Audi will sell the A6 e-tron full-electric car alongside the standard A6 internal combustion engine models when it goes on sale in early 2023.
The Volkswagen Group premium brand previewed the A6 e-tron with the A6 e-tron concept at the Shanghai auto show on Monday.
The concept has a 100 kilowatt-hour battery that when applied to production models will allow a range of over 700 km (435 miles), Audi estimates.
The car is "95 percent" of what the production car will look like, Audi exterior designer Wolf Seeger told journalists during an online preview ahead of the show.
The production A6 e-tron will be the second Audi to be built on the PPE (premium platform electric) architecture developed with Porsche and will follow the Q6 e-tron large SUV due to be launched in the second half of next year.
The A6 e-tron will be the first electric Audi sold outside of China to be given the same name as an existing model and offered alongside internal combustion engine versions. However there are no similarities between the A6's MLB platform and the A6 e-tron's PPE platform, Audi said.
The A6 e-tron most closely resembles the A7 Sportback in size and profile but the decision was made to instead to give the car the A6 "master name" of the model series, an Audi spokesperson said. "It's a new member of the A6 family. We wanted to make that clear," the spokesperson said.