new Macan EV. A dual electric motor setup (optimised for Quattro all-wheel drive) delivers power to the front and back resulting in controlled and very effective acceleration. Reading the spec sheet, numbers tell an interesting story. The 2025 Audi Q6 e-tron delivers 422 horsepower in standard driving mode and up to 456 hp with launch control. The new Audi SQ6 e-tron ups the power quotient to 483 hp in standard mode and 510 hp with the boost on. Zero to 100 km/h takes
"Roads like this don’t exist in Canada and I am not convinced we would even know how to construct them."
44
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker