Transcription
This is here the Audi Q6 e-tron in the full driving review, specifically as the SQ6 e-tron, the most powerful version so far. And here with Thomas and Autogefühl in 4K, full screen, full length. Let's go with an in-depth look, also with the comparison to the Porsche Macan, sister or brother. How good is this one here in relation? And also, yeah, the Tesla Model Y, most sold EV in this world, most sold car overall in 2023. How does it relate to this one here and does it justify the price you pay for this one? We'll find out everything together.
Then here. The lamps, really slim, you can actually pick different signatures, and also when you hit the turning indicator, it looks really spectacular. Different LED levels, a low LED trim, then a higher LED trim, which is already standard here for the SQ6, and then optional, the matrix LED that you also see right here. Then, you have this rather closed mask, but it's kind of mimicking the gaps you had before in the combustion engine versions. The Audi rings are two-dimensional here. Then usually, an SQ6 would come with a bright mask around, like here, everything, but it's blacked out because this one here is carrying a black package. This vehicle color here is Daytona Gray. I think it also fits the vehicle very well and would also be one of the most sold colors, yeah, especially in Europe and Germany, most cars are sold as gray or silver and as black. That's the way it is, then white and then the rest of the colors. Wheels from 19 to 21-inch, the SQ6 would start 20-inch, and these here, the biggest ones, 21-inch, still with these aerodynamic inserts. Yeah, some comments from the background as well. Then we have the painted wheel arches, and the length is 4.77m or 188 inches.
So, there is also the Q8 e-tron. But this one here is now on a dedicated EV platform, as I said, together with the Porsche Macan, hopefully bringing us some efficiency gains and so on. Suspension technology, as we continue on to the rear, it's like a more classic building style, a classic SUV form. Oh, and by the way, I need to show you this right now, the charging flap. Oh, there we go. This is electric and it takes ages, yes. AC/DC charging is an 800-volt charging infrastructure, so in that case, then, you just need a little bit over 20 minutes from 10% to 80% state of charge. 270-kilowatt peak, that is very impressive, but if this charging flap really needs to be electric... and it takes so long. I think a manual one would have done better, wouldn't it? Battery, by the way, 95 kilowatt hours net. Later on, we can also expect an 80 kilowatt hour net battery as a smaller, little bit cheaper entry version. So far, everything works with this battery, and if you come around to the other side, you'd see that we have a second charging flap, actually, on the other side. Maybe I have to open the car once more. There we go. Yeah. I'm not so sure about this. I mean, the great idea is that you get both sides as standard. That's the comment to that again. So, and here on this side, then only AC charging. Yeah. But it seems to be working a little bit more reliable than it did in the studio, actually.
Well, and then back to the vehicle because, first of all, this light strip here goes all the way across, so very cool design. You can also, once again, get different stylings for that. The SQ6 and also an S-line gets here this red S badge. And then if it's an SQ6, it also has then these, you know, S badging then here together. Acceleration figures, 4.3 seconds here for the SQ6; however, you also get the normal all-wheel drive version, that is then like one and a half seconds slower, and there's also an entry rear-wheel drive version only. The exact figures and stuff, we have also always a pinned comment and in the video description where you always find these figures. Most German EVs do not have a frunk. Why? I don't know, but this one does have one, and that has to be the connection with Porsche because here you can store a charging cable or I would say even more. By the way, all versions go faster than 200 kilometers an hour, 125 miles an hour. This one here even 230 kilometers an hour, the SQ6, so like 140 miles per hour, so definitely also fast enough for the German Autobahn. Suspension technology, base is a frequency-adaptive damping, that means it reacts according to the impact it gets, like the frequency of the impact. That's the base suspension, even for the SQ6. Then, optionally, you get an air suspension. When you go for that one in the SQ6, it has a sportier setup, and we will also test that for you here today. Rear axle steering, that's something that this one does not have. That one would be reserved for the Porsche Macan. Yeah, they want to have like a justification for the extra price for the Macan that it does get some more tech features and so on.
Also pretty cool, the light signatures, welcome and goodbye, front and the rear. It works for three times after each other when you open the vehicle. Usually, it's just, you know, needed for one time. But after three times, it basically has this plate protection that the kids don't drain the battery with it, for example. So in the front, you have this crystalline building up effect inside the headlamps. That looks really, really cool. Whereas in the rear, you rather have this light strip that builds up, and then you have some more animation inside the rear lamp. And you can also set the individual settings for the signatures, once again, that I told you earlier, in the infotainment system. Now, Lea is showing us two more exterior features. Look at that here in the lower part. There is the e-tron badge, and this is really imprinted, so you can actually feel that, and the model naming right here is in this B pillar. Now, you can read SQ6 e-tron Quattro. That's like the official naming for that one. So, for Lea, I think with the styling, with the black features and stuff, yeah, that's probably to her liking. And another thing that Lea found out, so when you open the vehicle, of course, then there's also the turning indicator, but then there's an additional one here. When you open the door, then it goes one more time with the indicators there. See if it's also the case when you close the door. No. So it's like when opening the vehicle and opening the door, I think. Yeah, look at that here. Also when opening the door. Interesting.
Getting to the interior, this is the key fob, it's light and also no high gloss black. I like that. Then door closing sound. That is awesome. So that is just... how it's supposed to be, double thumbs up actually for both front and rear door and inside of the doors. It's not too soft in the top part, I have to say. However, then there's a nice microfiber insert and red contrast stitching here. S-line and SQ6 are kind of similar. You have this S entry badge, but yeah, as I said, it could be S line or SQ8, sorry, SQ6 is the same. Then here, all hard pack, just this rubber underneath that things don't fly around that easily. Then, steering wheel here with a flat bottom. That looks quite good. At the moment, everything is shut off, and soon it will come to life, and this will be illuminated, and also here, you see this whole curved screen there, all blacked out at the moment, but this will also come to life, and then the seats. So, you get base fabric seats, but in Europe only, then you have normal sport seats, and these are the performance sport seats, and these are also available with microfiber here. So, for this respect here, a nice choice. The normal sport seats, I feel, would be a little bit more comfortable than these here, but, yeah, the seating comfort ergonomics is actually quite decent. The only thing they do not offer yet is a completely animal-free interior. The best would be in Europe the pure fabric seat or a fabric leatherette mix. But, then, there are always animal parts in this vehicle here, and in a modern EV, 2024 needs to find also an animal-friendly solution, definitely.
And, then, here, 1.89 meters, a lot of headroom left. And the steering wheel, when I turn on the ignition or when I, you know, sometimes when I just sit down or I use the brake, you can see here, steering wheel can be adjusted up and down, in and out. And there you can see now also these sliders are illuminated. You can slide it, #CapacitiveBS, but when you click it, at least, you also get a nice feedback. Cockpit perspective, here, more microfiber on this dashboard, and then, on the top part, there's also soft touch. Then, we can get an optional passenger screen. Otherwise, it would be high-gloss black, everything here. I always ask myself, why would that be necessary? I don't understand it, but I got some comments, you know, from some users that say when you pick something like a navigation system, then the passenger sends it to the main screen or something like that. I always feel that passengers rather use their own smartphone to research like a restaurant nearby or something, but yeah, I don't know, you tell me. Then, the screen unit here, there's like a 14.5-inch unit on the right side and a 12-inch unit on the left side. Soon more details to that. In the lower part, middle console, two USB-C chargers. Then, there's like a smoker's pack here in the front part. Yeah, maybe not the best idea for such a new vehicle then for the resale value. And, then, here is an inductive charging pad. Sometimes, it does lose contact, I feel, but the good thing is it is cooled so the phone does not overheat. Then, here, you can close this one here for a lot of high-gloss black, but that does collect some fingerprints, and you slide it open, and then, adaptive cup holders here, and drive select, you click it, and then, you either can click the drive modes through like this, or you can click once and then select it with your hand. So, both is possible. You select the gears like this, D and R or P. And then this one here, then armrest. You can put that one up. Then you have a lot of space underneath, actually. There's even the first aid kit's hidden underneath here. So, yeah, actually, why not? And this is your driver POV here with the two-dimensional Audi rings on the steering wheel. You get used to that. However, I like it more when I really can touch the Audi rings.
Digital instruments here. Digital instruments here, when I put in a gear, you can see them better. And then you can switch the view to a more simplified view or more information there. Also, what information you want to see there. So, they are actually quite flexible and the speed is usually in the lower part. And here, you can set this favorite button actually to, for example, the function to deactivate this speed limit warning. So, this is a good thing then for EU customers. You also get a head-up display here with some augmented reality arrows. Hard to catch on camera, they appear full-time, definitely. You might remember Tesla is offering these gaming features where it can actually turn the steering wheel inside a kart game which is on the display. Audi offers gaming via the head-up display. You activate like a Space Shuttle game, for example, or a 3D Squash. Starting with the Space Shuttle. You see it here in the head-up display. There's this space shuttle, and then you use the shifting paddles and the accelerator pedal or the brake pedal to change, to maneuver that through. It's kind of funny. Is it much useful or much fun? I'm not sure about that, but, yeah. They're trying to be a little bit more joyful with that and then you can also use this 3D Squash. They have this cage and it's some kind of ping pong game. Once again, you use your shifting padales for right and left and then the throttle or the brake for up and down to put that ball over to the other side. And then here in the infotainment system, it is actually quite quick and responsive, looks quite cool. The climate unit sometimes did me some hassle because I was, you know, doing something in the climate unit and then I want to access the menu. And sometimes, yeah, like this, that's how it's supposed to work. But sometimes I clicked on the menu and it just didn't appear. And I have no idea why. So, maybe they need to work a little bit more on the software, but something completely new indeed here, yeah, you have the keys right there, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto is, of course, also available here, wired or wireless, both is available. So, they stepped up the game here, although we had some problems with it. Overall, definitely better than before. Then, let's see if I put in Barcelona as a destination. So, this would not be suitable here without charging. There, for example, you know, in 256 kilometers, I should reload from 19 to 81%, and that's obviously it.
Rear seats, here, you see, manual shade. Then, this is here on the top part. What is it? It's not...is it somewhat soft, but barely, I would say. Then, here, the microfiber insert. I have to say the microfiber quality, I've seen better. There are different suppliers for microfiber, of course. And then, here, inside of the doors is also all hard pack. So, for that price, I'm not so sure about that. Then, here, we also have the microfiber inside. The quality here on the seats is very good, actually, of the microfiber and ISOFIX here, with these covers, you can just push back that way. And then, yeah, legroom-wise, I mean, it's an electric platform, but why is there hardly any legroom? I mean, it's not a short vehicle, so this is disappointing. It does fit for four tall adults, but barely. And always when I say barely, I always have to think of bears, you know, like bears, animal bears, you know, like barely, you know. Sorry about that. Okay. Yeah. 189 or 6'2". It's always like, you know, in general, you know, like with general, okay. I just keep, keep you in the, yeah, you know, okay. So not too much space here, the headroom is okay. Then it's here, like the adaptive cup holders. There we go. And we can also use this one here as a ski hatch to just load the middle stuff through. The seating comfort itself here on the rear seat, that one is actually pretty good when you are okay with this, not so much space. And in the middle part here, fifth seat, a little bit stiffer. It works, but then the legroom is definitely the main problem. Different ways to open the electric hatch here, for example, also pressing twice here on the key fob. Then, 530 liters, up to 1,530 liters. This cover here, it's purely manual, then there's a meter or 40 inches in width, and the length here is also a meter or 40 inches. I don't need to extend it, actually, and here, it's like 77 centimeters or 30 inches, so, yeah, well usable, not too large. You can see there's this step here. Kind of it raises towards the inside. And then we can also fold the seats from here. We have this remote release. There we go. And then you see this step here once again. So this can be made flatter, basically. And then here, there's another storage also for several cables if you don't want to store them in the frunk or some there, some here. And if you have the air suspension, you can also lower the whole thing for an easier loading in and out, and you can see that the air suspension then compresses here in the lower part a little bit.
Drive selects, dynamic. Let's go! That was 30 kilometers an hour to 100 kilometers an hour, really quick here with the Audi SQ6, with the most performant version here of this new large electric SUV by Audi. The official acceleration figure from 0 to 100 is 4.3 seconds actually. So that is when you... Are you finished? Thank you. Totally German, yeah. Yeah, that's always when you mention the brand name and then, you know, it catches the activation word and then the voice. But it always gives you the giggles and the love for that. Definitely for sure. One major thing they wanted to achieve with this vehicle is that it feels lighter than it actually is because it is a heavy electric vehicle. These battery packs add a lot of weight, and one of the measures is here when you turn the steering wheel actually. There's a fine command even if you are in this low degree angle, you know, area. So, you don't have to turn the steering wheel much. And the reason for that is mainly that a small vehicle usually reacts a little bit quicker to what you do with it, you know, and that kind of conveys this feeling. So, a very progressive steering, you don't have to steer a lot. At the same time, it's not super aggressive that you, you know, don't manage a lane change or something. So, when I'm here doing a lane change, running here. I can still very well control it and not overdo it or something. Let's see from driving modes. This is here dynamic mode. The drive selecting, I can do it here in the infotainment, but at all, this is way lighter. So this makes a big difference indeed in dynamic mode. You also heard it was rather silent on the interior. The only thing you probably heard were all lunch bags there back in the trunk. I put them in the trunk because, yeah, I was expecting that. That's why I put it in the trunk and the cover closed. But yeah, you still hear them, especially in the electric vehicles when you don't have the rest of like an engine sound or something like that. Here on the motorway, you would rather keep it in the balanced setting. Then also, it's a great noise insulation, really. Super silent in here. That is excellent. So, yeah, I mean, you feel like this, you know, silence from the electric drivetrain and then the great insulation of the windows. I mean, we're driving 80 kilometers an hour, like 50 miles an hour. We are on the motorway and it doesn't even feel like we're being on the motorway. I mean, yeah, for a German customer here, you might say, this is no motorway. There's no Autobahn. Yeah, of course. I was yesterday on the Autobahn with a petrol six-cylinder from Audi and was driving like 180 kilometers an hour. So there's a very good comparison then how that feels like. And this year feels super, super, super smooth. And this is also something in comparison to the Porsche Macan, although we have here the 21-inch wheels mounted, the biggest ones available, even optional for the SQ6, 20 to 21 inch, the normal Q6 19 to 21 inch. And also here in the SQ6, we have a sportier setup of the air suspension. The air suspension, even an option for the SQ6, but then with a sportier setup. But if we then compare the Porsche Macan to it, I mean, they are on the same platform and they are on the technological side, more or less the same vehicle really, but they really feel way different, way different than I would have expected, even here in the SQ6 trim. So, the Audi is way more on the comfortable side and although it has this performance, it is so much better in the driving comfort. Oh, that's nice here in the red sign. It's always good to see in the tunnel, especially when we have these driving. This was the blind spot monitor, because the car was on the other lane before, then it switched. Yeah, especially good to see in the tunnel then, because it doesn't seem to be on all the time. It seems to be connected to the daytime running sensor, but we have to check it in the input payment if you can also check that.
Yeah, so back to the Macan comparison, SQ6. Here, I feel like, yes, I have the power, but I'm rather using it for the stuff that cars are usually being used for, like, you know, being smooth, motorway and city traffic and so on. And with the Macan, I felt like I need to attack this all the time. At the same time, you lose comfort, you know? And I think it's okay because then you have the different brand positioning. Because it's always tricky when cars are on the technological side, basically identical, how can they differentiate them like we found out here. The Audi is the cruiser. It is the more, you know, like logical vehicle in that sense. The Macan more has these racing genes. And of course, for 99% of all customers, this setup here makes so much more sense. Plus you save at least 10,000 euros or dollars in the entry price. But if you spec the vehicle, the difference between the Macan and the Q6 will be rather like 30, 40, 50... 1000 euros, so a huge difference. So if you ask me, I mean you do have the performance here and also, you know, like going left and right. I don't see any reason to go for the Macan unless you say like I want to lose comfort, you know what I mean? Yes, it feels sportier, but I think that's actually a problem for
Porsche, you know. So, the more logical choice is definitely the Q6 e-tron, and the Porsche, you would mainly go for the brand, like, for the badge. That's, yeah, that's just how I can comment on that.
And I feel like one of the main findings is this very relaxing drive, you know. These seats here, I talked about them earlier. These are the, like, the sports performance seats. The microfiber seating surface is good. That's the good part about it. If you stick with the base sport seats, I feel they might also add some more comfort because here with Audi, usually the sportier you go in the seat, the stiffer the bolstering itself is. Overall, so far, it's actually quite fine.
Yeah, next to the aspect that they need to show us animal-free interiors, which Audi is still ignoring for most models. Yeah, so that's something they need to work on. But I'm really very positively surprised how smooth it feels here on the Autobahn. I could just go on for miles and miles and miles and would of course even be interesting, A, what will be the final consumption and also how agile it will drive.
And before we leave the motorway here, the assistant systems. So let's just, you know, leave the hands here. I'm supposed to keep them on the steering wheel, but just to show you how the car is following that bent here on the motorway in a very smooth way, very elaborated. We already heard the blind spot monitor, that's pretty cool. When I'm on the brakes, by the way, so the base recuperation is set rather to rolling. You can also go here to the B mode, then you have very strong recuperation if you like that. So, it depends on which driving mode you just prefer.
Other than that, you use your brake pedal to do the recuperation. This is also really strong, up to 220 kilowatts. It can recuperate via these two electric motors. First, there's recuperation via the rear electric motor. Then, when this is all used, then also via the front one, so the rear one reacts first. And then the real braking power is applied. So in 90% of all situations, you will use the recuperation and not the real brakes.
And am I feeling that? Actually, no. And that's also a great accomplishment. You do not feel the difference when you are using the recuperation, when you're using the brakes. That is one of the main challenges when designing electric vehicles and talking about the braking performance. And that means you can sometimes even recharge the car quicker basically going down the hill than putting in the plug. It's also definitely a very fun fact.
This is a very good example here. This motorway is bending quite a lot. So that's the funny thing that the top speed in Spain in the motorways is not really high compared to Germany. But when it is so narrow and that curvy in Germany, then in Germany the speed would be way lower. Funny, isn't it?
And here, for example, no matter in which driving mode you actually are, you know, balanced or dynamic. Here I have a little bit more feedback. I've also now deactivated the lane-keeping assist to have a more natural driving feeling. That helps a lot, definitely, because when the lane assist is activated, then it tends to interfere, you know, when you're doing some agile driving maneuvers and so on. But then when you're deactivated, which you can also do here, with your left thumb, so you can either here press here, with or without like the adaptive driving system with or without lane keeping. And if you press and hold, then it actually disappears completely. And then you can steer this one way better. And it's so much fun because you really feel how smooth it goes in every corner.
ESC sport, launch control. That was 0 to 100 kilometers an hour. That was even more fierce. So I was in dynamic mode. Plus then, it's an electric vehicle. Also, you get here to the ESC sport. So the stability control was drawn back a little bit. And then you can activate the launch control. One foot on the brake, one on the throttle. But not meant to be used on public roads. Yeah, that one is really something. So I mean, it doesn't look that much high performance on the outside, you know, not that much like the Porsche Macan or something, but this is very much performance alike indeed. It's enough. Yeah, that's way more than enough indeed.
Important is when you also do like some, you know, nice cornering or also then want to drive a little bit faster on cornery motorways. I made the experience now once again that it's really important to deactivate that lane keeping assist because it interferes quite a lot. So you don't have to do anything steering-wise usually. But when you want to steer yourself, you really have to like click and hold here on the left stalk column, that you completely deactivate the lane assist, then you can freely steer how you like. So this is really very, very important in that respect.
Pricing, we have the German ones for the reference, is just under €70,000 for the rear-wheel-drive version, only €75,000 for the all-wheel-drive version, and an SQ6, €94,000, as it stands here right now, easily like 120k or something like that, so not cheap at all. However, way cheaper indeed, especially a configured one than a Porsche Macan. So, it's really like a Porsche Macan, a fully specced Turbo, something you can also get like 150, 160 or something, Then this is cheap in comparison, but then again, if you compare a Tesla Model Y, this again, then half the price than this one. Yeah, so these are the price relations.
Then as for the economy, consumption, real-world range, we could score some 20 kilowatt-hours on 100 kilometers today, so that's a little bit more than 3 miles per kilowatt-hour with predominantly motorway, 100, 120 kilometers an hour. So, like 60, 70 miles per hour and some city driving, so a realistic mix indeed. So, it's not the most astonishing figure, but actually quite good considering also this size here and definitely way better than it was with the Q8 e-tron, so to speak, the predecessor of this one. It means a real-world range of around, yeah, like 460 kilometers or 290 miles. What do you think about this? Leave me in the comments and also tune in now to the competitors.