Due on sale in 2025, it will be the first machine to use the Volkswagen Group’s new SSP platform for EVs, which fuses elements from the mass-market MEB and the performance-focused PPE. It will also use the VW Group’s new VW.OS operating system software and will be designed to offer level-four autonomy.
“The car that we will show in Munich will be one of three show cars exploring this technology,” says Lichte. “We will tell a story in three acts, and the core of the story is the technology surrounding autonomous driving.
“It’s a very bold decision to offer a car with this level of technology, but if you look at the history of Audi, we’ve been successful whenever we’ve made bold decisions on technology, such as the Quattro, the Quattro Sport, the 100 C3 and so on.”
Lichte says that designing a car for level-four autonomy requires a far bigger leap than that from internal combustion to electric propulsion: “For us as designers, when you go from ICE to EV, there are different proportions: the wheels are bigger because of the battery weight, there’s a longer wheelbase and there are shorter overhangs and other elements. But with this technology, we’re creating a completely new concept: it’s like a third living space.”
That focus on developing a car as a living space required Lichte and his team to completely flip their usual design process. “The E-tron GT is a very nice car, but it’s a car like we’ve designed and engineered for the past 130 years. There’s a technical masterpiece in the form of a motor, then a platform and then a two- or four-seat design, and then at the end you do the interior design,” he explains. “But this car will be designed and engineered around autonomous technology.
“We started with a use case around long-distance travelling and then we created a layout that’s a revolution for a D-segment car. Our interior designers were really super-strongly involved in this project.”
Designing a car from the inside out has, according to Lichte, resulted in a car that looks like no Audi before it. “I will never forget when I presented the car to [Audi CEO] Markus Duesmann and the board,” he says. “When I took off the cover, I received a standing ovation for the first time. They were so impressed by the proportions. They couldn’t have expected this.