Audi E-tron Quattro concept teases 2018 SUV launch for brand

It’s called the e-tron quattro concept, and if the German brand is to be believed, it can travel over 500km on a single charge.

As the dashboard wars gather pace, Audi isn’t willing to leave all the innovation to Apple and Google, delivering a high-tech OLED paradise in the e-tron quattro concept.

AudiAudi’s tackling the electric vehicle market in a big way. In addition to the Volkswagen Tiguan GTE plug-in hybrid and stunning please-build-it Porsche Mission E concept, they also unveiled an Audi crossover concept that runs on sweet electricity. Interiors are spacious enough for upto four adults with two individual seats at the front and rear.

Importantly, though, it’s no pie in the sky concept either.

That said, despite its limited seating arrangements, the e-tron Quattro Concept does offer 615 liters (22 cubic feet) of luggage space with all four seats occupied. The range-topping new model is set to take the title of the most powerful A8 version ever produced and will be differenced in terms of design from the “mundane” S8 by employing a discrete spoiler lip at the back available either in the body color or carbon fiber.

Audi is yet to reveal a weight figure for the e-tron quattro. The new look is headlined by the sharp new design language, headlights and grille that are making their way across the Audi lineup.

While the engine is the same, power has been lifted from 245kW/440Nm to 260kW and 500Nm while the dual-clutch automatic transmission gains an extra ratio to become an eight-speed unit. Fully-customizable as it is in the Model X, it can be programed to display a variety of different pieces of information. To the left and right below the full digital instrument panel are two touch displays.

The driver is treated to a more advanced version of the virtual cockpit that debuted in the TT previous year.

Don’t think however that Audi has simply copied the basic points of the Model X in order to beat it in the marketplace. That compares with about 300 miles for Tesla’s new Model S P90D saloon, which is already garnering good reviews in the press.

Thanks to three motors, the e-tron quattro concept produces up to 370 kW of power. Cameras replace the exterior mirrors – another contribution to the excellent aerodynamics and also a foretaste of the future of driving. Audi says that the “center tunnel console seems to flow” because the auto “has no driveshaft”-which of course it doesn’t, but this statement makes us wonder why Audi doesn’t use the same treatment in some of its front-wheel-drive models”.

As mentioned, you’ll find it very hard to tell the S4 apart from the standard A4 (particularly with the latter in S line trim) but there are some telltale signs that you’re looking at something quite a bit more serious.