Battle of the electric estates: BMW i5 Touring vs Audi A6 e-tron Avant

Close run battle, this. And that's not a surprise, is it? For all recorded time, comparing big German bizniz barges has been like agonising over shades of off-white in the paint aisle. The BMW 530d M Sport Almond Ivory... or the Audi A6 S line Elephant’s Breath? Sorry love, better grab a tester pot to be sure we don’t prefer Mercedes E-Class AMG Line Waiting Room Beige.

But it is incredible how equal the latest evolutions of A6 and 5 Series are, because here we have the two polar opposite views the car industry is currently arguing over – how to build an EV.

Option one: BMW’s one size fits all masterplan. Build a car to accept every powertrain choice going. Into this immense, awkwardly angular bodyshell, BMW stuffs petrol and diesel engines, hybrids, or this totally electric solution, the i5.

Photography: Jonny Fleetwood

That’s why you sit a little bit higher than you’re used to in a 5 Series – because about 300kg of cells need room to lie down. It’s why this car is punctured by grilles – in case this body contained an engine. It also explains the XXL overhangs and traditionally long bonnet (with no front boot stowage beneath it, meaning the charging cables get in the way of shopping and knot the dog’s legs). And the ‘classic’ plutobarge look means the aero is none too clever.

So there are compromises, and not just for the i5. All 5 Series' (including the infamously porky M5) are now stupidly heavy, because the basic structure has been armour plated in case it needs to carry monumental e-flab.

But the upshot is BMW only has to build one car called a 5 Series. The factory is happy, the badging department is pleased, and you don’t need a treasure map to negotiate BMW’s website.

Option two: Audi will soon build two entirely unrelated A6s. One is this car: the electric only A6 e-tron. The other is the new, um, A6, a combustion or hybrid powered car on an entirely different chassis. The two cars will both be called A6 but won’t share a single body panel.

Still, the advantages to dreaming up a fresh platform are obvious. The A6 e-tron Avant isn’t just slipperier than the BMW. It’s one of the world’s most aerodynamically efficient production cars, because it’s not full of holes, the underbody is flatter than morale at Old Trafford, and it lacks door mirrors. We’ll come back to those.

Besides leaving the air neat and tidy, the A6’s bespoke foundations unlock other useful advantages. Yes, it’s actually 5kg heavier than the 5er, but it carries 17 per cent more battery capacity in a car that’s usefully smaller overall.

No surprise then that there’s a heap more range. BMW quotes 327 miles from the industry lab test, but we’re more forensic. This car has been our TG Garage long termer for eight months and 10,000 miles. It averaged 310 miles to a charge last summer. Even the least efficient A6 e-tron – this Launch Edition on 21in wheels – claims over 400 miles. The Sport model reckons it’ll outrun the i5 by a good 100 miles.

So far, so ‘we told you so’ by Audi then. An electric car is best when it’s built to be electric from the wheels up. And the virtuous circle keeps on spinning, running four rings around the bloated i5.

It’s not just your eyes, either. The A6 is indeed noticeably shorter (if marginally wider) – easier to park and place – yet passengers in the second row enjoy more space to lounge in. Opening the back doors of a 5 Series is like going to a flat viewing after studying the cheeky fisheye lens photos posted by the estate agent. Hang about, it looked ginormous on the outside. Where’s all the space gone?

But the weather (as motorsport commentators gleefully point out) is a great leveller. It’s bitingly cold when A6 meets i5. And you know what? Both offer up 250 miles. A colleague spends longer with the Audi and coaxes it to 2.8 miles per kWh over 270 miles, but the BMW avenges its smaller battery by being more efficient overall, effortlessly managing three miles per kWh. And though the i5 loses the space wars for ‘people’, it wins it back on ‘stuff’. It has the marginally bigger boot and even a slightly faster electric tailgate.

Just as things are looking up for the i5, let’s roll price into the equation. An i5 Touring squeaks in at under £70k, but Brits will almost always tick the M Sport box as seen here, taking the price north of £76k, or £1,100 a month on the BMW finance calculator. A6 e-tron Avants are a few grand cheaper to begin with, while the equivalently thrusting S line trim is £68,605.

This particular car is a spec laden Launch Edition unhelpfully no longer listed on Audi’s website, but here to give you a good idea what an A6 looks like with every option optioned. Even at an eye watering £87k, it’s £6k less than BMW charges for this bell and whistle festooned i5. At this point we ought to cover depreciation, but the BBC doesn’t allow depictions of cruelty and torture in its publications.

So we’ll drive them instead, just as soon as the BMW’s 87-point turned its way out of the multistorey. And nicked a wheel on the down ramp kerb in the process. My fault. Or was it? For all its screens, cameras, sensors, bongs, alerts and assists, the sheer bulk of the i5 simply isn’t compatible with quite a lot of Britain. Over 5m long, 2m wide over the mirrors. Rear steer and 360º cameras help, but the Audi is wieldier and less stressful at each end of your journey.

Partly that’s because you sit up in the roof rafters rather than (relatively) down on the cat’s eyes. What Audi’s done here is dress up a crossover driving position in an estate car suit. That black fillet breaking up the thickset doors and 21in rims does a convincing job of hiding the fact an A6 driver is no longer eye to eye with other pilots of German business expresses. They’re riding high and mighty with the Evoques and Qashqais. Easier to judge your surroundings from up there.

Life in the BMW is calm and cultured. It’s a very expensive car, but it has the feel of one too

Or it would be, if Audi hadn’t wilfully sabotaged itself with yet more virtual mirrors. OK, we’ve been here before with the old e-tron SUV and in various Hyundais and Lexuses, so the problems with this tech are fairly well established. The displays aren’t clear enough in dark or wet conditions (gawd help you if it’s both), there’s no depth perception so telling at a glance how quickly that car in the next lane is closing is nigh on impossible, and because the camera is fixed, you can’t change your perspective by bobbing or weaving your head. You need to swipe at the screen to muddle where the lens is pointing. It’s a faff.

And despite shifting the screens away from the corners of the pillars and up onto the doors, it’s tricky to unlearn the instinct of looking out the window to check the mirror. Ah, whoops, that’s a camera. Refocus to inside the door to check screen. Oopsie, there’s a 10-tonne truck in my blind spot. Why all this inconvenience and this hefty cost (the digital mirrors are usually a £1,495 option)? According to Audi’s wind tunnel boffins, the drag saving is worth four miles of range over a full charge. I think I’d sooner park in the next village and walk.

There are other quibbles. The entire Top Gear road test team drove the A6 during its stay with us and not one thought the ride was acceptable. Yes, it’s wearing 21in rims and our roads are rougher than Hardest Geezer’s foot calluses, but there’s a tension and restlessness to the A6’s ride which gets on your nerves. You’ll have read how the car is much more at home on the highways of continental Europe which are cared for like putting greens, but that’s cold comfort when the A6 is jouncing down the A6003 and everyone’s having their heads tossed around like they’re on a moody seaside donkey.

Life in the BMW is calm and cultured. It’s a very expensive car, but it has the feel of one too, straddling the line between where an executive 5 Series ends and a luxury 7 Series limo begins. It squashes bumps the Audi fidgets over, absorbs imperfections the Audi hosts a conference call about, and generally oozes about like a shooting brake Rolls-Royce Spectre. Once you’re on a road it can comfortably fit down. When you tug its bombproof door closed behind you, it seals you off from the outside world so effectively you half expect your ears to pop, as if it’s a pressurised cabin in a business jet.

Perhaps this is a personal preference thing, but across all the i-kind and e-trons I’ve driven, BMW’s intelligent regen braking is more logical than Audi’s paddle adjusted settings. Click the i5 into B mode in town for maximum recuperation and it’s a very relaxing one pedal car.

In the very old days, an Audi/BMW faceoff would traditionally alight on the fact the BMW also had steely eyed rear drive chops and was obviously the choice of serious drivers, while the Audi was about as memorable as a Dulux paint chart. The gap is a lot closer these days. For one thing, the Audi’s rear wheel drive too. More efficient that way. Back to back, the lower set, slightly more agile BMW was the keener drive, but come on. Two-tonne e-wagons with augmented warp soundtracks hardly scream Sunday morning thrap, right?

Be in no doubt, the Audi’s a fine car. Our team preferred its interior screen logic (cameras excepted) and found it easier to manoeuvre. It’s spacious, futuristic and has the potential to be a genuine range monster. Probably comfier, less annoying and better value with a more modest spec, too.

But the i5 earns the narrowest of moral victories here, because despite not even being built to be an EV first and foremost, it’s the better car to drive, to ride in, to carry things and isn’t remotely compromised enough to justify building a whole other car as an electric offshoot. So there you have it, carmakers of the world. BMW’s been the canary in the coal mine and done you a big favour. Keep building cars you can sell with or without engines. Y’know, just in case electric doesn’t end up being the only fuel of the near future.