What's the news?
This is the Audi e-tron quattro, or at least a prototype version of it, which is being shown off at the Geneva Motor Show before going on sale at the end of this year. Sized roughly between the Audi Q5 and Q7, the new all-electric car will have a one-charge range of 500km.
At least we think it will - Audi is still being a bit tight lipped about the car's performance, merely saying for now that it will be compatible with ultra-fast 150kW charging stations, and that it's been designed to be able to do long, cross-continental journeys with only short 30-minute breaks to stop and top up the batteries. It will be built in a factory in Brussels, which Audi claims is a carbon-neutral plant.
"Audi sets an important milestone for the company's future with its first purely electrically powered model," said Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG. "In 2020 we will have three all-electric vehicles in our product range, with a four-door Gran Turismo - the production version of the Audi e-tron Sportback concept - and a model in the compact segment joining the sporty SUV. We will be launching more than 20 electric cars and plug-in hybrids by 2025 - spread across all segments and concepts," the Audi CEO explains.
Prototype e-trons will be running on the roads around Geneva during the motor show, wrapped in a special camouflage film, which uses the e-tron logo, and which is also supposed to mimic the layout of an electrical grid. The idea is that show-going punters get to play at being spy photographers for the day, presumably garnering Audi some extra Instagram publicity.
Anything else?
Some 250 prototypes of the Audi e-tron have been built so far, racking up more than five million kilometres of testing, in -20 degree temperatures in northern Sweden, and at up to 50-degree heat in Africa.