Audi Q4 E-Tron Concept Bows in Geneva

The Q4 E-Tron Concept is an electric SUV concept that will go into production in 2021 at the earliest and will be the fifth electric model for the Audi brand.

The concept made its global debut at the Geneva auto show. It continues on Audi’s promise to launch 12 pure electric vehicles by 2025. The E-Tron family started with the E-Tron crossover that goes on sale in the U.S. mid-year. It will be followed by the E-Tron Sportback in early 2020 which has a roofline like the Audi A7 and shares a platform with the Porsche Taycan. Audi showed a camo’d version of the production car at the show and promised a true look at the production car by the end of the year.

The E-Tron GT four-passenger sedan will be available at the end of 2020, and then the Q4 E-Tron in 2021 or later. Another E-Tron, the Q2 L for China only, will be unveiled in a few weeks at the Shanghai auto show.

The Q4 E-Tron is billed as the first affordable A-segment electric vehicle, and there will be little change to the car for production. With batteries in the floor, the crossover has an extended wheelbase and short overhangs. The body is curvaceous with a wide stance.

The Q4 E-Tron continues the latest design language with the hexagonal grille, thin LED headlights, and big jowls for the inlets in the front bumper. Customers can design their own graphic for the digital headlights, an Audi first.

As expected, there is a lot of tech at the driver’s fingertips, from the Virtual Cockpit customizable digital instrument cluster to the large dual-screen infotainment system, all brimming with information and functions. Another first is the huge head-up display.

The Q4 will have a range of about 450 km (280 miles) as measured on the European WLTP drive cycle.

After 2022, Audi will trade in the modified MLB platform it is using for electric vehicles and adopt the new PPE (Premium Platform Electric) architecture for performance luxury electric vehicles. Porsche will also stop using its J1 architecture and switch to PPE for the economies of scale. Mainstream brands in the Volkswagen Group use the MEB platform for their electric vehicles, and some Audis, including the Q4 E-Tron, will use MEB.

Along with the Q4 E-Tron, Audi will launch plug-in hybrid versions of the A6, A7, A8, and Q5. All made their official debut in Geneva. The existing A3 and Q7 PHEVs have been upgraded.

The plug-ins will go on sale this year in Europe and a decision will be made in the next few months whether to offer the PHEVs in the U.S., said Fermin Soneira Santos, Audi vice president of Product Marketing.

But the U.S. will not get them in 2019. This year is the year of E-Tron for the U.S. in the belief that Americans embrace pure EVs—courtesy of Tesla—as opposed to plug-in hybrids. But Santos thinks the U.S. will get the PHEVs “eventually.”

Herbert Diess, chairman of the Volkswagen AG Board of Management, said product offerings and powertrains are tied to local regulations. But also he does not see a market for them in the U.S. “There have been plug-in hybrids in the U.S. and none of them really have been successful so far,” he tells MotorTrend in an interview. VW has the platforms to proceed when the time is right but it does not make sense right now.

Audi CEO Bram Schot has said one in three new Audis will have some form of electric powertrain by 2025.

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