The Audi Q6 E-Tron has been confirmed for production, starting in 2018. That announcement came last week at the company’s annual meeting. The Q6 E-Tron will slot in between the company’s Q5 and Q7 SUV offerings.
Very few details have been released yet, but we do know that Audi’s head of engineering, Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, has promised that it will not look like any other Audi that has come before. The closest guess is that it will resemble the Prologue Allroad concept the company unveiled earlier this year at the Shanghai Auto Show. The Prologue design language has also been highlighted in the Prologue Avant and Prologue Coupe concepts. The Q6 E-Tron will share its platform with the 2016 Q7 e-tron and upcoming 2017 Volkswagen Cross-Blue SUV.
The Q6 may be offered with gasoline and diesel engines as well as plug in hybrid variants, according to the folks at Transport Evolved. But the biggest news is that the E-Tron version will have approximately 310 miles of all electric range. It’s closest competitor, of course, will be the much anticipated Tesla Model X. But industry observers think the Model X, which will be heavier than the Model S it is based on, will have “only” 200 miles of range. In the world of electric cars, range is as critical to sales as cubic inches were back when great thumping V-8 engines ruled the road.
Audi will not have a system of dedicated charging stations like the Tesla SuperCharger network that offers drivers free electricity for life, but it is known to be working on wireless recharging technology that will eliminate the need to plug in its car entirely.
Will the Q6 E-Tron be able to compete with the Model X on price and features? We don’t know the answer to that question yet, since no details about either car have been released. The only thing we know for sure is that while Tesla has been struggling to get production of the Model X started, the rest of the world’s auto makers have been hard at work preparing their own electric SUV models to compete with it.
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