The Audi Q4 Sportback E-tron will arrive in 2021 - one of seven electric E-tron models that will be on sale in the next 18 months. By 2025, Audi plans to have 20 electric cars.
The Q4 Sportback E-tron is mechanically identical to its Q4 E-tron sibling, unveiled at the Geneva motor show last year. Both models will arrive at the same time, with the SUV version predicted to be more popular.
The model, along with its sibling, is the first Audi to use the Volkswagen Group’s MEB platform. A spokesman said the platform is the “cornerstone of Audi’s electric campaign,” adding: “We are using it for the high-volume electric segment. The synergies in the Group make EVs ready for the mass market.” It is one of four electric platforms Audi is using, two of which are co-developed with Porsche.
When asked if the Q4 will be the smallest EV based on the MEB in Audi’s range, a spokesman said: “For the next years, it’s the smallest Audi built on MEB, but we are still thinking about other compact, electric cars based on the MEB platform.” Audi has previously said smaller cars on the MEB platform would be left to less premium brands in the VW Group, but it is understood to be evaluating an A2 E-tron, built on MEB and based on the AI:ME concept.
The dimensions of the two Q4 models are almost identical, giving it a slightly smaller footprint than the Audi A3. At 4.6m long and 1.6m high, the Q4 Sportback is 1cm longer and lower than the Q4. Width remains the same at 1.9m with a wheelbase of 2.77m.
While both the Q4 Sportback pictured here and the already-seen Q4 are concepts, next year’s production versions will be very similar. Talking about the Sportback, its exterior designer Amar Vaya said: “It’s 90% there - we have made the concept a bit wider and a bit lower - and some bumper details will change. There will be door handles [rather than the concept’s flush handles].”
On the biggest design challenge on the car, Vaya commented: “The section around the A-pillar was the hardest. The wheels are really pushed out to the corners which is great for designers. But the A-pillar is so far forwards, at first we were troubled that it almost had a mini-van silhouette. We created this sculptured shut line from the bonnet to the wing mirror to give the appearance of a long bonnet.”
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Better looking than ID4
A lot better looking than the ID4 it's based on, IMHO
Looks dreadful.
Looks dreadful.
Making so many electric cars is a brave move by VW group. Especially when it's not proven that the market is big enough to sustain it.
Is this really an Audi, the
Is this really an Audi, the same carmaker who gave us the stylistic purity of the TT and other models in the 80s and the 90s?
From Bauhaus to Baroque in a little over a decade is quite a negative achievement. (Ditto BMW and Mercedes)