600 miles in the Audi A6 Avant e-tron - the perfect electric estate?
For starters, the augmented reality head-up display that’s projecting our speed, sat-nav directions and nearby road signs onto the windscreen means I seldom need to glance away from the road and down at the virtual cockpit display for information – a particularly useful feature as the regular onslaught of mopeds, cyclists and taxi drivers push their way through the capital’s morning traffic.
And the large, curved 14.5in panoramic touchscreen to my left is angled so starkly towards the driver that operating it while on the move takes little more than a flick of my index finger – and looking at it requires no more than a rapid glance.
Even the virtual mirror screens in the doors have been positioned in such a way that they’re just as easy, if not easier, to glance at than traditional mirrors, meaning less time with your eyes off the black stuff.
Yes, for all intents and purposes everything inside the car is working exactly as it has been designed – to help me keep my focus firmly where it should be. What’s causing me issues is something less easy to engineer your way out of: every time I catch a glance of our A6 Avant e-tron in a glass shopfront, I can’t help but look.
By their very nature, estates are usually sleek, pleasing-looking things, with proportions that would get any seasoned car designer frothing at the mouth; and it's fair to say that Ingolstadt has produced its fair share of devilishly handsome wagons over the years. But for me, this new A6 Avant e-tron is different gravy.
