Skip to main content

Everything about Audi’s Detroit Auto Show concept is a mystery, even its name

Audi has crossover fever. Just after confirming years of rumors with the announcement of the Q1, the German carmaker said it would unveil a crossover concept at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show in January.

Little is known about this concept, which goes by the wonderfully vague moniker of “new Audi show car”. It’s a two-door with a low roofline and typically oversized 19-inch concept-car wheels. All that is meant to imply an air of sportiness to what, in the real world, is usually a dull class of vehicle.

Other than that, the design is typical Audi, with a prominent shield-shaped grille, LED headlights, and crisp lines throughout. The flared wheel arches, armored with plastic cladding, indicate that this concept has some off-road ability. Granted, the Audi Allroad has plenty of cladding, but very little off-road ability.

The concept is 165.3 inches long, about 17 inches shorter than the Q5, the smallest Audi crossover currently sold in the United States.

The concept also wears “e-tron” badging, and shares some styling details with that range of electrified vehicles. That means the crossover concept probably has a fully-electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain under the hood. Naturally, it will have Audi’s quattro all-wheel drive system.

What’s the point of all this? The unnamed concept could be a preview of the Q1, which won’t arrive until 2016. It could also be a sportier Q1 variant, analogous to SUV-based “coupes” like the BMW X6 and X4, or the upcoming Mercedes-Benz MLC.

We’ll have more on this new Audi concept as its date with the 2014 Detroit Auto Show draws near.

Editors' Recommendations

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
2020 Audi E-Tron Sportback, RS Q8 confirmed for 2019 LA Auto Show
global debut of second all electric audi e tron at la auto show 6354 laasheroimage

Audi has picked the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show to make the global debut of the 2020 e-tron Sportback. Several other models will make their global debut here as well; the 2020 RS models including the Audi RS 6 Avant and the RS 7, and -- as a highlight -- the global debut of the high performance SUV, the Audi RS Q8.

The e-tron Sportback is the most anticipated debut for fans of Audi, this being only the second all-electric vehicle produced by the German automaker. The five-passenger SUV coupe is equipped with standard electric quattro all-wheel drive and is expected to get just over 200 miles of range on a full charge. It will accept a 150 kilowatt DC charge that in a brief 10 minutes can give you 54 miles of range. Audi will give e-tron owners 1,000 kWh of charging to use at Electrify America fast-charging stations within the first four years of ownership.

Read more
Everything to get excited about at 2019 LA Auto Show
2019-CX-30

The 2019 LA Auto Show is this week and it brings with it a whole host of reveals, announcements, and surprises. We will be there to bring you all the news as it happens, as well as getting in-depth with the most important new cars. Even just the cars already slated to be revealed are exciting, let alone any surprises that manufacturers sneak in.
Here are the reveals we're most excited about this year:
2020 BMW M2 CS Coupe – The ultimate M2, and likely the swan song for this generation. We can’t wait to see the acres of carbon fiber all over this sports car.

2020 Ford Mustang Mach-E – Ford’s first all-electric car will be this Mustang-inspired SUV. We’ve been carefully looking at spy shots and renderings for years, but this week is the big reveal!

Read more
2020 Audi A8 gains plug-in hybrid powertrain, sporty S8 model
2020 audi s8 news specs performance

Previous

Next

Read more