Audi Q6 e-tron provides tech-focused take on luxury

Inside, you are faced with techtastic cabin dominated by screens.

Accompanying the 11.9-inch driver display and a 14.5-inch touchscreen infotainment system is now a 10.9-inch touchscreen for the front seat passenger.

Sharing the same operating system and Google Maps sat-nav display, it saves your co-driver the effort of stretching an arm to meddle with your route or music choice.

It does not end there.

The head-up display of our £80,800 (before options) Q6 e-tron Edition 1 test car employed augmented reality to sweep speed limit signs into your eyeline and animated chevrons to highlight a narrow gap to the car ahead.

Furthermore, an LED light bar below the windscreen illuminated in various colours to aid parking, emphasise hazards and blink green in accompaniment to the indicators.

Many will love all this. Some might consider it tech overload.

Audi has dispensed with many physical buttons and, as ever, prodding and scrolling a screen can prove fiddly on the move.

All those screens also leave little room for kind of soft touch tactility some premium car lovers might crave, aside from the striking S line sports seats.

Sitting on new EV underpinnings shared with the latest Porsche Macan, the Q6 e-tron Edition 1 featured air suspension and twin motors providing quattro all-wheel-drive.

The electric motors provide 383bhp, with torque rated at 275Nm at the front axle and 580Nm at the rear.

This makes 5.9 second acceleration to 62mph possible, while the 100kWh battery claims a 349-mile range between charges.

Thanks to a maximum charging capacity of 270 kW, a 10 to 80 per cent charge can take as little as 21 minutes.

The Q6 e-tron is most closely aligned to the combustion-engined Audi Q5 SUV in size.

Interior space is family-sized, if not on a par with Mercedes’ EQE, with a 526-litre boot accompanied by 64-litres of additional space under the bonnet.

Despite underpinnings shared with a Porsche, the Q6 e-tron lacked a little engagement out on the road, however.

Audi’s introduction of a ‘one pedal’ driving mode – introducing a strong regenerative braking effect to give a feel of low-gear control – was very welcome.

However, the steering offered little feel and the Edition 1’s 28mm lower sports suspension often felt too firm, leading to a lack of communication from road level.

Even in the chassis’ ‘Comfort’ mode the set-up was sometimes uncomfortable for passengers.

Nonetheless, effortless point-to-point pace was still easily achieved.

And with its luxury of technology, Audi’s thoroughly modern-feeling and subtly aggressive-looking new electric SUV is sure to find many fans.