The next-generation Audi Q7 will be the first Audi to sport the firm’s new design language, design chief Wolfgang Egger has revealed at the Geneva motor show.
Speaking to Autocar, Egger said the look previewed on the Crosslane Coupé concept at last year’s Paris motor show, and that it would appear first on the Q7 but did not put a date on when the big new SUV would launch. “The Q7 will be the first new car, it is coming soon,” he said.
The leap in design for Audi comes with a new 3D-effect grille in place of the current single frame grille, as previewed on the Crosslane Coupé. “The grille becomes 3D next,” said Egger, “with lots of nice detailing and high-quality materials used at the front like aluminium and carbonfibre.”
Egger said that no detailing would be added to the look of new Audis unnecessarily, and future designs would “clean up”. “We’re not putting stuff on, we’re taking away,” he said.
Further differentiation in Audi’s designs would come from the positioning of its standard, S and RS models. Egger said that the gaps between these three pillars of Audi models would grow wider.
Larger, more premium cars would also get more distinctive designs. “The big challenge is to make the high class very different,” Egger said.
A closer link between road and race programmes would also be a hallmark of Audi’s future designs, Egger revealed. “Audi has been in Le Mans for many years and there is now a movement to take the race car to the street,” he said.
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So they're going to make the
So they're going to make the grille 3D, with lots of nice detailing, and aluminium and carbonfibre, but at the same time they're going to clean up, not put stuff on but take it away. How does that work then?
Still as long as it doesn't end up just looking like a lumpy truck, like the present Q7 then it will be an improvement.