The Audi Q3 is to get an all-electric e-tron sister vehicle by 2021, Audi bosses have confirmed to Auto Express.
The new electric SUV will join the forthcoming e-tron, e-tron Sportback and e-tron GT, to make four all-new Audi EVs. The final car is expected to be a China-only SUV built as a joint venture with SAIC. It’ll be assembled in Southern China and is unlikely to be exported, at least for the time being.
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Audi chairman of the board Rupert Stadler made an initial reference to the Q3-inspired EV at the brand’s Annual Press Conference in Ingolstadt this week. When challenged on which Audi would be the first to use the Volkswagen Group’s pure-electric MEB platform (the same architecture that will underpin VW’s I.D. line-up), he said: “It’ll be a neat, chic vehicle, with SUV character.”
Audi’s executive vice-president for technical development, Horst Glaser, followed this by telling Auto Express the car would be “around about” the size of the existing Q3. “You can imagine the positioning of that car when you look at the competitors,” Glaser said. “Who is coming with out with electric cars in the SUV segment in 2020?”
This suggests the new e-tron crossover will go head to head with the forthcoming all-electric Volvo XC40. Audi may also want to steal customers from the slightly larger BMW iX3, which is due before the end of the decade.
While he wouldn’t confirm any specific design details, Glaser did insist the new model would be recognisable alongside the Audi’s current cars, and indeed the upcoming e-tron variants.
“The design will be pure Audi,” he said. “The interior will be pure Audi. The infotainment will be an Audi system. It’ll be clear you’re driving an Audi.”
The proliferation of all-electric e-tron models means Audi will need to reassess its nomenclature to differentiate its EVs from PHEVs and mild-hybrid vehicles. Whether that means cars like the diesel-electric plug-in Q7 e-tron will drop its existing badging in favour of a new model code is unclear, but Glaser admitted something needed to be done.
“We might think about the naming of plug-ins to make it less confusing,” he said. “There might be some differentiation between the EVs and the PHEVs. There might be a separation in terms of names.”
The e-tron and e-tron Sportback are larger than the Q3 crossover and will likely utilise a tweaked version of the MLB architecture that underpins the latest Audi A8. The e-tron Gran Turismo will be based on the same platform as the upcoming Porsche Mission E.
It’s too early to say what base Audi-SAIC’s joint venture SUV will use, though given the Chinese firm’s ever-swelling expertise, it could choose to employ something totally bespoke.
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