Audi e-tron electric SUV to arrive in 2018 with 310-mile range

Long-range all-electric SUV will arrive in 2018 to spearhead Audi’s new EV offensive

The 2015 Audi e-tron quattro concept previewed Audi's first dedicated EV model

by Mark Tisshaw

Audi’s first all-electric model, the e-tron SUV, will go on sale next year with a range of more than 310 miles. 

A senior Audi executive claims this will be “the first real premium manufacturer doing a premium electric SUV”, even though Jaguar’s I-Pace is also due next year. Audi sales and marketing boss Dietmar Voggenreiter said at the recent Detroit motor show that the e-tron project is on track. He confirmed that the e-tron is an SUV sized between the Q5 and Q7, but closer to the Q5, and it is closely related to the e-tron concept from the 2015 Frankfurt show. “That concept is quite close to the series production car,” he added. 

Voggenreiter confirmed that the e-tron will be built on a development of the electrified platform Porsche is using for its Mission E electric saloon. 

Voggenreiter said Audi has chosen to launch the e-tron next year because that is when battery technology will be mature enough to offer a range more more than 500km (311 miles). This figure is “crucial”, he said, because consumers won’t accept less. 

The charging infrastructure should also be more extensive next year — another key reason for choosing a 2018 launch date. “A 400km to 500km range must be possible and we must have a fastcharging infrastructure,” said Voggenreiter. “Both things are coming in 2018. The battery energy density is there and there is a lot of charging infrastructure in Europe, the US and Asia.” 

Voggenreiter said Audi was involved through the Volkswagen Group and with rival firms such as Ford, BMW and Daimler in ensuring there’s a fast-charging network for longer-range EVs to use.

“It’s not our job to invest in charging points,”  he said. “We are pushing and organising this, though, and working with partners on it.” 

He referred to the ‘chicken and egg’ situation of limited charging infrastructure to date: there has been no need for third parties to install chargers because there are not enough cars to use them, and vice versa. “No cars, no infrastructure, but in the next two years there are lots of investments,” he said. 

Audi has opted not to launch its electric cars under a sub-brand like BMW with its i models and Mercedes-Benz’s future EQ range. Instead, it is using ‘e-tron’, which has been a suffix on electrified Audis, as a model name in its own right. It is intended as a stand-alone, milestone launch model to introduce the technology in a strategy used by Audi with ‘quattro’ in the 1980s. 

Speaking last year about the e-tron name, Audi boss Rupert Stadler said: “It is comparable to the first Audi Quattro, which was known simply as the Quattro. In the long term, the name ‘e-tron’ will stand for a pure electric driveline structure.” 

Voggenreiter said the e-tron name will be used on a range of follow-up electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, where it will appear mostly as a suffix, as with the A3 e-tron. It’s likely Audi’s next-generation models, which will start with the A8 this summer, will each get electric versions. The A8 e-tron is most likely to be the first candidate. 

An SUV body is important for the e-tron because it is the most on-trend bodystyle, said Voggenreiter. “A lot of customers have been asking when we’ll bring this car to market,” he said. “There is certain demand in the premium segment and we’re not being first to market for the sake of it; it’s the right product. It’s a real SUV, with Audi design language.” 

Voggenreiter suggested the Audi range of e-tron models will get slightly different styling from the Marc Lichte-designed new look that will be rolled out across the rest of the line-up, starting with the A8. 

“E-trons are close to the designs of Marc Lichte but in different packages,” he said. “There isn’t an engine in the front…” 

The size of the e-tron suggests it’s a Q6 in all but name, but Voggenreiter hinted the Q6 was a separate project altogether. He cited speculation that the Q6 should be a “fourdoor coupé SUV” based on the Q5 in a similar style to the Q8 being spun off the Q7. But he said the e-tron isn’t the Q6, because it’s “not a four-door coupé SUV. It’s a sporty SUV”.