Audi is planning a Range Rover Evoque rival — a fastback-styled, sporty version of the Audi Q5 soft-roader. It will be badged Audi Q4, launched in 2014/15 and priced from around £30k.
The Q4 is already at the advanced concept stage at Audi’s Ingolstadt R&D centre in Germany. It is based on the same MLB (‘modularen langsbau’ or modular longitudinal architecture) as today’s Q5 and the forthcoming Porsche Cajun, which is likely to reach showrooms around the same time as the Q4.
See our rendering of the new Audi Q4
Read more about the Porsche Cajun
The Audi Q4 is set to share its dimensions with the Q5, with a length of 4650mm and a width of 1880mm, but its roofline will be chopped by about 55mm to around 1600mm.
To keep costs in check, its wheelbase (2810mm) and track widths (1620mm front, 1615mm rear) will also mirror the Q5’s.
The Audi Q4 is still shrouded in secrecy, but Autocar understands that it will have a five-door body style and share certain exterior design elements with the popular A5 Sportback. It will feature a more heavily raked windscreen than the Q5, a glasshouse featuring relatively shallow side glass and a large and heavily angled liftback-style tailgate.
Wheel arch blisters, like those on the old RS6 and a feature on 1980s rally Quattros, are under consideration.
The interior will share much of its architecture with the Q5. It will be a five-seat cabin, with the central rear seat intended for occasional use.
Among the proposed engines are next-generation versions of the 2.0-litre turbodiesel with 170bhp and 210bhp, plus a 240bhp 3.0-litre V6 diesel.
They are likely to be joined in the Q4 line-up by a 270bhp naturally aspirated 3.2-litre petrol V6. In keeping with its sporting brief, the Q4 is also likely to spawn two separate S models.
One will be aimed at China, Russia and North America and feature Audi’s 328bhp supercharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine.
The other will be conceived for Europe and is set to be powered by the 308bhp twin-turbo 3.0 TDI V6 recently unveiled in the A6 Avant.
Read about the 308bhp twin-turbo 3.0 TDI V6 Audi A6
The same engines are set to find their way into more upmarket S versions of the Cajun, alongside which the Q4 could be assembled at Porsche’s Leipzig factory in Germany.
A low-emissions Q4 Hybrid model is likely, running the same driveline as the upcoming Q5 Hybrid. It combines a 208bhp turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine with a 34bhp electric motor.
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