Audi ‘to fill the gaps’ in its SUV range with Q4 and Q6
Audi has a few SUVs in its line-up: there's the Q2, Q3, Q5, Q7 and upcoming Q8. But what about the gaps? Where are the Q1, Q4 and Q6? Well, they could be on their way sooner than you'd think.
Audi chairman of the board of management Rupert Stadler told CarAdvice at the 2017 Geneva motor show that the brand is looking to add new models to appeal to different buyers in different regions, with the spots either side of the new Q5 the ones that are garnering the most attention internally.
"Believe me, we will fill the gaps," Stadler said. "They have to be filled - I'm absolutely sure they have to be filled, because the customer desire in different global regions is somehow so different that you have to be in the marketplace with different derivatives, and we are strongly working on that."
Stadler said that offering new models will allow the brand to expand not only its sales but invoke new customers to consider the German luxury brand.
"We see that there is the business potential. We see that with new derivatives and products we can reload Audi. Of course, on the one hand [we will do that with] technology [such as autonomous driving and electric cars], while on the other hand optically with new products.
"This is, finally, what drives growth," he said.
So, what will they look like? It is probable that, based on the new Q8 concept - shown in standard guise at the Detroit motor show and in 'Sport' guise at the Geneva show - that the even-numbered models in the SUV range will be more aggressively styled, and a tad more focused on design than practicality.
Look at the Q2 compared to the Q3, for instance.
That makes sense for the Q4 and Q6 - swoopy, heavily styled models that will be spawned from the newly arrived Q5 and soon-to-be-unveiled new Q3, but what about the first alphanumeric combo - the Q1?
We asked Stadler if he thought there is still a spot that can be filled below the Q2 (pictured above).
"Yeah, but I would see the priorities a little bit more upscale. We named the Q2 to keep, let's say, an option [below] it," he said. "But our job is much more in the direction of the Q4 and above it."
Makes sense - the larger models is where the profit lies, so a Q1 might be a while away yet.
And these new Q4 and Q6 models are also set to sit separately to the brand's new electric vehicle line, which will kick off with the e-tron SUV in 2018.
Audi has toyed with the idea of gap-filling SUVs in concept form on several occasions, with the Audi Crosslane, TT Offroad, Allroad Shooting Brake and the Nanuk supercar crossover.
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