Whenever someone asks me which new car best fits the description of a “sleeper,” the Audi S6 sedan is the first car that comes to mind. Sure, you could argue that any S-badged Audi can be a sleeper, but the S6 is especially fitting. It’s not as huge as the S8, and not as eye-catching as the S7. In a subtle color, the S6 can truly blend into a parking lot or a crowded highway, while still being able to smoke 95% of the cars on the road in a straight line.
Audi has been selling a gas-powered S6 in North America on and off since 1994, but according to a report from Edmunds, that time is finally coming to an end. There’s a clear distinction to make here, though: The S6 is not dead. It’s still very much alive … as an EV.
The S6 e-tron, released last year, looks like it’s going to fill in for the gas-powered S6 in Audi’s lineup, complete with a quicker 0-60 time and more horsepower. If I’m honest, the S6 going all-electric feels like the most logical step forward for the nameplate. But I’m not sure this e-tron fits the “ultimate sleeper” mold in the same way. Thankfully, the regular A6 is here to save the day (in a way, anyway).
Audi’s Lineup Reflects The Brand’s Shrinking Size
According to Edmunds, the gas-powered S6 is being cut to simplify the greater A6 lineup. An Audi spokesperson confirmed to me the car wouldn’t be making a return for the 2026 model year, but stopped short of confirming its absence from the lineup in the years moving forward.
Considering just how far Audi sales have fallen, tightening up its offerings and focusing on its most profitable models seems like a smart play. Last year, its sales (or lack thereof) in the full-size luxury sedan segment proved that having multiple models in the same category wasn’t driving success.
Sales were down 16% year-over-year for Audi in 2025, dropping to 164,942 vehicles sold. For some context, that’s a drop of over 26% compared to Audi’s sales in 2019. The VW Group subsidiary, which used to go toe-to-toe with brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz, now sells only a fraction of the volume of those brands. You could argue Audi has lost the plot, and that their main buyer base has slowly trickled away throughout the past decade to brands like Tesla. But that’s a story for another time.
Not all hope is lost, though, at least from where I’m sitting. The A6 e-tron and S6 e-tron, which I drove last year at Audi’s media launch event for the car in California, felt like a genuinely competitive product that I could see people actually choosing over the comparable BMW or Mercedes. In its base form, it gets nearly 400 miles of range for under $70,000, which is pretty good. It even looks cool, so long as you don’t look at it from the side (in which case it starts to look like an overweight house cat).
The S6 also just makes sense as an EV. What’s more sleeper than 543 horsepower in complete and utter silence? The e-tron is incredibly quick and loves to cover lots of ground at high speeds, like you’d expect of any S6 before it. The only problem is that its looks are far more distinctive than the outgoing S6’s design, which I’d describe as “the most average-looking sedan ever built” (in a positive way, of course). Going that route makes it look more appealing, sure, but it sort of spoils the sleeperiness of it all.
Whether buyers actually care about that aspect, I’m not really sure. It used to be that if you wanted a sleeper, you bought an Audi. But with electric cars democratizing acceleration for the masses, does it really still apply?
The Best New S6 Might Just Be The A6
While the gas-powered S6 is going away, the regular ICE-powered A6 is still around, and refreshed significantly for 2026. It too is facing some lineup simplifications, but with the crux that the last remaining powertrain available actually makes the car pretty quick. From Edmunds:
Instead of offering four- and six-cylinder engines, the new A6 only comes with a turbocharged V6. This 3.0-liter engine produces 362 horsepower and 406 lb-ft of torque. And according to Audi’s estimates, the A6 will scoot to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds — one-tenth of a second quicker than the last 444-hp S6 we tested.
The new A6 has handling covered, too, if you choose the $5,850 Sport Plus package. Checking that option box nets you rear-wheel steering, a stiffer suspension, summer tires, and most importantly, a trick rear differential that uses torque vectoring to send power to whichever rear wheel needs it most, a piece of equipment normally only seen on S and RS models.
You could make the argument that the gas-powered A6 might be the closest successor to the outgoing S6. It has the acceleration numbers you’d expect from an S-branded car, and the chassis equipment available to keep up when the road gets twisty, too. In fact, I’d argue the new A6 might even be more of a sleeper than the current electric S6 and the outgoing gas-powered S6, since it looks more like a normal car and it doesn’t have any S badges affixed to the body.
My point is that while the gas-powered S6 is dead, it’s not like you can’t get that experience from Audi anymore. There are two cars—the S6 e-tron and the new A6—that take up that mantle in two different ways, depending on what you need from a car. Whichever way you choose, it’ll cost you: The S6 e-tron starts from $79,995, while an A6 equipped with the Sport Plus pack comes in at $71,245.
Top graphic image: Audi
Does this seem backwards to anyone else?
Why not make the low-key super car the fire-breathing, flame-farting the gas-powered car, and the daily, volume(relatively speaking)-seller the EV (or more sensibly hybrid)?
Also, it’s fuck ugly, as Nsane has thoroughly documented.
Audi way overestimated the demand for EVs and is still paying the price. Their original plan was to not even offer an ICE A6 at all and have the A5 as the ICE model and A6 as the BEV. They had to go back on that and development on the EV was far enough along that it would’ve been more trouble to nix it than get it to market.
The vehicle is still going to be a huge failure in the US market and isn’t really even competitive with its counterparts but there are enough Audi loyalists who can be talked into leasing one that they can at least recoup some of their money. Meanwhile they’ve made the regular ICE one way more powerful and performance oriented than usual to bridge the gap.
All things considered I think they’ve made the best out of a bad situation. Making the gas A6 edgier than its competitors could steal some sales from BMW and Mercedes. It slightly undercuts the 540i and E450 and with all the performance goodies it’s probably going to be a more engaging car as well, since those are pretty much straight up luxury barges that happen to have a lot of power.
I don’t know what it is but I think the EV A6 is one of the least attractive cars on sale today. It’s bulbous, proportionally crossover-like, and the front end looks like what would happen if you read a middle school art student a description of an Audi front fascia over a pay phone. It’s basically a parody of an Audi with every bad post Tesla luxury car trope in one place inside and out.
It is incredible how in the typical German attempt to make the least offensive, most conservative, practical design possible they’ve somehow made something so unappealing. The new Q5 is bad too but not nearly as much of a war crime. Anyway you’d need to be out of your mind to spend the $80,000 or whatever on an S6 EV.
…with that out of the way I think they may be on to something with the new ICE A6. It looks fine by comparison, they were smart to go V6 only, and the handling package basically makes it an S6 without the obscenely complicated powertrain. It even has the cool differential like the S and RS models. As of now they have all the fun bits behind an absolutely massive paywall, but you won’t pay anywhere near MSRP for an Audi sedan in 2026 and I expect a lot of that stuff will become cheaper and/or standardized over the model’s run.
They’re even getting rid of the haptic bullshit on the steering wheel! Bravo. Anyway if you’re a fan of the old Audi (and you should be) the new ICE A6 does seem like a step in the right direction, and I’ll probably look at a certified one in a couple years. Definitely don’t take on first owner luxury sedan depreciation though…if you want a new one lease it and treat it well so your fellow Autopians can get good deals on certified ones!
So,
Old S6: 444hp and 0-60 in 4.6s.
New A6: 362hp and 0-60 in 4.5s.
Is there a large weight discrepancy? Or have I just forgotten how power works?
1). Ze Germans dramatically underrate 0-60 times and horsepower. Both of these cars are faster than what’s claimed. IRL an old S6 probably breaks the 4 second barrier and I’d imagine the new don’t call it an S6 does too
2). Weight is a big factor. The old S6 was a mild hybrid with a turbo’d and electronically supercharged V6. I want to say it was nearly 5,000 pounds. I don’t believe the new A6 is quite that heavy but I don’t have numbers in front of me.