Audi Confirms Electric SUV For 2018

It’s hard to keep a secret in the auto industry, and Audi has finally confirmed rumors that its building an electric SUV due out in the next few years. AutoExpress nabbed the above teaser image of this new “sport activity vehicle” as Audi likes to call it, and the luxury automaker is promising a range per charge of more than 500 km, or about 310 miles.

Buried deep Ulrich Hackenberg’s speech at the annual press conference is a single paragraph about this important entry to the EV world. It says:

“In early 2018, we will launch a battery-powered sports activity vehicle in the large premium segment with a range of more than 500 kilometers. It will have a new, very attractive design, which we are developing especially for the e-tron range and for battery-electric vehicles. This sports activity vehicle will be built on the second generation of the modular longitudinal platform. From the very beginning, this tool for optimal drivetrain diversity implementation has been designed for a broad variety of concepts.”

Audi has already previewed its new design language going forward in the Prologue and Prologue Avant concepts, and you can see hints of both in the darkened teaser image. 2018 is still a long ways away though, especially since the Tesla Model X is set to debut sometime this summer. This is more than just an answer to Elon Musk though; if Audi wants to position itself as a leader in electric technologies and meet increasing emissions requirements in nearly every major car market. Audi’s initial answer is the Q7 diesel-electric hybrid, though that’s really just a stop gap.

It also doesn’t really compete with Tesla. With more than 20,000 orders for a $70,000 vehicle nobody has seen in its final form outside of the Tesla factory, automakers like Audi have got to be wondering what they can do to stay competitive. An electric SUV of their own is a good start, and I won’t complain about the R8 e-tron either.

On the same token, they’re only playing catchup to an upstart. I’d like to see some more EV innovation from ze Germans.