Audi’s new £56k A6 saloon PHEV will do 69 miles of all-electric driving

Audi has extended its A6 estate and saloon lineup with an ‘e hybrid quattro’ plug-in hybrid (PHEV) option, which grants up to 66 miles of pure electric driving in the former and 69 in the latter. S’pose that’s the advantage of having a body that’s slippier than most eels, right?

In the UK, they’ll be offered solely with a 295bhp 2.0-litre TFSI four-pot. That’ll get you to 62mph in six seconds flat and up to a top speed of 155mph (or 87mph in EV-only mode). You won’t have the option of front-wheel drive though, like you do with the mild hybrid, so it’s all-wheel drive or bust here. That’s not a complaint, mind.

There’ll be a 362bhp version with as much as 369 torques and a 0-62 time cut right down to 5.3s… but it’s not landing on this side of the Chunnel. Boo.

Back to the car at hand. Audi’s equipping it with a new high-voltage battery that has a 45 per cent higher capacity than its predecessor - now up to 25.9 kWh (20.7 net) - which takes around 2.5 hours to renew to full health at an 11kW AC charger. There are three regen braking levels to reinstate some of those electrodes while you’re on the go, too.

All the interior-based goodies from the mild hybrid are carried right across, so it’s an 11.9in virtual cockpit teaming up with a 14.5in infotainment touchscreen inside, plus the option of a Bang and Olufsen sound system. Audi’s engineers have done some overtime working on sound insulation too, which is up 30 per cent over the previous model. Probably as quiet as a fist fight between two church mice in there.

UK prices are soon to be confirmed, but we do know our friends in Germany can land a saloon for the equivalent of £55.7k, or lump another two grand on top for the Avant.