Audi already has an armada of new and up to date fashions coming in 2025 alone, nevertheless it additionally has its sights set on a extra luxurious future – one that would embody luxurious electrical flagship fashions.
The model’s UK boss, Jose Miguel Aparicio, instructed Auto Categorical there shall be a “step upwards when it comes to premiumness, rising the status, desirability and notion of the model, and extra within the high quality of enterprise than the amount”.
Audi is a part of the Volkswagen Group, which additionally contains prestigious manufacturers like Bentley and Porsche. In keeping with Auto Categorical, Mr Aparicio believes there’s area inside the Volkswagen Group for Audi to step up in its luxurious orientation with out touchdown on the toes of its most premium manufacturers.
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“Luxurious is roofed by Bentley and Porsche, and within the premium market there are lots of segments and some ways of bringing a proposition to a buyer,” he instructed Auto Categorical.
“It’s not a elementary change, it’s an evolution and needs to be adopted by changes to the shopper expertise; it’s one thing we’ve to do with our retail companions.”
“We’re considerably rising the centre of gravity when it comes to value as a result of we’re extra current [in these sectors]; the variety of prospects in C and D segments we wish to method is rising.”
“Meaning a major enhance in value, and to be able to do it efficiently we actually have to create this model attraction and need. The essence for that is product innovation, however we even have to supply a premium buyer expertise to them; we’re speaking about making an evolution, shifting upwards,” he continued.
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Audi Q5
The C-segment designation refers to automobiles just like the Audi Q3, whereas D-segment fashions embody the Q5.
Audi beforehand confirmed it gained’t change the B-segment Audi Q2 and A1, because it prioritises costlier and extra worthwhile fashions.
Former Audi CEO Markus Duesmann instructed Handelsblatt in 2022, “We’ll restrict our vary of fashions downwards and develop upwards.”
Mr Duesmann was subsequently changed with Gernot Döllner, reportedly as a consequence of a gradual product rollout and disappointing gross sales in China.
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Audi Grandsphere idea
Audi’s upmarket push has already been previewed by way of two ideas: the Audi Grandsphere and Urbansphere ideas revealed in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Meant to be a completely electrical grand tourer, the Grandsphere might preview an much more luxurious substitute for the Audi A8 limousine.
Equally, the Urbansphere idea was revealed as an electrical individuals mover. Audi has beforehand been rumoured to be engaged on a mannequin to take a seat above its current flagship SUVs, the Q7 and Q8, and this idea might preview such a automobile.
Mr Aparicio outlined a shift to EVs would provide an opportunity for manufacturers to regulate buyer notion, although it was vital to recollect Audi “can not assume that these ones that have been premium previously will even be the winners for the longer term”.
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Audi Urbansphere idea
“We’ve got to earn that standing. It’s vital to make sure that we’ve the worth within the product vary, that we’ve the shopper expertise that basically grants us this premiumness for the longer term in an EV battery-electric-vehicle world,” he instructed Auto Categorical.
That leaves the door open for manufacturing variations of the Grandsphere and Urbansphere ideas.
Each automobiles are large at greater than 5 metres in size, are supposedly able to Stage 4 autonomous driving, and constructed atop Audi and Porsche’s Premium Platform Electrical – which already underpins vehicles just like the Porsche Macan EV, Audi A6 e-tron, and Q6 e-tron.
The Grandsphere idea is marginally longer and wider than a long-wheelbase A8 at 5.35m lengthy and a pair of.0m vast, whereas being roughly 120mm decrease at 1.39m in peak.
Its wheelbase is quoted at 3.19m in size, and it makes use of a 120kWh battery with a dual-motor all-wheel drive setup producing 530kW and 960Nm, together with a claimed vary of greater than 750km on the WLTP cycle.
The Urbansphere idea measures 5.51m lengthy, 2.01m vast, 1.78m tall, and rides on a 3.4m wheelbase – that means it could possibly be Audi’s largest-ever manufacturing automobile if it turns into a actuality.
Outputs are 295kW and 690Nm, and with the identical battery because the Grandsphere, it can also supposedly attain 750km.
If these fashions do make their solution to showrooms, it probably gained’t occur till later this decade.
Mercedes-Benz has additionally confirmed an upmarket push of its personal. That features launching new high-end fashions just like the Mercedes-Maybach SL, whereas additionally lowering the variety of small luxurious fashions it gives from seven to 4.
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