Why electric of all things? After my traumatic experience more than five years ago, it didn’t seem like a good idea for a long time. Back then I drove an electric test car to an appointment at the editorial offices of the F.A.Z. Kaufkompass. The trip turned into an adventure. It provided plenty of reading material afterwards, but it also dragged on endlessly. That said, it’s not just battery tech that has moved on since then. Above all, the charging infrastructure has come a long way. But does that mean taking a BEV over the Alps to South Tyrol?
That was exactly the decision I was facing. For a feature on a marble loudspeaker manufacturer – Stone & Harmony – the editors at WALTER magazine wanted to provide me with an exotic electric SUV from the Far East. At the same time, I still had a wildcard up my sleeve. Parked right outside my door was an Audi A6 e-tron Performance with 360 hp, or 270 kW, and 280 kW with launch control. It also came with a Bang & Olufsen Premium 3D sound system. Audi had made the car available to me for a two-week test at STEREO GUIDE. it was available to me for two weeks for my test on STEREO GUIDE. And the vehicle convinced the WALTER editors.
To South Tyrol in an electric cruiser
In the end, I set off on a Monday full of pioneering spirit and curiosity for Laas near Bolzano, where the marble workshop is located practically at the source. In the mountains, they quarry a marble that may not be as well known as its Tuscan rival Carrara, but actually surpasses it in strength. Without the report for WALTER magazine, I would certainly have only chased the battery-electric Audi e-tron around the Swabian Jura and made sure I stayed within the possible range of the 100 kWh battery from start to finish. By now there are various charging options virtually right on my doorstep, which is a clear comfort gain compared to my old EV real-world test in 2020. But on my trip to South Tyrol, there was no way around charging stops. The distance in the Audi app was over 400 km, and at home the almost fully charged battery showed a range of 350 km.
However, the courier driver who transferred the test car from Ingolstadt to Stuttgart assured me he’d also been driving fast on the motorway, and that the calculation was based on that. Still, not least because of the mountains, I assumed at least one charging stop and therefore scheduled a total of three days for my report, so that at least half a day each would remain for the journey there and back.
Less is more: displays and driver aids to the max
After a front-collision warning went off in a construction zone on the climb out of the basin on Neue Weinsteige, I first took a look at all the driver-assistance systems to trim them back to a tolerable level. After that, the A6 e-tron Performance drove like its conventional siblings despite the colorful screens stretching across the entire width of the cockpit – with one exception: to improve the drag coefficient and, in my view, also to make the four-door wagon with its evolutionarily refined shape look a bit more futuristic, the Ingolstadt team fitted small camera stalks instead of rear-view mirrors. For a decidedly analog driver like me, it was even more of an adjustment than switching from a low-maintenance combustion engine (in terms of long-distance suitability) to electric drive.
By “analog driver” I mean: if I’m not walking in the city out of convenience, I’d rather take the classic car than my modern car, which is quite large and heavy for a four-seat coupé, with all its electronic helpers. They make quite a fuss when I reverse into my narrow garage bay and sometimes even slam on an emergency stop.
That’s why I usually do without so-called blessings of modern tech like a reversing camera and switch off all the beeping in annoyance, preferring to drive the old-fashioned way using the mirrors. In a way, I feel a kind of kinship with the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who, according to tradition, flew his highly modern-for-the-mid-1940s Lockheed P38 Lightning with the canopy open to recapture the flying feel from his biplane days, as in the novel “The Little Prince”.
Screen workstation
And then the culture shock: in the Audi e-tron, you’re completely at the mercy of the gadgets of the digital world. You have to trust the camera images of the two “mirrors” and the bird’s-eye panorama view on the central display. For someone like me, it’s pure horror. Depending on the lighting, I found the image in the small “mirror” monitors—also because of the completely different perspective—to be, cautiously put, not very helpful.
When changing lanes, I still rely in a very old-school way on a shoulder check in addition to the mirrors. But in the Audi e-tron, the monitors sit below the window line. So you first have to look down at the mirror and then look up as you turn your head. I honestly don’t see that as progress. That said: apart from reflections in the windshield caused by the interplay of tunnel lighting and the housing for the head-up display, those were already my only points of criticism.
So let’s move on to the otherwise quite positive impressions of the electric cruiser. With every meter that brought me closer to my destination in South Tyrol, the frustration that the editors absolutely wanted an electric car for the travel piece turned into joy that I couldn’t insist on setting off in my classic car, retracing my own past. At the latest on the Fern Pass, which over the decades I’ve tackled with all kinds of sporty cars, it became clear to me: the Audi e-tron Performance is the perfect car for the trip. Not even the short charging break in Austria changed that.
A superb air act
What really thrilled me was the perfectly tuned air suspension. On the one hand it let the electric Avant float very comfortably over the road, while at the same time—together with the light but very precise steering—it enabled the 2.25-ton BEV to tackle hairpins with very sporty handling.
Surprisingly, I didn’t miss a compact sports car at any point. On the contrary: being able to dart through the mountains that quickly yet still relaxed is a very special driving experience. And to be honest, not despite the electric drive, but precisely because of it. The Audi A6 e-tron Performance overcomes what I consider the biggest weakness of the model line, which struck me negatively on two drives in A6 Avants. On a trip with an A6 rental a few years ago, the light rear end bothered me, becoming—let’s say—very lively under braking. Sure, when driving quickly you should only brake when the steering is straight. But there are plenty of perfectly balanced cars from other southern German brands that quickly cure you of that habit.
That habit led, on a short outing in the nearly 800 hp MTM RS6 R, to my fastest drift at almost Formula 1 speed on all four wheels. A not insignificant factor was the typical Audi architecture: a substantial part of the longitudinally mounted engine protrudes beyond the front axle.
Audi, but different – with rear-wheel drive
This mass distribution creates a pronounced load on the front axle at high cornering speeds, while the rear axle becomes comparatively lighter due to dynamic load transfer. At the same time, the engine positioned far forward increases the moment of inertia around the vertical axis—the RS6 turns in less spontaneously and pushes more over the front axle.
Fortunately, the result of this “stunt” was only a spectacular video that’s better not shown publicly. And the realization that with the Audi A6, especially when driving hard, it’s better not to brake into the corner. But then the A6 e-tron came along and blew up almost all my Audi experiences. The wagon is rear-wheel drive, and the electric motor sits directly in front of the rear axle. That not only improves overall balance, but also the low center of gravity that’s desirable for handling. The battery cells installed between the axles under the floor do the rest in that respect.
Was it all just a dream?
After that, I kept having to pinch myself to believe I was really sitting in an Audi A6 as I braked later and more aggressively into the corners and hairpins on the various mountain roads. Leaving aside the Lamborghini-inspired mid-engined sports car R8, I don’t know any car from Ingolstadt that feels even remotely like this. In the end, I even wished for piles of snow so I could drift a few donuts in the parking lot with this rare rear-wheel-drive Audi.
And one more thing stood out dynamically: the air suspension did a great job in the mountains. Even in the hairpins, I saw no reason to switch from “Balanced” to Sport mode. And that, even though I originally absolutely wanted to take my old car with its rock-hard Bilstein sport suspension for the trip to South Tyrol—a trip I’d already done in the same car back in the late 1990s. Even if many sports-car fans tend to prefer heavy steering that they equate with precision, I liked the A6 e-tron’s light but still very precise steering.
Cornering wizard from Ingolstadt
What impressed me most was the flying-carpet float that resulted from the combination of air suspension and the substantial 2.25-ton curb weight (for such a large electric wagon, almost a kind of lightweight construction). The car avoided counterproductive body roll—it seemed to dance nimbly through the bends. Despite doing without Audi’s typical all-wheel drive, traction when accelerating out of corners was convincing, even when I was hard on the “throttle” on an open road. The fine, fast control of the traction system certainly played its part, too. The seamless, steady shove of the electric drive was miles ahead of combustion engines when accelerating out of tight hairpins.
What could complement a wagon with those qualities better—especially on an extended trip past postcard-worthy mountain panoramas—than proper sound from a top-tier name? Bang & Olufsen began working with Audi back in the mid-2000s. I was there at the presentation of the first sound system for the A8 and therefore know the story of the collaboration between Ingolstadt and Struer in Denmark. The trigger back then was the shared premium ambition and the use of aluminum for the Space Frame of the state limousine—also appreciated by left-wing politicians—which Audi, according to a report by Autobild, is discontinuing. Bang & Olufsen also relies on the light metal and has its own in-house aluminum finishing.
The Bang & Olufsen Premium sound system in the Audi A6 e-tron: 3D sound and adaptability
In the Audi A8, the two partners even staged the musical performance with retractable acoustic lenses for the front tweeters of the left and right channels. The A6 e-tron’s audio system does without such show effects. However, the top trim option in this model line is not an Advanced audio system, but the Premium option at a surcharge of just under €2,200. The technical basis includes 16 speakers, including special 3D height speakers in the A-pillar, a center speaker and a separate subwoofer. A 16-channel amplifier provides output of up to 705 watts.
However, when configuring the system, you can add two surround speakers for each of the front headrests for around €500, based on Fraunhofer’s Symphoria technology. The system output of the resulting 20-channel sound system then rises to a hefty 830 watts. The near-head additional speakers not only provide particularly spacious surround playback from various sources. They’re also used for phone calls and navigation prompts, which can then be focused on the driver’s seat and disturb passengers less.
In everyday use, the sound system always adapts automatically via speed-dependent volume adjustment and continuous adjustment of the sound to the current noise environment. This Vehicle Noise Compensation (VNC) ensures the sound remains as stable and balanced as possible even under changing driving conditions (for example motorway or city traffic). Another visual detail: the illuminated Bang & Olufsen logos in the front speaker grilles, which add a subtle accent, especially on night drives.
Functions on Demand: there’s more to come
Additional sound functions can optionally be booked via “Functions on Demand”. These include a package with bass enhancement, music revitalization (optimization for compressed formats such as MP3) and automatic level matching between different audio sources. You can also activate the “virtual environments” feature, which uses an algorithm to simulate different room acoustics. This makes it possible to tailor the sound character to different listening situations—such as a concert hall or living room—depending on your taste.
Listening test: Audi A6 e-tron with B&O Premium 3D sound system
The system’s overall concept aims to combine an exceptionally neutral basic tuning with the option of individual sound adjustment, and above all to deliver a very spacious, finely differentiated listening experience up front. With my iPhone connected to the car via Apple CarPlay, I mainly played tracks from our public STEREO GUIDE playlists that I’d downloaded before the trip. That way I wanted to avoid dropouts in the mountains and especially in the many tunnels. I have to admit that on this extensive listening-test trip, the eye was listening too. It was almost impossible to separate the images of the mountains at sunset from the musical backdrop.
When you listen to Pink Floyd classics like “Echoes” or “Time” in this alpine setting, the overall effect can’t even be compared to a living-room system costing many times more. But even judged soberly—say, on a German motorway or with your eyes closed at the charging station—the performance impressed. The B&O Premium 3D sound system delivers a balanced, expansive and detailed sound with a solid bass foundation.
The homogeneous basic tuning avoids show effects: neither the deep-reaching, well-defined bass nor the treble reproduction stands out in isolation. Instead, you get a harmonious interplay that lets you sink into the music without thinking about the listening-test-style, isolated consideration of individual frequency ranges. That makes the B&O system equally well suited to genres such as rock, pop or jazz.
Extensive sound settings
If you want to boost the bass for hip-hop, for example, you’ll find a separate slider for the subwoofer in the sound settings in addition to the normal bass control. Spaciousness can be optimized both via the three selectable 3D sound presets—”low”, “medium” and “high”—in the envelopment, and via focus presets for all seats or only the front seats. Further customization is also possible via a slider for the intensity of the surround effects and via focusing using a fader/balance control (see photos). Apart from a very expansive but slightly diffuse stage imaging, there was absolutely nothing to criticize.
So I arrived at my destination relaxed and in a good mood after a short charging break. Just the day before the drive, I’d been plagued by horror scenarios. In the worst case, I even pictured myself stranded alone at night with an empty battery on a mountain pass with no phone reception, waiting for a miraculous rescue by mountain rescue services. None of that happened. The one charging stop at the foot of the Fern Pass was quickly done—except that I’d absentmindedly forgotten to link the Audi Charging Card I’d ordered specifically for the test to the test car in the Audi app.
When it got too chilly for me in the mountains, I didn’t turn up the heater. I stopped and grabbed my Armani range extender from the trunk. With the warm designer vest over my turtleneck, I could even turn the temperature down a bit.
Conclusion: Audi A6 e-tron with B&O Premium 3D sound system
If you’re willing to accept small compromises in imaging precision and attack, the B&O Premium 3D sound system in the Audi A6 e-tron delivers a solid sound solution with relaxed, fatigue-free long-distance listening at a fair price. The Advanced sound systems—such as in the Audi S8—have more punch, authority and more precise focus than the laid-back, slightly diffuse Premium solution. But they also cost significantly more. And especially on my roughly 900 km tour, which on the return trip from South Tyrol also took me to the Viennese loudspeaker manufacturer (WLM) in Innsbruck, a well-groomed musical backdrop ultimately suited the drive even better than a primal force that dominates everything with its impetuous power.
My conclusion on the car itself isn’t as easy as it is for the audio system. On my Alpine tour, I came to appreciate the excellent ride comfort, which doesn’t come at the expense of active driving enjoyment. The mix of comfortable yet still brisk-driving-capable air suspension, comfortable seats and low noise level is convincing, as is the superb balance with which you can hustle the travel sedan through tight corners. It’s just a shame when you really make use of those abilities and, like me, end up with two charging stops on the way from Innsbruck to Stuttgart because, late at night on an empty motorway, you indulged in relaxed cruising up to the 210 km/h limited top speed. Too bad—otherwise this car would be the perfect solution for long-distance drivers.
Why the A6 really should be electric
At first glance, it would be obvious to recommend an A6 with a combustion engine to everyone in field sales. That would also mean normal mirrors instead of small monitors. But for me, that brilliant gliding feeling, that excellent balance and the low noise level are inseparably linked to the electric drive. My dream Audi would therefore be exactly this A6 e-tron with a small SMR to recharge the battery in the trunk. However, Small Modular Reactors are currently neither small nor trunk-friendly. Until then, all that remains is hope for the next big leap in battery technology.
- Price Audi A6 e-tron: from around €63,000
- Price Bang & Olufsen Premium 3D sound system: €2,175 (€2,665 including 4 headrest speakers)
- More info: audi.com
STEREO GUIDE test verdict
A comfortable electric cruiser with an impressive balance of driving dynamics, serenity and long-distance comfort. The Bang & Olufsen Premium 3D sound system plays relaxed, pleasant and easy to live with over long sessions.
Pros
- Balanced tuning
- Spacious sound dispersion
- Extensive sound settings
- Quiet drivetrain and air suspension deliver a lounge feel
Cons
- Slightly diffuse imaging
- Some sound features only available on demand at extra cost
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Sound quality8.6
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Price/Performance Sound System9.4
