Audi has acknowledged a problem with an S6 Sportback e-tron that stopped charging reliably after a free software campaign, and is aiming to release a fix in November, after a wave of complaints on social media.
The call to one of the owners came days after Audi of America’s customer line told him the fault was not documented.
Audi S6 Sportback e-tron owner Barry Schwartz said a Region Case Manager for Audi’s Eastern Region called him on September 11. She attributed the fault to the “electrical grid” his car is connected to and told him he does not qualify for a buyback, he told EV.
Schwartz’s 2025 S6 Sportback e-tron stopped charging reliably at home and at public stations after his dealer installed Service Action 06K2 on August 20.
Audi describes the software campaign to dealers as a “proactive quality initiative.” It comes as other owners describe cars that would not start after the same update, and one says a dealer declined to install it on Audi’s instruction.
Schwartz has said the charging problems began only after the update, following a year of ownership. They have also followed the car away from his home supply.
At an Electrify America station it took three tries to start charging and then stopped mid-session. He has said public fast chargers show “similar issues,” though not as badly.
The Call
Schwartz said the case manager “admitted there is an issue” and promised a software update in November. The goal is to make it available to customers the week of November 9, almost three months after the update went on his car.
She said she would come back to him with an offer for the inconvenience, possibly free public charging, according to Schwartz. He said he was not surprised to be turned down for a buyback. In his view, getting one would mean hiring a lemon-law attorney. He did not say whether he would.
“I am happy that Audi corporate admitted there is an issue and they are working on a fix,” he wrote.
The fault has not eased in the meantime. Schwartz said he spent 30 minutes the night before plugging and unplugging the car, about 30 times, and it would not accept a charge. The next day it took on the second try.
The Hold
A Q6 driver wrote on the r/AudiQ6 forum last week that the Service Supervisor at their dealer had declined to install KD2* during a service visit.
Audi corporate had advised the dealer to hold off until it resolved “a known issue of vehicles failing to power on after the update,” the owner wrote.
Audi has not published a notice pausing the campaign. The dealer documents for 06K2 say the campaign is released in waves and that technicians must confirm in Audi’s Elsa system that a car’s status is open before starting work.
Audi has filed formal stop orders with NHTSA before.
In November 2018 it halted all repairs under a safety recall because of unforeseen software issues. But 06K2 is a service action, not a safety recall, and a pause would not necessarily be filed publicly.
EVs That Would Not Start
Replies in the same thread describe the failure the supervisor is said to have cited. One owner wrote that KD2* “bricked” their car and it would not start afterwards.
The owner blamed a failed module that made the car believe a charging cable was still plugged in. The part was on a 30-day backorder, the owner wrote, and they filed a lemon-law buyback claim and a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
A Q6 owner replied that the account described their situation “word for word” and that they were also pursuing the lemon law. Two others said their cars had the same problem.
Another owner said their car had been at the dealer since July 29, with what they believed were five modules “bricked” and no date for its return. That owner did not say which update the car had received.
If that diagnosis is right, both faults involve the car misjudging its connection to a charger. Schwartz’s car will not accept power from a charger that is plugged in.
On AudiWorld, an owner whose Q6 received the first KD2 update in December said the dealer later found a failed switch box module after repeated charging system malfunctions, ordered the part from Germany and told the owner not to drive the car.
Owners Without Trouble
Other owners in a Reddit thread said the updates did what Audi promised. One reported no problems three weeks after KD2, with ghost alarms and sound dropouts gone.
Another said KD2*, installed about a week earlier, had stopped pop-up warnings and cured a regenerative braking fault. That owner had charged the car only once since.
The milder complaints match what Audi warned dealers about. One owner said KD2 broke the digital key and the myAudi app. Another said KD2* disabled wireless CarPlay and the digital key, which worked again only after several full resets.
Audi had told dealers the first update would reset most customer settings and require digital keys to be deleted and re-added.
