With new design sketches, Audi is today unveiling the design of the Q4 e-tron – a new all-electric compact SUV to go into production in “late 2020/early 2021.”
We first heard of the vehicle last month when Andreas Mindt, Head Exterior Design at Audi, confirmed that the German premium automaker plans to unveil a “smaller e-tron SUV”.
At the time, they showed a teaser, but the company is now unveiling full design sketches ahead of a concept unveiling in Geneva.
They wrote about the Audi Q4 e-tron:
“Audi is showcasing its compact SUV study with electric drive at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. The Audi Q4 e-tron concept provides a glimpse of the next stage of Audi electric mobility and is due to be presented as a volume-production vehicle in late 2020/early 2021.”
Here are the new design sketches of the Audi Q4 e-tron released today:
It’s not included in the release today, but Mindt previously said that unlike the bigger e-tron SUV, it would be based on VW’s MEB platform, which would likely make it the first Audi vehicle on the new electric platform.
The design concept of the Audi Q4 e-tron is expected at the Geneva auto show in March and the production version should be unveiled next year ahead of the start of production early next decade.
Electrek’s Take
We are only seeing design sketches, but I like what I’m seeing so far.
This compact SUV segment is going to be quickly electrified in a big way and the premium version of the segment could be getting several new entries unveiled at the same time.
Coincidently, Tesla is also expected to unveil its Model Y, a small SUV based on the Model 3 platform, around the same time as this new Audi compact electric SUV.
Tesla previously set March 15 as possible Model Y reveal date – though it’s unclear if that’s still the case.
Mercedes-Benz also confirmed that it is planning a smaller all-electric SUV to be unveiled this year following its EQC SUV.
As for non-premium vehicles, Hyundai and Kia are coming with the Kona EV and Niro EV, which are unfortunately more compliance cars than anything else despite being good EVs, but they are still going to be popular in some markets.
The next few years are going to be exciting for the electric vehicle market as a whole, but I think the EV competition in this compact SUV segment is going to be particularly fun to watch.
Bonus: Audi today released a short video on its car headlight design thinking, especially as it relates to EVs.