A ground-breaking car, at a beautiful house. What’s not to like?
The Audi Q6 e-tron is an all-new EV with a human-centred interior designed from the inside out. So we were excited to partner with Audi to introduce the Q6 at a party in late November at one of our favourite houses of 2024, the home of interior designer Alex McLeod and her husband Greg, which featured on the cover of Here 25.
The house was a collaboration between McLeod and architect Natasha Markham, of MAUD, which evolved over several years. It has a rigorous plan with a clearly defined grid, softened with a material palette that extends to stone, crazy paving and cedar, carefully designed around the daily rituals of family life. (We were also excited to give away a weekend in the e-tron, with two nights’ accommodation thanks to our friends at Canopy Camping.)
The Q6 is the first car to feature the Volkswagen Group’s Premium Platform Electric vehicle hardware, which drives everything from infotainment to vehicle handling. (It’s also the first of a new naming convention: from now, even-numbered models will be electric.)
With more than 600km of range and a super-fast charging time, the Q6 is how EVs of the future will look. Along with an 800-volt lithium-ion battery, the new platform has enabled great extensions in range but also a software-first approach. Along with voice-activated demands via Audi Assistant it also features smart charging, and this is where you start to grasp how exciting an electrified future can be.
Head off on a long car journey using the e-tron route planner, and the car will tell you where the charging stations are, and how long you’ll need to charge for; it’ll then tell you how to get there and where you might get a coffee nearby. As you approach the charging station, it’ll start to prepare the battery so that by the time you plug in, it’s ready to go at the optimum time – allowing it to jump from 10 to 80 percent in 21 minutes.
The car has an all-new interior informed by user-experience design and a digital approach. Three panorama displays extend across the dashboard, combining the Audi virtual cockpit and centre display with a front-passenger display. Navigation and entertainment can be operated separately, with the passenger’s screen not visible to the driver while driving. The sound system, meanwhile, includes three-dimensional sound, with speakers built into the headrests. All of which is designed to ensure the ultimate passenger and driver comfort.
Audi Q6 e-tron
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