Audi Desires An Uberwagen Of Its Personal To Go With Its Activesphere Idea

Because the world careens towards the ultimate reckoning — introduced on partially by the human crucial to drive the largest, baddest, most brutal automobiles conceivable — everybody and their cousin needs a Mad Max sort automobile to haul them up mountains and throughout raging rivers to flee the carnage occurring of their wake. Audi has appeared round its company storage and determined it doesn’t have any rugged electrical automobiles just like the Land Rover Defender and Mercedes G Class it could actually provide to loyal prospects who wish to trip an electrical automobile into then apocalypse.

Ecce Audi Uberwagen!

Autocar has the unique on the as but unnamed rugged off-roader. It spoke not too long ago to Audi designer Marc Lichte who hinted that such a battery-electric automobile is beneath growth with a goal launch date of 2027 and that it’s a part of a strategic push into new segments facilitated by new partnerships and platforms. Licte mentioned the brand new überwagen is not going to be based mostly on the PPE structure Audi has developed along with Porsche to be used throughout its core EV lineup. Nor will it use the Ford Ranger-derived underpinnings that are scheduled to offer the idea for an electrical Volkswagen 4×4 SUV within the coming years.

As a substitute, Lichte mentioned the brand new automobile will trip on a platform taken from elsewhere within the VW Group portfolio. As a result of the upcoming SSP platform has been delayed till at the least 2028, it’s extremely seemingly that Audi will look to the nascent Scout model to offer the chassis. Now right here’s the place it will get attention-grabbing. Again on the daybreak of the SUV period, all these automobiles have been constructed on a truck chassis with a ladder body. The unique Ford Explorer was a Ranger with an enclosed physique. The Expedition was based mostly on the F-150.

At first, prospects complained their SUVs rode too harshly. Goodyear and Firestone went to nice lengths to construct tires that might deal with the burden of these automobiles however give a softer trip. Ultimately, the business transitioned from truck-based frames to unibody automobiles that had the size of an SUV, however supplied the tender tushies of SUV patrons the refined trip they have been used to of their Buicks and Cadillacs.

Now now we have come full circle again to ladder frames once more. They might not trip like a pillow, however they certain are rugged and that’s precisely what the brand new Scout pickup truck and SUV are providing — automobiles that mimic the bone-crushing trip of the unique Scout from Worldwide Harvester. Rugged you need, rugged you’re gonna get.

In keeping with Autocar, the preliminary plans known as for Audi to construct its Scout-based fashions in the identical new US manufacturing unit the place the Scout was manufactured, however these plans have been cancelled, Autocar says there may be the potential that Audi might borrow the chassis from Scout and construct its personal automobiles near house in Ingolstadt.

Audi is already collaborating with Magna on growth of batteries and electronics for Scout EVs, and the VW Group board is alleged to be leaning in the direction of giving Magna the contract to construct the Scout automobiles with room on the manufacturing line for an Audi-badged product. The suggestion is that Magna might construct 50,000 Audi 4x4s per yr — a major quantity that will point out plans for launch in varied world markets outdoors the US — alongside 100,000 Scout automobiles. Apparently sufficient, Magna additionally builds the Mercedes G Class in Austria.

“I believe there may be area” for a rugged SUV in Audi’s passenger automobile lineup, Lichte mentioned. “There’s potential as a result of there are solely two premium gamers” on this specific phase — Mercedes and Land Rover — “and I believe there’s a area for a 3rd one.”

The Audi activesphere Debuts

Picture courtesy of Audi

You need bizarre? Audi’s obtained all of the bizarre anybody might ask for with its activesphere idea. Right here’s how Audi describes it in a press launch.

“The Audi activesphere idea marks the end result of sphere idea automobiles. Following on from the Audi skysphere roadster in 2021, and the grandsphere saloon and urbansphere idea in April 2022, a four-door crossover coupé with an astonishingly versatile physique design is now making its debut.

“Standing 4.98 meters lengthy, the extremely elegant automobile is greater than a mere luxurious class sports activities automobile with spectacular floor clearance and huge 22 inch wheels saying its off highway expertise. The Sportback rear of the activesphere can flip into an open cargo mattress on the contact of a button  — excellent for carrying leisure tools akin to e-bikes or water and winter sports activities gear.”

Picture courtesy of Audi

“By combining opposites in excellent synthesis, the Audi activesphere proves to be a flexible crosser of boundaries, with a drive system and suspension which make it equally adept each on and off the highway. The steering wheel and pedals permit the motive force to actively management the automobile, whereas additionally providing autonomous driving for a extra relaxed time on the highway. As a coupé that’s as elegant as it’s dynamic, it options traditional proportions and contours, however in only a few seconds, the automobile transforms right into a pickup for transporting prime class sports activities gear.

“The idea automobile was conceived and designed on the Audi Design Studio in Malibu, only a stone’s throw away from the Pacific Coast Freeway. Studio supervisor Gael Buzyn and his workforce are the inventive minds behind the venture.”

Picture courtesy of Audi

“With electrical drive and fast charging know-how from Audi’s PPE modular system, the Audi activesphere joins the sphere household of idea automobiles. With no native emissions, a spread of over 372 miles, and intensely quick charging occasions because of 800-volt know-how, it combines the sustainability, dynamics and lengthy distance functionality of cutting-edge electrical automobiles. The autonomous chauffeuring functionality on appropriate terrain offers drivers and passengers a brand new degree of freedom, which, because of the brand new show and working know-how, can be utilized within the activesphere in a wide range of methods.”

The Takeaway

Picture courtesy of Audi

Effectively, if that doesn’t get your pulse price up, nothing will. The svelte strains of a sports activities automobile however with a again seat and an open mattress like a pickup truck. It’s a mix of each automobile style for individuals who need all of it. Whether or not it’s a hodgepodge or an excellent concept that the world has been ready for is as much as every particular person to determine.

Between the Scout based mostly luxurious offroader and the multi-talented activesphere (what does Audi have towards capital letters?), the workforce from Ingolstadt are burning the midnight oil making an attempt to cowl all of the bases after which some. However is there a marketplace for these automobiles? That’s a query with out a solution — at the least for now.

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