Audi Q6 vs BMW IX3

What's the difference?

From a few paces back, the Q6 e-tron is easy to mistake for just another Audi.

After all, Audi, perhaps above all its contemporaries, has established such a consistent look and feel for its entire range.

But this is no regular Audi. The brand tells us the Q6 e-tron is the most significant new vehicle it has launched in a decade.

Underneath its familiar visage, Audi is so excited about the Q6 e-tron because it brings with it a ground-up new-vehicle platform, which brings with it some forward leaps when it comes to technology.

But does being new actually make the Q6 e-tron a good car? We went to its Australian media launch to find out.

There are a lot of big numbers surrounding the BMW iX3, the German brand’s new-from-the-ground-up EV that acts as the flagbearer for its future-facing Neue Klasse (or New Class) architecture, designed to distil all the ingredients that make a BMW a BMW, and then electrify for them for the post-ICE (internal combustion engine) era.

But the one that really stood out? 805. That’s how many kilometres of driving range the iX3 will deliver, though admittedly in its most efficient and least exciting driving modes. That is bonkers, right?

It’s worth pointing out the first BMW i3, which only launched a decade-or-so ago, delivered more like 150km on what would have been the WLTP cycle, if it had existed then. Talk about leaps and bounds.

A good start for the newest BMW EV, then. But what else does the iX3 have to offer?