After the Q4 e-trop and the Q8 e-tron, Audi completes its electric range with the Q6 e-tron. With this first new model in more than a year, Audi hopes to catch up in the electric sector to its premium competitors, BMW and Mercedes, and especially Tesla. The Q6 e-tron is located right in front of the Tesla Model Y, the best-selling in the European market.
An important model for the new CEO
This Q6 e-tron includes numerous technological innovations, which foreshadow other future models, enough to justify that its presentation this Monday afternoon, March 18 in Ingolstadt, the group’s headquarters in Bavaria, is also the first public speech of the new CEO. Gernot Döllner. Appointed in September to relaunch an Audi brand.
In poor condition last year, with few new features, difficulties in the United States and China, Gernot Döllner is a great connoisseur of high-end and performance, having spent a large part of his career at Porsche, as Les Echos explains. . Like Oliver Blume, the big boss of the Volkswagen group that owns Audi.
A high performance platform
It is also to the group that the Q6 owes many of its new features. The PPE platform (Premium Platform Electric), for example. This new architecture dedicated to electricity was designed with Porsche for the large high-performance models of the VW group. The Q6 thus shares this rolling base with the Porsche Macan, also 100% electric, and the future Audi A6.
The SUV has about 625 kilometers of theoretical autonomy at the time of its launch, two engines in a Quattro-type propulsion version and, above all, an 800-volt battery, enough to boast a capacity of just under 100 kWh. Audi also especially highlights the charging speed of this Q6: 10 minutes of charging to recover 255 kilometers of autonomy in an ultra-fast terminal with a power of 270kw. However, this charging configuration is still uncommon.
A new software architecture
Another contribution from the group: the entire software base developed by the VW subsidiary dedicated to software, Cariad. Five central units thus manage different function panels: one for driving assistance, another for comfort and a third for suspension and transmission. Audi promises permanent news with updates like those of a smartphone, to stay up to date. “A customer may have functions that the first or second buyer did not have when he abandoned the vehicle,” explains Christian Steinhorst, product manager for the Q6.
The truth is that this new internal architecture took a while to develop, which partly explains the delay in the launch of the Q6, a vehicle initially scheduled for the end of 2022. The Macan was also delayed for the same reasons. “What is happening at Audi is a symptom of the Volkswagen group’s difficulties in this transition to electricity,” says a sector expert.
Audi, however, remains confident in its ability to offer the comfort of Audi and the road feel of the Quattro (its sporty four-wheel drive) in this Q6. And, therefore, build customer loyalty and make them switch to electric. “The most impressive thing about these innovations is seeing them brought together in one vehicle,” explained Gernot Döllner on stage after the presentation show. “The beginning of a new era,” he added, a few meters from the lines where the Q6 e-tron will be assembled.
The new Q6 will go on sale on March 28. Starting price for the French market: 83,000 euros.
Source: BFM TV
