2024 Audi Q6 E

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For all the investment Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche are making in electric vehicles, they have yet to introduce much cutting-edge EV technology of the sort we have covered from Lucid, Tesla, and others. Well, the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture that will underpin the 2024 Audi Q6 E-Tron and the Porsche Macan EV starts to change that, with motor, battery, and charging innovations worthy of mention. And the rest of the platform and design look appealing, as well.

We've described it as the Porsche Macan EV's classier cousin, meaning a somewhat comfier, less sporty riff on a heart-of-market compact luxury electric SUV. Positioned smack in between the Q4 E-Tron and new midsize Q8 E-Tron models, it's the size of today's Audi Q5 and Porsche Macan but built on brand-new dedicated all-electric vehicle architecture. (In Audi's new naming system, odd-number names go on vehicles that include a combustion engine while the next higher even number signifies the all-electric variant of equivalent size/prestige.) We expect the Q6 lineup to include standard square-back SUV and coupelike Sportback body styles, as well as SQ6 and RS Q6 variants that will partially overlap or bridge the performance gap to the Macan.

This new dedicated electric platform features a long wheelbase, wide track, and short overhangs, but Audi Design boss Marc Lichte wasn't trading any of that coveted dash-to-axle proportioning away in the name of increased cabin space. While not yet completely un-camouflaged, these SQ6 prototypes reveal body sculpting that subtly recalls the fender bulges of the original Ur Quattro, a black roof that's visually extended by the spoiler and supported (like so many others) by a body-color "shark fin" D-pillar.

In front, what look like headlamps are the matrix daytime-running lights; the high- and low-beam illumination emanates from the dark sockets below them. In back there's cross-car OLED lighting, and in markets with functional governments that comprehend the benefits of advanced lighting technology, the DRLs and rear matrix lighting can convey messages and do other cool tricks.

Audi has yet to release numbers, but it's hard to imagine that options within the range won't include the power team in the A6 E-Tron (470 hp/590 lb-ft) and the Macan's top offering (603 hp and 738 lb-ft). Those models will feature e-Quattro all-wheel drive. What the engineers will share is that Audi's tuning of the e-Quattro system strongly favors the rear axle until the fronts are needed in slippery conditions or to confidently pull the car out of a corner, though the torque split is infinitely variable. Whether this is done electronically, with a more powerful rear motor, by using different final drive ratios front and rear, or some combination of the three, we'll have to wait and find out.

A choice of steel or air suspension will be offered with adaptive damping also on the menu, and even though active anti-roll bars are not offered, we're told the suspension tuning tenses up the relevant corners to prioritize flat cornering. A five-link front suspension brings new kinematics and a level of stiffness that, along with a steering rack that's now rigidly attached to the front crossmember, helps remove some of the time delay between a steering input and chassis response. This, plus the quick-ratio variable-rate steering, is said to enhance the sense of nimbleness and minimize the impression you're toting around an incredibly heavy battery. And finally, we're assured a new integrated braking system better manages the handoff between regenerative and friction braking. Shift paddles select between three levels of regeneration during coasting, and a "B" mode enables one-pedal driving to a complete stop.

We were surprised to find individual copper hairpins, each with two loose ends that must be laser welded, after having reported on Lucid's woven stator windings and ZF's braided windings. Both eliminate costly manufacturing effort and boost reliability, but the Porsche/Audi development team claims its copper bar-stock hairpin setup ultimately positions more copper closer to the rotor than is feasible with these other designs. (This concept appeared some years ago as a substantial improvement relative to the continuous round-section wire windings that powered most Teslas until recently.) And hey, the first P in this platform name suggests there's budget for some laser welding; now let's hope those welds prove durable.

Audi borrows a page from the Lucid playbook by employing oil cooling of the electric motors, with passages etched into the metal plates that get stacked up to form the stator (though the PPE passages are located around the outer edge of the stator, while Lucid's are down in between the windings). As in the Lucid motors, oil exits via holes pointed at the ends of the copper wiring to cool them further. Where PPE trumps Lucid is in employing a similar cooling technique on the rotor, as well, using oil supplied from inside the rotor shaft.

Generating big power from a permanent-magnet motor causes a lot of heat to build up in the magnets. The heaviest, rarest, costliest rare-earth materials are the ones best suited to tolerating extreme heat. Cooling the magnets allows PPE to sustain big power from more mainstream magnets. Of course, Lucid packages the reduction drive and differential inside the rotor instead of oil cooling, whereas PPE mounts an external helical-gear, single-speed reduction drive and differential gearing off to the side. At least at launch, no limited-slip function is anticipated, though brake-based torque vectoring is employed.

"What's the big deal?" you're thinking, GM Ultium and other packs already do that. This PPE battery architecture design actually inverts the Ultium concept. Here, the battery and system operate at 800 volts, but to optimize certain lower-speed battery charging operations, the pack can be isolated, divided in half, and wired in parallel to function like two 400-volt packs. This allows the platform to reap all the benefits of 800-volt architecture—principally halving the current required to deliver a given amount of power, and hence halving the size, cost, and weight of the orange cables that connect to the motors. Silicon-carbide power inverters also boost efficiency and hence range.

PPE will be scalable for wheelbase, track, ground clearance, and battery size, but this initial application gets 180 prismatic cells organized in 12 modules of 15 cells each. Total capacity is 100 kWh, of which probably 95 kWh or so are usable, and we'd expect an EPA range number in the 330-350-mile range. The exact chemistry (NMC or LFP?) has yet to be announced, ditto the supplier.

What we do know is it should charge from 10 to 80 percent in just 30 minutes, with 186 miles added in the first 10 minutes. The peak charging rate is quoted as 270 kW—that's 80 kW shy of the peak 350kW rate today's best chargers can dispense to vehicles with an 800-volt system. Audi finds that its battery pack heats up more quickly at 350 kW than it does at 270 kW, so its strategy can sustain the peak charging rate for longer at 270 kW than it could (and some competitors do) at 350 kW. The onboard charger can handle 11 kW of Level 2 charging, for those with a 50-amp circuit.

No, you can't charge faster by plugging into both sides, but as a convenience that may simplify parking at home or workplace Level 2 chargers, PPE will include a charge port on both rear quarter panels (though only the left side accepts the full CCS port for DC fast charging). This convenience feature already exists on some other Audi E-Tron models.

Europe gets the Q6 this fall, with North American sales starting in early 2024. We expect pricing to open at around $65,000 for the Q6, with the top-dog RS Q6 Sportback starting nearer $85,000 and the SQ6's price range in between. Might this technically sophisticated PPE architecture, in either Audi or Porsche livery, finally give the Tesla Model Y a run for its money?