A well-timed riposte to the arrival of the Zeekr 9X, this is the newly announced Audi Q9, a flagship SUV and the top tier of the entire Audi portfolio.

This particular Q is anything but anonymous. Described as the company’s first ‘full-size’ SUV, an appellation which might surprise Europeans, the new Q9 sits above the Q7 and Q8, rounding out a range of SUVs that starts with the Q2 and takes in a few SQ performance models and even the RS variants of the Q8.

‘Full-size’ refers to the US market, where cars considered gauche, overweight and altogether too big for dainty European towns and cities are relative minnows. In Europe, Toyota tops out with the Land Cruiser; the Americans get the Toyota Sequoia. Similar motoring math applies to US-centric models like the Nissan Armada and Lexus LX, as well as domestic competitors such as the Ford Expedition MAX, Cadillac Escalade, and Lincoln Navigator.

What all these behemoths have in common is three rows of full-sized seating – no cramped third rows suitable only for small children. Such ‘full-size’ models run the gamut from family-friendly to luxury conveyances. The Q9 is firmly in the latter camp, going up against established models like the Escalade.

This is a segment dedicated to cars that are much better experienced from within than from without – it’s business class brutalism. Although there’s a groundswell of fresh appreciation for smaller, less imposing cars, Audi’s status within the VW Group means it can soak up the premium prices associated with luxury SUVs, leaving compact car development to better equipped and experienced brands like VW, Seat and Cupra.

Inside the Q9, scale has been deployed in the service of experience and comfort. You sit beneath the company’s broadest panoramic sunroof, 1.5 sq m. All four doors are power operated (and can be popped open simultaneously at the touch of a button on the remote). Bang & Olufsen supply the 22-speaker sound system. Armrests and front centre console are heated. Adaptive air suspension is paired with quattro four-wheel-drive for sure-footed ride and handling.

As if to complement the array of internal screens, the Q9 has a very specific world first up its sleeve. The exterior lighting is supplemented by on-board projectors that beam a directional arrow on the ground when indicating, helping keep pedestrians and cyclists fully informed of your intentions. The OLED lights (curved at the rear) can also run through a full dance card of merry patterns on start-up and shut down.

We have to come out and say it – we’re not fans of Audi’s current grille treatment. Consider the cliff-like visage of the Q9, so large that it has squeezed out the headlights to the upper reaches of the frontage, a design choice that only serves to exaggerate the car’s scale.

At 5.31m long and 2.21m, with wheel sizes of up to 23 inches, Audi proudly claims this is the largest car they have ever made – it dwarfs even a long-wheelbase Range Rover. Launching an automotive leviathan into the teeth of a climate crisis is a ballsy move – there’s even ChatGPT integration to ensure that every facet of high consumption is covered.

There’s also no pure EV. Instead, a mild-hybrid system is harnessed to a 3.0-litre V6 diesel will be the primary powertrain – capable of electric-only driving as well as a handy combination of torque and efficiency. Still, the Bratislava-built Q9 will no doubt find a willing audience when it hits the road this summer.

Audi Q9, UK sales begin in August 2026, price tbc, Audi.co.uk, @AudiUK

The latest modern classic to get the nod from Niels van Roij Design’s Autoforma sub-brand is the Audi TT. This one-off project follows on from the Autoforma Norrsken, a wild take on the Volvo P1800ES.

The Audi TT will be more familiar to most. For a quarter of a century, the compact sports coupé was Audi’s most distinctive model, an instantly recognisable design that maintained its integrity over three generations, even if the first was the purest and most memorable.

That’s the model that’s been given the Autoforma treatment. To be precise, it’s a first-generation Audi TTS, the droptop version of the geometric sports car and the model that hewed closest to the original 1995 TT Concept. The Autoforma team has actually taken the opportunity to recalibrate the production car inline with the conceptual version, using coachbuilding techniques to re-shape key elements of the design – such as the bumpers and rear deck behind those distinctive hooped rollbars.

The changes are subtle, a testament to how close the original production car came to replicating the qualities concept when it finally arrived in showrooms in 1998 (with the Roadster following in 1999). They preserve and enhance the once radical approach to surfacing, with its clean volumes and repeating elements, such as the prominent circular wheelarches and dashboard elements.

Only when seen here alongside an original TTS in silver – owned by Autoforma’s Niels van Roij, a long-time fan of the car – can the more esoteric changes be seen. These include a slightly flatter front bumper with slimmer air vents, new side vents behind the front fender and a small side vent added on the sill.

Most notably, Autoforma has completely removed the folding fabric roof, creating a true roadster with an extended rear deck that amplifies the purity of the original statement. Welding seams have also been removed, as has the rear spoiler (not included on the original car but deemed an aerodynamic necessity after a few months on the market) and the radio antenna.

Finally, there’s the paint, a special two-tone finish that combines gloss Nimbus Gray Pearl Effect upper body and a matte grey lower section, also used to pick out the major graphical forms like the windscreen surround. The original TT mirrors have been swapped out for compact racing units, while the suspension is slightly lowered and the track slightly widened.

All this was facilitated by the involvement of a committed client, Dutch designer Jos Baijens. An interior architect with a sideline in architectural eyewear, Baijens commissioned the new car to honour his passion for the model – he owned one of the originals back in 1998. Working closely with Autoforma, he helped identify and shape the details to create his very own interpretation of the TT.

As Autoforma points, this collaboration is what defines the company – ‘we do not simply build cars, we create them together with our clients. Co-design lies at the heart of everything Autoforma does.’ As Niels van Roij explains in more detail, ‘with this project, we wanted to refine the original car - a symbol of top automotive design - to a level of detail and sophistication that brings the production model closer to the purity of the Bauhaus-oriented concept car.’

Inside, the hand-stitched ‘baseball glove’ tan leather is a direct nod to the 1995 concept, contrasting strongly with the graphic simplicity of the dashboard, with its iconic ‘TT’ nameplate front and centre. Autoforma also enlisted tyre company Vredstein to pair with the TTS Restomod’s six-spoke wheels for added grip.

For more information on the Autoforma bespoke service, visit Autoforma.nl, NielsvanRoij.com.

These days, like never before, Milan Design Week finds itself as a creative focal point for a number of different industries, not just furniture and interiors. The irresistible draw of pure, concentrated creativity – and the eyes, lenses and social media accounts of the world’s media and content creators – ensure that making a Milanese splash is a PR no-brainer, bolstering the connection between creativity and commerce in as direct a way as possible.

Activations varied wildly, from traditional car reveals through to immersive experiences, bespoke commissions and the welcome opportunity for car makers to spread their reach and showcase some real cultural clout. Big names were in evidence – Audi enlisted Zaha Hadid Architects and Mini continued its long-running partnership with Sir Paul Smith.

Chinese brands were also in evidence, including Nio with its firefly city car, and Lepas, which used Milan Design Week as the backdrop for its European launch of the forthcoming Lepas 6, a sister car to the Jaecoo 7.

Admittedly, some of these displays could have taken place anywhere, demonstrating how Milan Design Week has effectively become a handy waypoint on the international exhibition trail, bolstering the role of a traditional auto show with way more buzzy, creative surroundings and attendees. Other brands chose to dig deeper into the context, playing up the Italian connection and the city’s rich backdrop.

We’re biased, of course, but the real automotive stars of Milan Design Week 2026 were Wallpaper’s quartet of Fiat Topolinos (see our editors’ Milan blog for more, and Fiat’s small car-focused exhibition), resplendent in the liveries of our recently relaunched Wallpaper* Travel Guides. Aside from these delightful four-wheeled tchotchkes, read on to find out what else made mobility news this year in Milan.

Range Rover ‘Traces’

Range Rover’s Milan installation at Galleria Meravigli was a comprehensive assemblage of the art and craft component of the British manufacturer’s more luxurious offerings. Overseen by Storey Studio, the ‘Traces’ exhibition starred the newly released Bespoke Pearl of Tay edition Range Rover, alongside a selection of contemporary Scottish crafts curated by Bard, the Edinburgh store and gallery founded by James Stevens and our very own Hugo Macdonald.

Bard’s selection of sparkling, earthy and authentic crafts was billed under the heading ‘Memory and Material'. The pieces on display mirrored the attention to detail and materiality used in the Pearl of Tay car, a demonstration of Range Rover’s ability to move freely in the same rarefied circles traditionally occupied by Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

These were joined by two more galleries, or chapters, ‘Memory and Colour’ and ‘Memory and Motif’. The former incorporated a film and projection by Felipe Sanguinetti, reflected across a series of mirrors, to trace the inspiration and emotion behind colour choices (one of the big USPs for clients using Range Rover’s Bespoke service).

‘Memory and Motif’ featured works by four artists, Hvass & Hannibal, Lisa Rampilli, Petra Börner and Jules Julien, transformed into embroidered pieces by the Range Rover Bespoke Materiality. These were then presented in a series of champagne-gold mirrored vitrines, connected to the first chapter by a continuous soundscape composed by sound designers Father.

The final space, ‘Memory and Material’, culminated in the Pearl of Tay car, alongside the 14 objects chosen by Bard. With black gravel underfoot and a rippling installation above, the space was both geometric and nature-inspired. This is the second consecutive year Range Rover has gone big in Milan. ‘Traces’ also included a café space, furnished with icons from Gubi’s collection of contemporary design.

RangeRover.com, @RangeRover

‘Origin’ by Audi x Zaha Hadid Architects

Are we living in a post-pavilion age? Audi clearly thinks not, enlisting well-established pavilion-wielding provocateurs Zaha Hadid Architects to create its installation, the ‘Audi Origin Pavilion’. Described as a portal to the company’s new design era, ‘Origin by Audi x Zaha Hadid Architects’ marked the German manufacturer’s 13th year of participation at Milan Design Week and celebrated not just the introduction of a new design language but also the company’s debut in Formula 1.

The structure was a classic slice of ZHA parametric whimsy – the practice uses the pavilion form as a testbed for software, design and structure. Located in the courtyard of the former Archiepiscopal Seminary on Corso Venezia, ‘Origin’ was a silvery spaceship of a structure, flanked by the Audi R26 F1 car and the new Audi RS 5. The structure’s matte metallic skin was very ‘Audi’ in its referencing of industrial processes, cutting-edge materials and sober perfectionism.

Audi.com, @Audi

‘Mini: A Garden of Curiosity with Paul Smith’

Moving away its focus on urban and domestic design prototypes, Mini dived straight into its most warm and welcoming collaboration of recent years, a partnership with Paul Smith. The venue was a ‘Garden of Curiosity’, hosted in the grounds on the Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda.

Not just a welcome contemplative spot to duck into away from the Milan madness, the ‘Garden of Curiosity’ was a spot of British whimsy, with delectable design presented by way of Lewis Carroll, Gertrude Jekyll and impeccable tailoring.

The House of Mini on Via A Manzoni was built around the latest Paul Smith Edition of the evergreen city car. Colour was, of course, preeminent, with a dedicated Colour Theory Room inviting visitors to compose their own Smith-style panoply of stripes.

There was also a listening room, replete with recordings of Sir Paul’s thoughts on colour theory, both set among the verdant surroundings alongside a Mini Cooper Convertible Paul Smith Edition. In the main courtyard, the automotive display consisted of three cars, starting with the original Paul Smith 40th Anniversary Mini classic from 1998, the pared-back Mini Strip and another contemporary Paul Smith Edition.

Mini.co.uk, @Mini

PaulSmith.com, @PaulSmithDesign

Lexus ‘Space’

Another Milan stalwart, Lexus presented a clutch of installations, including its own ‘Space’ and ‘Discover Together’ presentations at Superstudio Più. The automotive centrepiece of ‘Space’ was the six-wheeled Lexus LS Concept, set before a 360-degree screen that animated the car and its sumptuous interior.

This cinematic experience was paired with a group exhibition under the banner ‘Discover Together’. Included was the ‘Visible Invisible’ tearoom by Kyotaro Hayashi and Yumi Kurotani, ‘Wearable Space’, a coat emblazoned with fibre optics shaped by Guardini Ciuffreda Studio and ‘A Moving Sanctuary’, Random Studio’s reimagining of the automotive space as a serene, relaxing retreat.

Working with its own design team, the company also exhibited ‘The Crafted Cosmos’, a precision piece of crafted woodwork overseen by Shingo Yamashita, the company’s wooden model craftsman.

On display in the same space was another concept, the LS Micro 1 personal mobility machine, and the Lexus Catamaran autonomous luxury yacht concept first shown at last year’s Japan Mobility Show.

DiscoverLexus.com, @DiscoverLexus

Kia Vision Meta Turismo

Kia’s installation involved a collaboration with Bcomp, a Swiss company working in renewable, bio-based fibre composite material. Bcomp has contributed its ampliTex material to the interior and exterior of the Kia Vision Meta Turismo concept car, on show for the first time in Europe as part of the ‘Resonance of Opposites’ exhibition in Milan.

The Vision Meta Turismo was originally unveiled as part of Kia's 80th anniversary celebrations last December, an all-electric GT Crossover with an airy, lounge-inspired cabin replete augmented-reality windscreen. The concept foreshadows the evolution of the company’s already very distinctive design language.

The work with Bcomp is part of Kia’s ongoing search for sustainably sourced materials that can work just as well on exterior forms as well as interiors, conforming to all necessary safety and strength requirements.

According to Bcomp’s Nicolas Samson, senior sales manager of automotive interior, the project ‘shows that natural fibre composites are not only a design statement, but also a realistic solution for both interior and exterior applications’.

Kia.com, @KiaUK

Bcomp.com, @BcompLtd

Škoda’s ‘Sculptural Space’

Working with Spanish architect designer Ricardo Orts of Ulises Studio, Škoda went all out on playfulness with an exhibition entitled ‘Ooooh, that’s EpiQ!’. Rather than channelling the spirit of 1970s British sex comedies, the theme was colour, form and family-friendly entertainment.

Cars on display included the new Epiq EV (in bold camouflage) alongside a soft-bodied counterpart, the Epiq Sculpt – modelling clay was one of the key stylistic themes. The entire courtyard of the Palazzo del Senato was filled with illuminated inflatable forms that spilled out through the colonnades to create space for meeting, coffee, talks and even yoga classes and a soft play area.

Škoda-Storyboard.com, Škoda.co.uk, @SkodaUK

Ulises.Studio, @Ulises.Studio

Pininfarina at ‘10 Years of Open-Air Motor Shows’

Two of the centrepieces on the ‘10 Years of Open-Air Motor Shows’ exhibition on Via Tortona came from the studios of Pininfarina SpA. The event, which celebrated a decade of Andrea Levy’s urban motor show format in Italy, featured the Battista Nino Farina from Pininfarina Automobili and the one-off Honda HP X, originally shown at the 1984 Turin Auto Show in 1984. Restored and updated by Pininfarina itself, the HP-X resurfaced in all its 1980s glory at the 2024 Monterey Car Week.

The show also featured a presentation on the new JAS Tensei project, one of many automotive commissions being undertaken by the Italian design consultancy.

Pininfarina.it, @Pininfarina_official

500 Spiaggina by Garage Italia Customs

Away from the ‘Ciao Futuro! show at Magna Pars’, another facet of the Fiat empire showcased its latest venture into restomod design. Founded by Fiat family scion Lapo Elkann, Garage Italia Customs ventures into uncharted creative territory, transforming the company’s compact models into bespoke objets d’art.

For 2026, Garage Italia is showcasing its Icon project series, which focuses on the classic Fiat 500. In the company’s hands, the original 500 becomes the all-electric 500 Spiaggina. Shown in Milan in the context of the immersive Urbano Mediterraneo installation, the Spiaggina was represented in two editions. The first was inspired by the pink walls of the Palazzo Avino hotel on the Amalfi Coast, a one-off EV completed with custom fabric Pergola roof by Mariaflora.

A second Spiaggina was out on the streets for the duration of Design Week to celebrate the work of Milanese creative consultancy 10 Corso Como. The logo-spotted bodywork evokes the organisation’s branding and HQ, with jacquard fabric interiors by Mariaflora. Finally, Garage Italia also showed a 500 Spiaggina with a livery that embodied the diversity and colour of Design Week, with a white striped exterior and an interior featuring red Bonacina rattan seats.

Garage-Italia.com, @GarageItalia

In such straitened times even the largest car makers can't afford to keep a model in production if customer interest has dried up. That must mean the big Audi e-tron GT is doing something right. In many respects, this all-electric four-door represents the missing link between Audi design of old and the brand's much-anticipated future direction.

With the next generation of Audis expected to mark a return to the modern 'Bauhaus' minimalism that characterised the brand from the noughties onwards, the yawning grilles, slashed headlights and flared surfaces of the current generation might suddenly start to look rather old hat. Perhaps, that is, with the exception of the e-tron GT.

The past few years have seen a deluge of new electric cars, many of them Chinese branded or at least supported by Chinese manufacturers. As a result, the technology of powertrains and interfaces are moving faster than ever before, with customers barely able to keep pace with new iterations of touch screens, as they hoover up the functionality once reserved for physical switches.

Because the e-tron GT predates this era, it adds a layer of analogue warmth to the alleged digital sterility of the EV. This is apparent outside as well as inside, where the bodywork featuring flared and wheelarches front and rear, a low stance, wide track and elegant fastback body.

Under the skin, it’s closely related to Porsche’s Taycan, which feels a little sterile and overwrought in comparison (although probably the better car, day to day). Instead, the e-tron GT gives off the same vibes as Audi’s more historic performance range, from the original quattro all the way through to recent RS models.

Appropriately enough, the e-tron GT is also available in an all-encompassing, power-crazed RS Performance variant, shown and tested here. It’s undeniably thrilling (it’s easy to succumb to the temptation of the big red ‘boost’ button mounted on the steering wheel) but in many ways it’s emblematic of the issues facing sporting electric performance; there’s simply too much of it.

At least the boost button keeps around 95PS back, thus preventing excessive battery drain. In day-to-day use, the regular 748PS is more than sufficient. Still, a zero to 62mph sprint of 2.5 seconds is up there with the hypercar club, while mid-range acceleration is colossal. All this is piped through a twin motor all-wheel-drive system that provides some of the best feedback and handling of any electric car.

There’s also 320kW fast charging, which gets the car from 10 to 80% in under twenty minutes (should you be able to find one), plus a claimed max range of 364 miles. We predict that this will be exceptional hard to achieve when not under laboratory conditions.

You will also pay to attain these lofty heights. In top spec, loaded up with options, the e-tron GT we tested is knocking on the door of £170,000, equivalent to a lightly used Bentley GT. Or a brand new 718 Boxster and a lightly used Taycan Turbo S. Unsurprisingly, the e-tron suffers the same catastrophic depreciation as its close relative, news of which should send you scurrying to the classifieds, where an early model e-tron GT sells for about the price of a new Nissan Leaf.

So it’s very much far from perfect. Budgetary quibbles aside, there are annoying interface issues despite the button-laden interior. The rigmarole of switching off the ADAS means unnecessary menu diving every time you start the e-tron GT – hardly unusual in a modern car, but other performance-focused manufacturers have introduced a handy shortcut button on the dash to circumvent this process.

It's also possible to find yourself in a perfectly reasonably sized parking space and yet the GT’s fore and aft proximity sensors will still be chirping away, back and forth like a police siren. This sets up an atonal orchestra of impenetrable dissonance, oversensitive, jarring and just generally confusing. This is a big car and sensors are essential, but surely the tech is now sufficiently advanced to make this unnecessary frustration a thing of the past?

We quibble because we like this car very much. And yet, the Bluetooth connection to Android Auto was also infuriatingly weak, dropping out at crucial points in navigation, podcasts, etc. And that centre console could do with an update for the wireless charging era. These are all issues that feel like they could be easily changed, were the e-tron GT to survive as a going concern in the future. But will that be the case?

The e-tron GT is almost legacy car-making at this point, with more switches and buttons than a whole fleet of Geely products and a market position that feels very distant from Audi’s current model strategy.

Should some kind of electrified TT appear in the near future, based perhaps on the Concept C shown last year and maybe helping to hoover up some of the investment costs Porsche sunk into the troubled Boxster EV programme, the e-tron GT will feel even older and out of touch. As time goes by, we’d put money on this being one of the first EVs to attain true classic status.

Audi e-tron GT RS Performance, from £143,925, Audi.co.uk, @AudiUK

The political football that is the EV switchover has been booted up and down the pitch more times than we care to remember, especially in the UK. The knock-on effect on the car market is one of confusion and flip-flopping, as models once destined for pure electric drivetrains are quietly revised to take old school ICE power and other manufacturers get long stays of execution for models and engines that would otherwise be on their way out.

Partly this is due to legislative confusion, but consumer behaviour has also played a part. Most importantly, one effects the other, with the end result being that volume manufacturers offer a more diverse and esoteric line-up of different and often conflicting model types than ever before.

Consider Audi. We’ve recently sampled the petrol-powered A5 alongside the A6 e-tron. Don’t even get us started on Audi’s current nomenclative nonsense, but for the purposes of this piece, the A5 and A6 are closely related in scale and purpose, with the A5 just a smidge smaller – confusingly, this model used to be known as the A4. A5s are available as a saloon and Avant (estate), in petrol, diesel or hybrid configuration.

The newer A6 comes in saloon and Avant variants with petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid options, whereas the pure EV, the A6 e-tron, is available as an Avant and a ‘Sportback’, essentially a sleeker saloon with a larger tailgate. All credit to Audi’s product planners for the mental juggling act they perform to maintain the 57 variants across 14 different model lines in the UK market alone.

So what’s it to be, ICE or EV? From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the A6 Avant e-tron wins this one. The design language is just a little bit evolved and dynamic, especially in the handsome long-roofed Avant variant. The front end still feels transitional, with slimmer lights that have evolved from the A5's more classically Audi 'face' yet don’t feel fully resolved. Much has been made of the radical approach taken by the 2025 Audi Concept C, and how that might signal a new design aesthetic going forwards.

Both cars share the wide light bar at the rear, first seen on the e-tron GT (still the best-looking modern Audi, in our opinion), but the A6 e-tron adds unwelcome touches like the illuminated four-ring logo on the boot – not very subtle. Inside, the differences are even harder to distinguish, with a strikingly similar layout of screens and HVAC controls.

Dig a little deeper and the A5 comes up somewhat short, with bells and whistles kept to a bare minimum. In fact, this is just about the most vanilla ‘premium’ car you can buy, without even electric seats on the test model. Audi’s on-screen graphics are excellent in both models, if not quite the best in class (there’s stiff competition these days), and the trend towards swooping, curved and floating screen designs clashes with the sober graphical approach.

In addition, anyone looking to get into an A5 or A6 will find fresh updates to the HMI system, launched last month. These include better phone integration and more display options, along with some tweaking of the e-tron’s regenerative braking.

Thus far, the A5 looks very much like an Audi for EV refuseniks. We haven’t been able to compare like for like – and the A5 we drove was very much lower in the pecking order than the A6 Avant e-tron with S line bodykit and performance upgrades. Both have the firmness of ride and directness of steering that is the Audi trademark, yet the EV naturally has the acceleration to match, while the A5 feels a little lacklustre in its standard, 150PS TFSI trim.

The A5’s 4-cylinder engine delivers nearly 42mpg on average, giving a range of 4-500 miles if driven prudently. The e-tron can’t compete, although the stated range of 437 miles is impressive and very much next-gen performance for an EV (despite being less in real world conditions).

If not quite chalk and cheese, these two Audis certainly highlight the current level of difference between ICE and EV and the efforts being made to elevate the latter, often at the expense of the former. For a more accurate comparison, consider that the standard ICE A6 Avant starts at £54,735, meaning that going all-in on electric still requires a hefty premium. However, in terms of design, desirability and all-round ability, we reckon the e-tron has the edge.

A6 Avant e-tron performance, from £80,455, Audi A5 saloon, from £43,410, Audi.co.uk, A6 Avant e-tron performance, from £65,115, Audi.co.uk

There must be something in the water that’s inducing 1990s and noughties automotive nostalgia. Hot on the heels of Smart’s announcement that it’s bringing back a compact city car, the Smart #2, and Škoda’s conceptual reimagining of the cultish, toy-like Favorit Fun with the Day-Glo, Barbie-style Felicia Fun concept, comes this new concept from Audi, an altogether more grown-up proposition.

In addition to spearheading the company's new design direction, one theory is that the Audi Concept C previews a new-generation compact Audi sports car. This would be a triumphant return to a sector the brand once very much owned with the Audi TT. Perhaps the first ‘designer’ sports car, the TT represented the rare distillation of pure design intent into a production model. Can the Concept C do a similar thing?

Naturally, this is an EV, unlike the original, which didn’t last long enough to even be hybridised, let alone electrified. Industry watchers point to a tie-in with sister company Porsche, which is known to be well advanced with the all-electric replacement for the popular 718. Given Porsche’s EV know-how – as evidenced by the Taycan and Macan – the 718 EV was set to be one of the first ‘true’ mass-market electric sports cars. Could it be joined by a related Audi?

If the two cars do share a platform, it’s been well concealed. The lines of the Concept C are pure Audi, owing more to the company’s aesthetic approach in the 1990s and 2000s than recent design studies. You can see a little bit of the original TT Concept from 1995, especially in the solid B-pillar design. The Concept C is presented with a targa-style retractable roof, as well as a solid deck that does away with a rear window.

Although this ‘window delete’ approach was recently popularised by Polestar, it has earlier antecedents in the Audi back catalogue. We see strong hints of the Audi Rosemeyer concept from 2000, a magnificent 16-cylinder powered, polished aluminium hypercar that evolved into one of the technical antecedents of the Bugatti Veyron.

There’s also a nod to 2004’s Audi RSQ, a concept created for I, Robot, that year’s Will Smith-starring action/science fiction film. The car, which gets plenty of screen time during the 2035-set film, has a silhouette closely related to the Audi R8, but the visual expression of solid billets of metal is carried through into this new concept.

Finally, we’d also draw parallels with the 2010 Audi E-Tron concept, an electric two-seater compact sports car that raised hopes of an early EV TT but proved to be something of a stylistic dead end. The new Concept C shares the 2010 car’s proportions, although the earlier design study had more unwieldy light graphics when compared to today’s slender multi-purpose light units. Curves and radii have also been simplified, radically so.

The Audi Concept C is definitely a return to the geometry-obsessed Audi of a couple of decades ago. In terms of overall proportions, the concepts features long front and rear overhangs that are uncommon in today’s EV design language. These proportions also serve to disguise the car’s physical size. Is this a truly compact sports car or more of a grand tourer?

In addition to the geometric precision, subtle, near-flat surfacing and blanked-out rear deck, the Concept C’s other point of difference is the front end. Featuring the same kind of frontal verticality seen in Bentley’s EXP 15 vision concept, with deep-set vents topped by slim lights, it’s also drawn comparisons to the Jaguar Concept 00.

This ‘vertical frame’ is a preview of the new Audi face, a massive simplification of the current complex, almost aggressive approach. Looking a little bit like a small car trying to emerge from a large one, the approach undoes decades and decades of car design that dovetails with face pareidolia, wherein headlights read as eyes, and grilles, badges, air intakes and other elements translate into the rest of the facial features. For inspiration, Audi’s designers have gone all the way back to the 1936 Auto Union Type C and the 2004 Audi A6.

The interior is another minimalist statement, with aluminium controls combined with warm, earthy natural materials and a general absence of extraneous detailing and surfaces. The steering wheel is even perfectly round, a rarity in the current industry, while the 10.4-inch touch touchscreen is designed to fold out of the way for a more analogue, engaging driving experience.

Audi is signalling a shift, having perhaps lost its status as the leading design-focused car brand in recent years. Although the stated four pillars of the new design philosophy (Clear, Technical, Intelligent and Emotional) don’t really transcend typical PowerPoint sentimentalising, the vehicle itself is a step forwards, albeit one that’s been combined with a studious look back.

Audi.com, @Audi

Is it time for another Audi design renaissance? In recent years, the Ingolstadt-based German manufacturer has seen its design mojo wither, spread too thinly across a vast range of products. Like many of its peers, Audi has suffered from its EV strategy, starting out with a distinct and separate line-up of e-tron EVs, but now folding them back into its regular model strategy.

On top of that, plans to change long-standing model names proved contentious and confusing and the brand has suffered from the absence of a true, distinct halo car, following the end of Audi R8 production in 2024.

With all this in mind, Audi’s decision to look forwards by looking back by assembling a cavalcade of greatest hits seems understandable. Wallpaper* travelled to Spain, in the refined surroundings of the Marqués de Riscal Hotel, to sample a delectable line-up of Audis old and new, with a side order of performance and a main dish of design.

Audi takes the 1965 Auto Union F103 as the brand’s modern starting point, courtesy of the VW Group’s acquisition of the Auto Union brand and factory in 1964. That original car is represented here by a mint condition Audi 80 Variant from 1968, lined up alongside the Audi 100 GL Saloon from 1972 and joined by a greatest hits compilation.

Cars on hand included the iconic original Audi quattro (1981), the seminal series 1 Audi TT Coupé, and four performance icons, the RS 2 Avant from 1994 (a collaboration with Porsche), the RS 4 Avant from 2001, and two R8s, an original manual V8 from 2007 and a V10-powered car from 2018. They were joined by two cars from the current fleet, the RS e-tron GT and brand new A6 Sportback e-tron (2025).

This collection of classic and contemporary metal lined up beneath the fluttering roofscape of the Marqués de Riscal Hotel in Elciego, designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 2006. It created a highly Instagrammable backdrop for this hands-on tour of Audi design history. The one-off event was not only joined by Audi’s senior exterior designer Gary Telaak, here to talk us through the evolution of the marque, but also by Audi UK’s new managing director, José Miguel Aparicio.

This was significant for a couple of reasons. For a start, the cars shown here all belong to Audi UK’s ‘heritage fleet’, a mint condition collection of lovingly maintained cars that makes the rounds at shows and events like this. 1965 is also the year when Audi started selling in the UK and the country’s embrace of the brand helped shape its identity around the world.

It was the UK’s creative industry that came up with the wheeze of taking an old advertising line, ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ ('progress through technology'), and tweaking it to symbolise the Platonic ideal of German engineering prowess. John Hegarty of Audi’s UK agency BBH cherry-picked VdT from a selection of early marketing material. In BBH’s skilled hands, it drove the brand into the premium space. The hard-edged Germanic precision of the words bounced off the famed British tin ear for language and sounded exotic, futuristic and trustworthy all at once.

Some ad agency bean counter calculated that Audi and VdT's brand equity is worth something in the region of £31.8bn (the VW Group's entire market capitalisation is around £40bn). The tagline became a cultural touchstone, repeated over 100 million times on ads throughout the 80s, 90s and beyond, seeping into everyday life via Only Fools and Horses and Blur's Parklife). The cars kept pace with the message and the 1980 debut of the Audi quattro, with its chunky styling and four-wheel-drive powertrain, gave the company its first true status symbol and helped define the decade’s innate style.

The arrival of the TT created another fortuitous alignment with German design culture. This time, the point of reference was the Bauhaus, which at that point in time was very much seen as a 20th century cultural niche. The connection was played up by the UK design establishment (and design press, we must admit), helping draw a direct lineage between the geometric, industrialised precision of interwar modernism and the beautifully simple lines of the 1995 TT concept and the 1998 production car.

In retrospect, this was a bit of a stretch, especially as the cars of the era that hewed closest to industrial minimalism were the Auto Union race cars of the 30s, vast machines that owed little to the esoteric politics of a small design school in Dessau and more to do with the grandiose national ambitions of the German state.

Nevertheless, these associations between technical sophistication and modernist thinking stuck. Audi could do no wrong. Throw in an industry-leading preoccupation with aerodynamics, and then a run of best-in-class automotive interiors, and Audi rocketed to a premium market slot, bolstered by the introduction of SUVs (the ‘Q’ models) and performance variants (‘RS’ models). However, the recent run of lacklustre early e-tron EVs and mixed messaging over model names, put an end to the company’s unbroken streak.

On show in Spain – and driven by Wallpaper* - is the new A6 Sportback e-tron. Efficient, if a little airless, the new A6 is a throwback to the slippery Audi design language of the late 80s, when models like the C3 Audi 100 redefined style through aerodynamics. A lot of that slippery simplicity was diluted by increasingly aggressive design over the years that followed. This can be seen in the ‘regular’ Audi A6 (the C9 model), which shares a name but not a platform with A6 e-tron.

For a more muscular electric experience, I also sampled the RS e-tron GT, the performance flagship of Audi’s EV range. After having spent a few months with the standard e-tron GT, it felt like returning to an old friend, a fine mix of ergonomics, practicality and – in RS form – incredible pace. Perhaps the most successful electric Audi to date, the e-tron GT shares a platform with the Porsche Taycan but is very much its own beast. Low, wide and purposeful, it has a spiritual connection to Audi’s 80s tech-stuffed muscle car, the quattro.

Before stepping through that particular time portal, I go back even further and sample the pristine examples of the Audi 80 and Audi 100 that are on offer. The 80 felt far adrift from modern dynamic sensibilities, with its vague column shift gearbox and steering. These aspects of the car had been substantially improved by the time the Audi 100 followed a few years later. Allegedly designed and developed in secret, after VW’s top brass declined to support the project, the C1-generation 100 became the company’s best-seller.

It is still a striking machine, especially in the rare two-door saloon version owned by Audi UK. There’s also an Audi 100 Coupé model (one of this writer’s favourite ever car designs). It’s a peach to drive as well, with the airy view and expansive interior afforded by slender columns and thin-walled structure. You wouldn’t want to have a run-in with a modern SUV whilst behind the wheel, but the more relaxed driving qualities of a classic make you take life at a slower pace.

Not so with the Audi quattro, represented here by an early first series car with a crushed brown velour interior and boxy black plastic dashboard. The quattro was fast, sure-footed and delightful, the kind of 80s car that could happily co-exist in the modern world. It turns a Spanish back road into a rally stage and puts a smile of the face of everyone who drives it.

Both Audi RS 2 (B4) and RS 4 (B5) were brutal exercises in packaging performance in the quiet, relatively restrained form of an estate car. Each has become a cult classic, and it’s not hard to see why. They offer up pace and dynamic precision quite at odds with their exterior image, even with the subtly flared wheel arches and spoilers.

Oddly for a celebration of design, the line-up in Spain omitted that ground-breaking C3 Audi 100 (although it wasn’t exactly a dynamic stand-out), as well as the 1988 Audi V8, which led the brand towards the aluminium-bodied Audi A8 launched in 1994.

That just left the Audi R8 to experience (the TT having been invalided out of the running due to the Spanish heat). The first-generation V8 was in great demand, so I consoled myself with revisiting the V10. It was like getting back into a favourite pair of shoes, a wonderful car that is already remembered fondly – everyone who drove it scuttled off to the internet to check used prices.

The cab-forward, mid-engined design is timeless, even if the second-generation car lost the defining side-blade element that set the original apart. Inside, the R8 exists in a sweet spot where Audi’s design skills hadn’t been derailed by the cult of the digital dashboard – it’s ergonomically perfect.

Ergonomics are not the strong suit in Gehry’s hotel. Rooms are awkwardly shaped, the intersection of roof form with the structure feels haphazard and ad-hoc and the hotel is spread out confusingly across multiple levels and locations. And yet it is still an impressive creation, nearly 20 years after completion. It's certainly up there with Gehry’s best buildings.

Combining the Guggenheim's fluidity with the idiosyncratic details of his smaller, more personal works, the hotel clealry gets the love and care it requires. As a leading wine hotel, it’s modestly trafficked by a moneyed, appreciative audience and therefore there’s the funding to keep everything working and finished to the original specification.

In many ways, Gehry’s hotel is the polar opposite of an Audi, which is a concentrated accretion of highly worked details, all in the service of greater efficiency and performance. Although there's a superficial parity with the idea of aesthetic evolution, Gehry has the approach of an artist, not an engineer.

Audi’s design and engineering credentials might have been given a substantial fillip by clever marketing, but time has been kind to this array of classics. What will the current range look like from the vantage point of 2055?

Audi.com, Audi.co.uk, @Audi, @AudiUK

What to make of the handsome new AUDI E concept, equipped with the knowledge that this is a car designed explicitly for the Chinese market? Not only that, the E is the first sight of what will be known as AUDI, a separate sub-brand to Germany’s Audi that blends innovation and expertise from both long-standing car cultures.

As we recently noted when talking about the Volkswagen Passat, the VW Group was an early adopter when it came to working hand in hand with the nascent Chinese auto industry. Audi’s relationship with the country dates back to 1988, when it was considered the country’s first ever premium brand. Today, SAIC Volkswagen builds just three Audi models out in China, the A7L, Q5 e-tron and Q6. That’s a marked difference to the 18 models currently listed in the UK (although a serious audit is in process).

AUDI, on the other hand, looks set to break free from the etymological knots the parent company has tied itself up into in recent years, with Qs and Rs and RSs and e-trons and other confusing shifts in naming strategy. Although naming the new brand AUDI – without any sign of the four-ring logo – seems like fuel for more confusion, the company is clearly hoping to cut through the noise. The Chinese market’s hunger for technology is also driven by the understanding that most new innovation comes from the home market, rather than imported brands.

Revealed at an event in early November 2024, the AUDI E concept is a large crossover with sober surfacing, minimal branding and a strong, planted stance. Size-wise it sits between the A5 Avant and A6 Avant models available in other markets, but the pure electric drivetrain allows for more interior space.

Visually, the AUDI E has more in common with the smooth surfacing and more overtly Bauhaus-inspired design of the parent brand around the turn of the century, when cars like the Audi TT were reinvigorating its design language and influence. Inside, too, the AUDI E represents a departure, with a clear split in the cabin between screens and lower surfaces, emphasised by a shift from light to dark materials, including architecturally-inspired illuminated wood and microfibre details on the doors.

The interior is described as ‘a stylish, comfortable, and connected oasis fit for the urban lifestyle in China’s megacities,’ and includes an AI avatar, the AUDI Assistant, that occupies the centre of the 4K screens, with a design that gives ‘emotional feedback when interacting.’

The emphasis on ‘China-specific technology’ includes more driver assistance than can be legally deployed in the West, without losing sight of the performance and dynamics that has always characterised this premium brand. The company cites a range of 700km (434 miles) using the country’s rather optimistic CLTC (China Light-Duty Vehicle Test Cycle) criteria.

The concept was co-developed in Ingolstadt and the Beijing Design Studio and previews a range of three cars that’ll be introduced in China from the middle of next year, all using the new Advanced Digitized Platform.

Audi.com, @Audi

Launched during this year’s Milan Design Week, the new Audi Q6 e-tron marks the start of Audi’s next generation line-up of EVs. The company’s first forays into the world of electrification were leftfield and thrilling. The original e-tron from 2009 was effectively an electrified R8, and it was followed by several other concepts bearing the e-tron name. These were the very early years of EVs, and there followed a general loss of nerve across the industry, compounded by a total absence of a Europe-wide charging network, and a lack of strong government incentives to both manufacturers and customers.

It wasn’t until 2018’s e-tron (later renamed the Audi Q8 e-tron) that the company’s EV programme started in earnest. In a piece of inverse evolution, it turned out that the best way to build an EV was to start big. Audi wasn’t the only legacy manufacturer thinking this way; Mercedes also fielded an SUV as its debut electric vehicle. Hence we find ourselves in a paradoxical world awash with heavy, bulky electric SUVs, at a time when light and compact cars are increasingly seen as the only socially acceptable way to preserve the practical benefits of personal mobility, in European cities at least. Only China has really doubled down on building small EVs alongside bigger ones, a focus that may yet come to bite Western car makers hard.

This is a long-winded way of explaining how we wound up in Norway driving the Audi Q6 e-tron quattro. The country is a world leader in automotive electrification (despite having no significant car industry of its own), and Audi clearly feels that it's the best place to demonstrate EV life. The launch of this mid-size electric SUV has come shortly after the German brand shuffled its deck of model names, dropping some familiar badges in an effort to create a more cohesive structure – Audi ‘A’s are still saloons and estates, ‘Q’ models are SUVs, with the A4 line-up becoming the A5 line-up in a seemingly arbitrary shift.

Underneath the Q6 e-tron is the Premium Platform Electric (PPE), the VW Group’s newly developed, ultra-flexible electrical architecture that will underpin reams of new models across its brand portfolio over the next few years and already forms the basis of Porsche’s Macan EV. It’ll also be used in the forthcoming A6 e-tron saloon and estate, due later this year. As only the second electric Audi to be designed as ground-up EV (after the flagship e-tron GT), the Q6 incorporates a huge number of efficiencies.

Audi’s Jessica Martin, Product Manager for the Q6 e-tron, told us that the car represented ‘a first for the brand in so many ways,’ adding that there were 'so many benefits with PPE,’ not least the electrical architecture’s ability to fast charge (10 to 80 % charge in just 20 minutes at 270kW), a new integrated electronics architecture that streamlines the multiple systems required for a modern EV, and other innovations like Audi’s own AI assistant (what we used to call ‘voice recognition’), capable of understanding up to 800 commands. The headline stat is a range of 381 miles, giving plenty of reserves for day to day driving without the dread encroachment of range anxiety.

The Q6 also marks the debut of a new Audi interior design language, through which the company is hoping to recapture some of the glory days of the noughties when its interiors reigned supreme. Although interior quality and materials are impeccable, the actual arrangement of screens across the dash, from binnacle to central display to passenger screen, feels a bit awkward, a sprawl of pixel real estate that looks like a collision of angles and forms.

The software and graphics are also largely excellent, as is the equipment levels on this fully stacked ‘edition 1’ launch model. These include adaptive cruise control, a panoramic roof, adaptive air suspension, a digital key, and speakers embedded in the driver’s headrest to give nav info without disturbing the other passengers. All this is luxury has been squeezed into what would once have been considered a standard family car, with a corresponding uplift in price. Space is generous, with no transmission tunnel, and high-quality materials include Napa leather. In addition to the passenger screen, which controls music, ventilation and mapping, there are also ‘smart’ panels on the doors and an informative head-up display.

Outside, the Q6 follows the accepted playbook of contemporary SUV design – Audi hasn’t yet gone down the path of intermediate style and size crossover models. From the side and rear it’s inoffensive and well-proportioned, with flared rear wheel arches (dubbed ‘quattro blisters’ in homage to the iconic 80s rally car and also referencing the handsome e-tron GT) and a black inset side panel indicating the location of the battery pack. The front end is less successful, with the demands of branding, sensors, lighting and aerodynamics fighting it out for space with no overall winner. The lights are particularly impressive, being active and digital, offering up different designs and the ability to personalise the light signature front and rear.

Driving through the beautiful but rigorously policed roads of Norway, the Q6 e-tron was a trusted and smooth companion. It’s no out-and-out performer, but the car deploys its electrical shove when necessary and the steering feels precise and well-weighted. Excellent ride quality soaks up the weight of the battery and any road imperfections – Audis no longer have the brutally hard suspension they did in the past. In terms of range, feel and practicality, the Q6 can’t really be faulted; the only issues are style and size. Both quibbles could be quashed by the upcoming A6 e-tron Avant, the arrival of which is a marginally more tempting prospect for fans of Audi’s famous streak of trend-setting styling from the 90s onwards.

For now, the Q6 e-tron will do Audi fans just nicely, even though challengers are already lining up. As the Norway fleet of press Q6s parked up outside the Bergen Børs Hotel, an Xpeng G9 glides past, one of many models from Chinese firms finding increasing favour in Europe. It looks a little cleaner and simpler and is certainly cheaper. Voted "People's Favourite" in Norway’s Dagbladet newspaper’s Car of the Year 2024 awards, the G9 is a stark reminder of how quickly things are changing in the EV world, a far cry from the slow ramp-up of the last decade. Audi will need to move fast to keep up.

Audi Q6 e-tron quattro, from £63,000, launch edition, £84,000 launch edition, Audi.co.uk

Audi’s Q6 e-tron, its latest all-electric car, seeks to set a new standard for electric vehicles. Designed with cutting-edge digital technology, enhanced performance, and fast charging, this sporty SUV redefines the German automotive manufacturer’s iconic slogan ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’. Boasting impressive efficiency, an electric range that touches up to 381 miles, and a top speed of 130mph, the Q6 e-tron quattro is a stylish powerhouse. ‘Our goal was to create something easily recognisable, highly functional, and incredibly welcoming,’ states Audi’s managing Creative Designer Mattijs van Tuijl.

Launched during Milan Design Week 2024 at the Audi House of Progress, the Q6 e-tron is the automotive company’s first car on its Premium Platform Electric (PPE) platform. Developed in partnership with Porsche, PPE provides a new chapter in Audi’s expansion of sustainable electric vehicles. For this SUV, up to 158 miles can be recharged in just ten minutes at a high-power charging station.

Designed from the inside out, this dynamic vehicle carefully combines innovation with sleek aesthetics. ‘One of the key elements here is human centricity. We put the user at the centre of everything we do,’ states van Tuijl.

The interior feels both light and spacious, providing ample space for five passengers plus luggage. Due to not having a transmission tunnel, Audi has been able to provide additional legroom for customers. 'We wanted to create an interior that makes you feel so comfortable that you want to stay in the car, even after arriving at your destination.’

Inside, beautifully soft upholstery sensitively meets glossy high-end technology. ‘We have created a welcoming car that has a seamless interior,’ van Tuijl notes. The interior boasts what Audi calls its ‘Digital Stage’. On the driver’s side, a freestanding curved touch multi-media interface can be found alongside an optional augmented reality head-up display.

This elegant 14.5-inch panoramic screen is complemented by a smaller 10.9-inch display that is cleverly incorporated into the dashboard on the passenger side. Featuring an active privacy mode using shutter technology, passengers can watch a film or assist with navigation without distracting the driver. ‘We want you to feel at ease but also focused when driving the Q6 e-tron,’ explains van Tuijl. ‘As a driver, you feel connected to the Q6 e-tron. Everything is easily within reach.’

Controls on a black panel have been smartly integrated into the door handle, allowing drivers to adjust the mirrors, seats, doors, and light settings. Meanwhile, the centre console holds two cupholders, charging ports, and a phone-charging tray. For the interior, Audi has employed sustainable materials that include elastic melange, which is made from 100 per cent recycled polyester, and ‘econyl’, a material made from old carpets, industrial waste, and disused fishing nets. ‘The Q6 has a material-driven design. From the first sketches of this car, we were looking at the materials,’ states van Tuijl.

Boasting Audi’s second-generation OLED lights, the Q6 e-tron takes road safety up a notch. ‘We want customers to feel safe, in control, and relaxed,' says van Tuijl. As well as actively scanning for oncoming cars and dimming the lights selectively around them, the driver can select a range of impressive digital light signatures to give the car a unique and distinctive look.

The Q6 e-tron is Audi’s boldest and most refined all-electric SUV to date (we explored the Audi e-tron series' history last year). This car carefully combines technical innovation with luxuriously slick design. Having delivered nearly 120,000 electric vehicles last year, Audi continues to charge ahead with its range-wide electrification rollout. ‘We are not here to make a new product without a purpose. There must be a driving force behind everything we create,’ van Tuijl concludes. ‘In times when so much is possible it is important to know what you are trying to achieve.’

Audi Q6 e-tron, from £69,700, Audi.co.uk

The focus here is on both hybrids and EVs, despite the latter getting something of a rough ride in an increasingly partisan media landscape. Although it’s true that hybrid drive still makes the most sense for high mileage users, it’s worrying that some carmakers have seized on political hesitancy over electric vehicles with undisguised glee. That said, there are still plenty of new and upgraded EVs to get excited about, and even a few companies dipping a toe in hybridisation and electrification for the first time. Here’s our selection of what to watch for in the months ahead.

Audi Q6 e-tron

Audi still favours EVs that are at the larger end of the scale, and the new Q6 e-tron and performance-focused SQ6 e-tron models are no exception. Notable because they sit on the company’s new Premium Platform Electric (PPE) – which it shares with Porsche – the new Q6 has a longer range and much more intensive ‘digital experience’ for drivers and passengers.

Maximum range is billed as 381 miles, with the SQ6 model offering a 4.3 second 0-62 mph time (although physics dictates that these two stats cannot co-exist). Inside, the cockpit reads as a ‘Digital Stage’, helped by the addition of a new passenger screen and a curved driver display screen. There’s also an optional Augmented Reality Head-Up Display and Bang & Olufsen sound system. 

Audi Q6 e-tron quattro, available to order from €74,700, Audi  SQ6 e-tron, from €93,800, Audi.com

Porsche Panamera e-hybrid

Porsche is having a very busy year. Alongside this revision and the updated Taycan, there’s also the new all-electric Macan and the promise of the first ever hybrid 911 model to come. The Panamera range has now been joined by new 4 E-Hybrid and 4S E-Hybrid variants.

These pair petrol engines with an updated plug-in hybrid system, with an all-electric range of nearly 60 miles and the ability to charge the battery using the engine (an option sorely missing from many other PHEVs). A spacious, comfortable interior make this one of the great contemporary GT cars. 

Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid and Panamera 4S E-Hybrid, available to order, Porsche.com

Porsche Taycan Mk2

Porsche has given its first fully-fledged EV a mid-life makeover, adding more range and refinement to all models, including the Taycan Sport Turismo and the Taycan 4 Cross Turismo. Upgrades include new headlights and revised front and rear styling, more advanced efficiency measures, adaptive air suspension across every model and even more performance.

All this is overshadowed by an impressive range increase of up to 35%, giving the longest-legged model a range of 421 miles, and making an already excellent car even better. 

Porsche Taycan, available to order, Porsche.com

Lamborghini Urus SE 

The newly announced Lamborghini Urus SE is the first hybrid version of the brand’s SUV. Following on from the hybrid-powered Revuelto (dubbed an HPEV - High Performance Electrified Vehicle – by the company), the Urus SE lays claim to a massive 80% reduction in emissions.

That’s not too hard to believe, given how the ferocity and volume of the standard V8-powered model gave the impression of necking fuel even when it was at a standstill. Nevertheless, the addition of an electric motor hasn’t dimmed the Urus’s power or performance, but there’s now the welcome option of a silent EV driving mode that won’t wake the neighbours. 

Lamborghini Urus SE, available soon, Lamborghini.com

Citroën C4 X Hybrid

Alongside the Citroën ë-C4 X EV, you’ll now find the new C4 and C4 X Hybrid 136. This isn’t as retrograde a step as it first appears, for the ë-C4 X disappointed with its middling range. As conventional, non-plug-in hybrids, the new models combine a 1.2-litre PureTech petrol engine with a battery, reducing overall emissions and allowing for all-electric driving when the occasion demands. 

Citroën C4 X Hybrid 136, from €33,900, Citroën.fr

Cupra Born VZ

The new Cupra Born VZ is the sporting variant of the Spanish manufacturer’s excellent compact EV. Designed in line with Cupra’s intention of becoming the sporty, emotional flipside of its sister brand SEAT, the VZ is mildly tweaked for better acceleration and top speed, as well as a revised handling package. There are also sports seats, larger wheels and a new range of exterior colours.

Cupra Born VZ, more details at CupraOfficial.com

Mini Aceman

Mini’s product range is growing with the introduction of the new Mini Aceman, an all-electric crossover that is bigger than the evergreen Mini Cooper but somewhat smaller than the Countryman model.

The styling is chunkier than the former, especially the wheelarches, although elsewhere it follows the company’s new pared-back design language inside and out. The cheaper E model is joined by the longer-range SE (with a still rather meagre 54.2 kWh battery), which should be good for 252 miles. 

MINI Aceman, from £31,800, Mini.co.uk

Ineos Fusilier

The Ineos Fusilier is the all-electric variant of the eccentric but durable Ineos Grenadier, the car that scraped up the last remaining DNA of Land Rover’s original Defender and turned into a cult but costly 4x4. Starting from the same utility-inspired automotive design, the Fusilier actually sits on its own EV platform and is a bit shorter and lower than its petrol- or diesel-powered sibling. 

With a choice of a pure EV or a range extender model (with a small petrol engine that only functions as a generator for the batteries), the Fusilier will make a striking alternative to the status quo. However, it'll have to go head-to-head with Mercedes’ newly launched electric G-Wagon, the G580.  

Ineos Fusilier, register for more interest at IneosGrenadier.com

Škoda Epiq

Finally, a preview of a car coming early in 2025. Škoda describes its forthcoming Epiq as ’a battery-electric city SUV crossover,’ all part of parent company Volkswagen’s ongoing quest to create a compact, desirable and profitable c€25,000 EV. The Epiq is clad in Škoda’s Modern Solid design language, measures just over 4m long and should have a range of around 250 miles.

Note that in the electric era, a ’people’s car’ can no longer be a compact hatchback, but instead an ’urban’ SUV – such are the tricky economics of making small cars profitable. 

Škoda Epiq, more details at Skoda-Auto.com

Cast your mind back 25 years and the consumer design landscape was very different. Wallpaper* had only just come into being, there was only a handful of other design-focused titles, the internet was an empty wasteland and the definition of ‘design’ was still very much attributed to a select, distinguished grouping of objects, somehow elevated from the everyday.

Coming into this reverential atmosphere, the first Audi TT was seen as nothing short of sensational. For the gatekeepers of what constituted good design, Audi’s compact and curvaceous sports car appeared to be the epitome of all that ‘design’ promised; a distinctive, purist, industrial object that was available to all. In short, the ambitions of the Bauhaus finally realised.

Audi first showed the TT as a concept at the 1995 Frankfurt Motor Show. With external styling by Freeman Thomas, the TT project was overseen by then design director Peter Schreyer, with J Mays, Martin Smith and Romulus Rost, as well as input from the legendary Audi head of design Hartmut Warkuss. The production version arrived in 1998, remarkably unchanged from the concept. Proportions and forms were all faithfully carried over, except for elements that proved too hard to mass produce, like the chunky C-pillar.

As an object of desire, the TT was without equal. Priced far below contemporary sports from the likes of Porsche and Maserati, it nevertheless drew more admiring glances than its peers. Audi UK held an early press dinner for the TT at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, after which the assembled journalists got their first experience of the car. As this correspondent’s very first test drive, it was a formative one.

For more experienced writers, less versed in the art of proportion and more concerned with ride and dynamics, those early TTs didn’t quite live up to their looks. It wasn’t the sports car of their dreams, let alone a credible successor to the famed Audi Quattro. Under Freeman Thomas’s curvaceous bodywork were the mechanical underpinnings of the VW Group’s A4 platform, which also formed the basis of the VW Golf Mk4 and the Audi A3. The oily bits might not have been as innovative as the styling, but it was this pragmatism that ensured the TT could be constructed and sold at a reasonable price.

Still, there were grumblings. It wasn’t until the release of the 2005 TT quattro sport, with its two-tone bodywork and limited production run that the petrolheads finally got what they wanted from the TT. It might have skewed Audi’s perception of the model as well, for the next generation, which surfaced in 2006, had lost a little bit of the original’s character in favour of a more aggressive approach. This culminated in 2009’s TT RS (for RennSport, or ‘racing sport’), ahead of the launch of TT Mk3 in 2014. From 2024, the TT will be no more.

Audi TT, the final editions

We sampled both the Audi TT RS and the TTS Roadster Final Edition as a way of paying homage to this remarkably successful model, one that helped redefine and embolden Audi’s image as a design innovator. The TT’s evolution also closely tracked Audi’s growing emphasis on power and speed as the century progressed, as almost all its cars ended up with ultra-powerful, extremely aggressive variants over the years.

Finished in Nardo Grey, the TT RS still retains some of the modernist purity of the original. If you can overlook the (massive) rear wing and deep, multi-fluted front grille, you’ll find that the perfect curve of the roof, high shoulder line and starkly delineated wheelarches remain distinctive and instantly recognisable. 

Inside, there’s a triple air vent system where most modern cars slap a flatscreen – infotainment, navigation and everything else is taken care of in the digital instrument cluster. Without the TFTs, the interior has a certain analogue ambience, enhanced by the sharply tuned exhaust note and characteristic Audi firmness of spring.

The convertible version of the run-out model, the TTS Final Edition, is also spoiled by a spoiler, albeit not quite as OTT as the RS’s. The original Mk1 Roadster had elegant metal hoops as roll-over protectors; their modern equivalents are a little more functional. Still, the hood is swift and snug and you lose very little in the way of boot space or practicality, apart from the loss of the (tiny) rear seats. Yes, that’s right – the TT was a four-seater from the outset, something its proportions have never let on. 

These are still great cars to drive, benefitting from their relatively small scale and low, sporting driving position, with quick steering that makes the most of the ultra-stiff suspension. Despite its role as a design icon, the TT was very quickly out of step with taste. The market for small two-seaters slid inexorably downwards during the car’s lifetime. Along with the difficulty of electrifying such a small platform, this hastened the TT’s inevitable demise.

Nevertheless, we’ll always have a fondness for this little German coupé, a car created by a design team, not a marketing committee. Perhaps technology will eventually mature to give Audi’s icon a well-deserved encore. 

Audi TT RS Coupe 400PS Iconic Edition S tronic, as tested £87,650

Audi TT S Roadster Final Edition, as tested £51,425

Audi.co.uk, @AudiUK

This spectacular machine is perhaps the most raucous and extreme production estate car ever made. The new Audi RS6 Avant GT is a limited-edition run of 660 cars (of which 60 are destined for the UK market), marking the end of production of this generation of old-school, V8-powered ultra-rapid luggage hauling.

To date, Audi’s RS series have always represented the pinnacle of each particular model, tuned and enhanced by Audi Sport GmbH to maximise their performance and dramatic effect. We’ve greatly enjoyed various flavours of RS over the years – the RS3, RS4, RS5, and RS7 (although were very wrong about that V8 engine) – even if with the onward march of time, they feel increasingly at odds with the prevailing mood. 

The company’s sporting division has thrown everything at this run-out model, with aggressive styling tweaks, carbon fibre bodywork, uprated engine and a striking livery. Inspiration came from Audi’s own RS6 GTO concept, as well as the Audi 90 IMSA GTO, a particularly successful 1980s track car pitched at a lairy American race series.

Audi RS6 Avant GT: pure petrol-burning attitude

In many respects, the RS6 Avant GT is a fine example of having your cake and eating it, given that Audi is deep into the process of electrifying its product range. There’s nothing vaguely sustainable about the Avant GT, save for the fact that astute purchasers will ensure it lasts forever as an appreciating asset.

Other than that, the Avant GT is pure, petrol-burning attitude. A new aero package includes serious ducts, scoops and a red-painted rear spoiler, while massive white 22-inch wheels fill the wheel arches. Inside, there’s a moody black-and-red colour scheme, deep bucket seats, and space for five people and copious luggage.

The optional red, black, white and grey livery references Audi Sport’s core colours, with three exterior finishes available, Arkona White, Nardo Grey, and Mythos Black Metallic. All of this exuberance was previewed by the RS 6 GTO from 2020, which began life as a student apprentice project in collaboration with Audi Design. That project only resulted in a single show car, but now Audi has taken it through to its logical conclusion.

Enthusiastic buyers might insist on exploring the raw potential of the Avant GT’s acceleration rather than its appreciation. With a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 engine at its heart, the car can hit 124mph in 10.5 seconds, en route to a top speed of 190mph. It might not be the fastest estate car ever made, but it’s certainly one of the most striking.

Audi RS6 Avant GT, from £176,975, Audi.co.uk

This was the year that EVs went thoroughly mainstream, even as political dithering dented the emphasis on the urgency of the need to switch from ICE. There were still a few notable novelties in the latter sphere, perhaps buoyed by mixed official messaging and the belief that fossil fuels somehow deserved a future in the hands of the well-heeled. Whilst we thoroughly enjoyed the latest from Ferrari, Maserati, and Aston Martin, there’s an undeniable feeling of an era drawing to a close. Will the old guard manage to rewrite the rule book, or will new brands without the heavy drag of heritage be able to get ahead? Peruse our picks of 2023 (in no particular order)…

Top 10 cars of 2023

01. Audi e-tron GT

We loved Audi’s e-tron GT, a handsome grand tourer that shows that premium electric cars need not be about over-powered hypercars or hefty SUVs. Expect a face-lifted and lightly upgraded version of the GT to break cover in 2024 – we’re looking forward to it. 

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02. Hyundai Ioniq 6

Hyundai kept up its current winning streak with the sleek Ioniq 6, a streamlined electric saloon that showed that design could be bold and different without alienating anyone. 

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03. Volkswagen ID.Buzz

VW has a hit on its hands with the ID.Buzz, a flexible MPV that’s equally at home as a car or a commercial vehicle. The high-riding driving position and acres of space recall the original VW Combi and 2024 should see 7-seater and campervan variants arrive.

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04. Rolls-Royce Spectre

Rolls-Royce spoiled us with the all-electric Spectre, a mighty achievement that goes straight to the top of the luxury wish-list. Serene, majestic yet also sprightly and long-legged, the vast coupé epitomises the company’s long-held ethos.  

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05. Lotus Eletre

The Lotus Eletre follows the familiar playbook for all-new electric auto brands; start with a sizeable SUV and eventually downscale. Only Lotus is no start-up. The Eletre might not demonstrate the venerable sports car maker’s historic passion for lightness, but it’s a truly convincing piece of kit. Next year sees the arrival of the new Emeya electric saloon.

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06. Ferrari Roma Spider

Ferrari threw open the roads of Sardinia for the launch of its beautiful Roma Spider, reasoning that the media would look most kindly on the car if it was in its natural environment. It succeeded; in the right location, the Spider encapsulates la dolce vita.

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07. Aston Martin DB12

Something of a glorious anachronism, the DB12 is the automotive equivalent of a long-running film franchise that manages to stay fresh and relevant with each release. Essentially an uprated and restyled DB11, the DB12 retains the essential elements of beauty and brawn, only now it’s a little more user friendly. 

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08. Maserati MC20

The MC20 was a mild surprise for long-time followers of Italian manufacturer Maserati. Just when it seemed the company had sacrificed over a century of history on the altar of the dreaded SUV, it came out with this magnificent mid-engined supercar. Old-school cool in all the right ways. 2024 marks Maserati’s 110th birthday, so expect some kind of four-wheeled celebration. 

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09. Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

Another modern Italian masterpiece, the 33 Stradale is a strictly limited-edition hypercar. Unveiled back in August, it pointed to a mini design renaissance for the firm, once the unrivalled masters of making beautiful cars at every price point. If just 10 per cent of the 33 Stradale’s good looks make it into the next all-electric generation of Alfa road cars, the company’s future looks bright.

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10. David Brown Automotive Mini eMastered

Finally, a leftfield choice that merges truly iconic design with up-to-the-minute technology. DBA’s Mini eMastered is both strikingly brilliant and fantastically expensive. The ultimate luxury city car?  

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Like all legacy carmakers, Audi’s path to electrification has not been a straight line; it has deviated and twisted along the way, with the occasional dead end and dramatic shift in strategy. The one constant has been the designation ‘e-tron’, the nameplate that signifies an electrically-powered Audi.

Some 14 years since the first e-tron-branded car made its debut, a coherent strategy finally seems to be emerging. This is the Audi e-tron GT, currently the only non-SUV electric car in the Audi line-up. The e-tron GT is something of an outlier, for it has no ICE equivalent. Sleek, low and wide, it’s as if the elegant coupé and fastback designs of the A5 and A8 had been given a futuristic makeover.

This is fitting, for the production version of the e-tron GT has remarkable fidelity to the original show car, the Audi e-tron GT concept that debuted at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show. The fine proportions keep the car looking fresh, even if the tech underpinnings are just starting to show their age. This model is the ‘standard’ e-tron GT, trumped only by the RS e-tron GT, a much pricier and swifter machine. The actual performance difference comes down to mere seconds; the main improvement is to the on-board kit and specifications.

Living with the Audi e-tron GT

We recently spent an extended period of time with the Audi e-tron GT, exploring what it was like to live with on a day-to-day basis. The most notable takeaway was just how different it felt compared to its peers. Even after trying some of the very latest electric cars, all developed and released long after the Audi, getting back behind the wheel of the big German felt like being in a sports car, in terms of its low driving position, deft handling and easy performance.

In fact, there are just two strikes against this car; range and size. The latter is something you just have to adapt to. The GT is wide, at 1.96m, making width restrictors an unnecessarily stressful experience and limiting available parking spots. Range is more of a puzzler. Audi says the e-tron GT quattro has a range of up to 305 miles, but the reality is around 80 per cent of that, if you’re lucky with traffic, don’t dip into the performance, run the heater or drive up any steep hills.

Range is traditionally a thorny problem for EVs and this one stat belies the Audi’s age; a mid-200 showing is really the bare minimum required to avoid the double-whammy of range anxiety and careful planning of charge stops. It’s simply not enough for a long-distance GT car. On top of that, this lesser GT model lacks amenities like a head-up display and adaptive cruise control, the kind of extras that should be baked into a flagship model. To add insult to injury, the car replaces these high-tech systems with blanked-out bits of black plastic.

Provided the haul is not too long, however, and the GT is superlative in almost every other respect. Once you’ve acclimatised to the car’s scale and finessed the regular ritual of switching on ‘eco’ mode at the start of every journey, it makes for an effortless and accomplished daily driver. Those broad flanks mean there’s ample interior space for five, with a glass roof illuminating the dark-trimmed cabin.

Audi should also be commended for not giving over completely to touch screens. The main touch display has a pleasing haptic ‘click’, but most other controls are given over to switches and dials. Ride quality is generally good, although there’s the occasional battery-enhanced thump and crash on rough surfaces – it’s tough to mask all that weight. 

As all EV owners know too well, speed and acceleration might be effortless, but they’re instantly accounted for by a corresponding decrease in range. Even in top-speed restricted ‘Eco’ mode, though, the GT never feels remotely slow. However, there’s a distinct lack of bite to the regenerative braking. This is operated by the steering wheel paddles, which feel rather redundant given how little they do.

The e-tron GT shares a substantial amount of its underpinnings with Porsche’s Taycan, and it’s no secret that the latter car outsells it practically two to one. The big question is whether the e-tron GT will ever be replaced. With companies like Volvo abandoning the electric saloon car altogether, the sporting, fastback saloon risks going the same way.

Audi's e-tron range has always been a little bit confusing but seems to have coalesced around the company’s ‘Q’ models – that is to say SUVs. Right now, you can get Q4, Q6 and Q8 e-trons, both in regular and ‘Sportback’ forms.

Happily, the company seems to be keeping the flame alive with its 2021 A6 e-tron concept, a proposal for an electrified saloon and estate version of the mid-size A6 model, due for imminent replacement. Every indication is that the next generation A8 flagship will be all-electric as well. However, the e-tron name could also fizzle out altogether – it was notably absent from the quartet of 'sphere' concepts released from 2021 onwards, the Urbansphere, Grandsphere, Skysphere, and Activesphere. As electric cars become the rule, rather than the exception, it makes less sense to identify them as somehow different. 

One area where the benefits of battery power are of primary importance to a brand like Audi is in performance and sport; lest we forget, the very first e-tron model was a 2009 concept car dubbed simply the ‘e-tron’. Based on the Audi R8, it entered very limited production in 2010 (with a very limited range as well) before being offered as a full production car in 2015. These were early days for EVs, and the Audi R8 e-tron bore a pioneer’s premium, with a price tag of around €1m. Unsurprisingly, only around 100 were sold.

There was also a little seen 2010 concept, the Detroit-Showcar Audi e-tron, a beautifully finished and proportioned two-seater that hinted at a future electric TT, but ultimately fizzled out into nothing. From here, the e-tron name was confusingly added to hybrids as well as EVs, starting with the 2011 A3 e-tron concept (later a production car) and the Chinese market specific Audi A6 L e-tron concept (2012).

The company briefly diversified into a parallel world of ‘h-tron’ concepts, signifying hydrogen power, with the e-tron concept family essentially becoming a preview of production cars. The waters were muddied from here on in, as the 2015 e-tron quattro concept eventually arrived as the e-tron S quattro in 2021. This was subsequently renamed as the e-tron Q8 and joined by a cookie cutter family of smaller SUV models, the Q6 and Q4. 

At the same time, there was a separate strand of Audi design that pushed the performance potential of electric cars, despite the failure of the R8 e-tron. This manifested itself in the 2018 Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo, which made the transition from virtual racing car to potential Formula E contender, and the closely related 2018 Audi PB18 e-tron concept car, revealed at Pebble Beach and intended as a far future vision of high-end sports car. 

There has also been the one-off Audi S1 e-tron quattro Hoonitron, built for the late stunt driver Ken Block and the formidable Audi RS Q e-tron rally car (actually a sophisticated hybrid). 

With Audi’s twin performance icons, the R8 and TT, leaving production in the near future, there’ll be an obvious sports car-shaped hole in the company line-up. Dedicated EV two-seaters are still thin on the ground, with Porsche’s forthcoming 718 EV perhaps the most promising. Could Audi repeat the TT’s era-defining success for the electric age?

Whatever happens next, the global love affair with SUVs shows no signs of abating, ensuring that most near future Audi EVs will continue to be the behemoths of the road. For now, the e-tron GT occupies a small but important niche as a premium performance EV. It’s still a fine machine, and one that deserves a second act.

Audi e-tron GT quattro, from £87,800, Audi.co.uk

Sports cars look set to continue to burnish the image of a brand for the foreseeable future. With EVs still in their embryonic stage – certainly in terms of the mass market – the defining characteristic of most premium machines is power, and lots of it. The knock-on effect of batteries bestowing everyday automobiles with supercar-like levels of acceleration is that ‘traditional’ cars are left somewhat wanting.

Even the most spirited of sports cars can barely match the stats of a mid-range EV. Instead of out-and-out speed, the last days of combustion are becoming a celebration of the sound and fury of burning hydrocarbons in the most elaborate ways possible. 

Audi RS3 Sportback

Audi’s high-performance ‘RS’ designation has jumped species from petrol-power to EV, losing none of the accelerative impulse but almost all its analogue savagery in the process. For the time being, there are still several trad RS models on the market, with power levels still being pushed to giddying excesses.

It is the last days of Rome for the traditionally fuelled car; powertrain engineers unable or unwilling to switch to battery-based propulsion have gone all out in seeing what they can do. 

The smallest Audi RS is this, the RS3, available as both a saloon and a compact ‘Sportback’ estate car. Relentless upscaling means the RS3 isn’t really ‘small’ – it’s simply not ‘big’ by the standards ushered in by the SUV era. It still carries plenty of luggage, though.

Smaller cars will always make better driving machines, regardless of the quantities of power. You have more space on the road, more awareness of your surroundings, and a more immediate connection between the steering, chassis, and wheels.

The headline figures here are more than respectable – a sub-four-second sprint to 62mph, around 400PS and 500Nm of torque (the amount of power sent to the wheels – it can also be cleverly applied to a single rear wheel for ‘controlled drifts on closed roads’, according to Audi’s literature).

As naysayers point out, EVs might be able to perform similar feats, but they can’t do so again and again and again like a traditional internal combustion engine. Batteries run too hot. They get depleted. Sadly, this argument is almost entirely irrelevant in day-to-day usage, given the increasingly limited opportunities to deploy extreme performance. 

It might not beat an EV off the line, but the RS3 still excels over its successors in its handling and general dynamic feel. Audi has traditionally built sports cars with sharp, responsive steering and extremely rock-hard suspension, very often at the expense of comfort. The RS3 is no different, but at 1,570kg, it is substantially lighter than Audi’s (current) smallest EV, the Q4 e-tron, which comes in at around 2,135kg.

Batteries are the obvious culprit and it’s still an impossible task for engineers to completely cloak all that extra heft. The Q4 does its best, but the RS3 offers a convincing reminder as to how far EVs still need to evolve, darting around corners and conjuring a convincing EV-like surge from its 2.5-litre 5-cylinder engine.  

The upshot of all this is that Audi still appears to be better at making petrol-powered cars than it is at electrics. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with the e-tron, or the e-tron Sportback, or the Q4 e-tron, or the e-tron GT, the company’s strengths are still better channelled through traditional technology. For now.

Audi’s future focus is almost entirely on EVs, with a generous side order of autonomous driving (see recent concepts like the Audi Skysphere). However, we’re going to be stuck with internal combustion engines for a couple more decades at least. For most of that time, petrol-powered vehicles will only be available second-hand – second-class automotive citizens in a zero-emission world. But given that they represent the summit of a century’s evolution, run-out models like the Audi RS3 are inevitably destined to become a future classic.

INFORMATION

Audi RS3 Sportback, from £52,520

audi.co.uk

The Audi skysphere concept is the first in a trio of conceptual designs intended to re-position the German brand as a leader in emotional technology. Audi’s concept cars are typically relatively true to life, predicting real world machines that are just a few months from production. This time, however, the company is going out on a limb with a bold future vision designed to evoke an ethos, if not an actual forthcoming model. 

The skysphere is a substantial two-seat grand tourer, a classic and desirable automotive archetype reinvented for a new era. There’s a rapid shift happening in the sporting and luxury end of the auto industry, as consumer enthusiasm for noisy, fossil-fuelled transportation evaporates faster than a puddle in a Portland heatwave. Given that the internal combustion engine has been the literal and metaphorical heart of the automobile, companies like Audi are focusing on using design to re-shape our image of the electric car. 

There are other technologies in this future pipeline, and the skysphere is designed to showcase them all. The most pressing is autonomous driving. Although this is still very much an unknown quantity in the real world, autonomy is the stuff that car designers’ dreams are made of, opening up an unlimited range of interior ideas. As a result, the skysphere has been given an impressive party trick. In Grand Touring mode, the steering wheel folds away and the open cabin becomes a space for a ‘romantic motoring experience,’ in the company’s own words. The cabin is lavishly adorned with vegan leather, eucalyptus wood, and a dashboard-sized touchscreen, with the newly available space doubling down on the car’s future role as a social space or work zone. 

In Sports Mode, the skysphere’s passenger seat slides back, the steering wheel reappears and the entire car contracts by 250mm in length, creating a more wieldy, agile wheelbase. Lichte describes this as a transformation into the ‘ultimate driving machine,’ although in the future Audi is designing for there’ll be far fewer chances to manually take the wheel, so contemporary definitions of dynamics and performance might not apply. It’s not the first concept to toy with a sliding scale; last year’s Renault Morphoz design study also compressed its length, this time for ease of access to cities. There have also been a number of ultra-compact city cars designed to fold up into a smaller footprint for parking. 

The skysphere’s concertina-style bodywork is first and foremost about glamour and presence. Conceived and developed at Audi’s Malibu ‘design loft’, an all-digital studio in California, headed up by Senior Director Gael Buzyn, it required careful consideration to ensure the proportions stayed correct despite the shifting bodywork. The American team worked virtually alongside Head of Audi Design Marc Lichte to develop the concept.

Although its self-driving skills and transformable bodywork will grab headlines, the car’s most serious role is to prepare the world for Audi’s new design language. The skysphere’s form is defined by a more faceted, geometric approach, inside and out, with an emphasis on textures created by patterns, and boldly juxtaposed materials. The front grille, for so long a defining feature of the Audi ‘face’, has dematerialised into the entire front end of the car, a wraparound feature that is defined by pattern and surface and no longer cools, but houses the sensors and cameras required for autonomy, with a kaleidoscope array of LEDs defining the surfaces. 

Lichte describes the car as ‘a sculpture in motion with a majestic presence,’ and its world premiere at the 2021 Monterey Car Week shows the big two-seater in its natural habitat. The design team was partly inspired by the 1937 Horch 853 Roadster, a monumental design from the early days of Audi’s history. Right now, the skysphere’s Level 4 autonomy is still legally, ethically, and technologically out of reach, but concepts like this show how seriously Audi is taking the challenge of creating premium EVs that combine presence with utility. The skysphere will followed by two other forthcoming concepts, the Audi grandsphere and Audi urbansphere, all of which are united by this new approach to the passenger experience.

INFORMATION

Audi skysphere, concept only

audi.co.uk

The big cars of the future are begging to be electrified. Well over a year ago, back in the dark days of the first lockdown, Audi had to abandon an A8 outside my house. No-one was really going anywhere, and the big, gleaming black limousine got exceptionally dusty and quickly started to look rather sad. Every few days I would dutifully sit inside the impressive interior and start the ignition, triggering a sparkling Aladdin’s Cave of digital dials and read-outs as the car reassured me it was still alive. 

Ever since its inception, back in 1994, the flagship Audi A8 has been the discrete businessperson’s big car of choice. It's not as showy as the Mercedes S-Class, less aggressive than BMW’s 7-Series and a more technologically focused machine than, say, a Jaguar XJ. Over the decades, big sedans have plunged in sales and status, overtaken by luxury SUVs. Yet for car makers and their design teams, they still carry kudos; big dimensions allow for elegant proportions and big prices enable new technology to make its debut. Like its peers, the A8 model has always been a technological showcase - it was the first Audi to make extensive use of lightweight aluminium, while subsequent models cram in the top tier of new tech before it filters down the range, from interface screens to navigation systems. 

Although Audi’s newest version of the A8 arrived at Wallpaper* to find itself almost instantly unemployed, it was already making accommodations for a swiftly changing world. Most notably, it finally came with a plug-in hybrid system, using the smoothness of electric power to deliver most efficient possible ride. These days practically every Audi model is pumped up to premium levels, replete with digital dashboards and connectivity options, leaving scale and power as the only things that make a car stand out at the top of the market. The A8, or the A8 L 60 TFSIe to give it its full title, is certainly big - that ‘L’ denotes a slight wheelbase stretch to give rear passengers the full reclining seat experience, complete with screens and footrests. It’s also swift, mating a relatively modest 335bhp turbocharged V6 petrol engine with an additional 126bhp of electric motor. Audi’s quattro four-wheel-drive system comes as standard and all the benefits of hybrid power - swift, silent acceleration and massively improved fuel efficiency - are readily observable. But it's far from being performance-focused; the experience is all about the ride. 

A big, comfortable car that can glide silently in and out of urban centres without leaving a trail of unnecessary pollution in its wake doesn't just benefit those in the capacious back seats. On the one hand, it feels like Audi has built the perfect car for one very particular and dwindling demographic: those who employ a chauffeur. But this newest variant of the A8 also goes some way to re-shaping the long-standing vision of what a luxury car should be, eschewing look-at-me ostentation in favour of discrete, sober and effective design, with tech doing all the hard work of cloaking any perceived excesses. 

There’s a caveat. Twelve months is a long time in the modern auto industry and Audi now has a small fleet of pure electric vehicles, the e-tron, e-tron Sportback, Q4 e-tron and the e-tron GT. Setting aside their rather baffling and banal naming convention, it’s worth comparing the hybrid A8 with its new EV relatives. The closest comparison is the e-tron GT, a svelte fastback four-door that shares a substantial amount of DNA with the Porsche Taycan. It is fast, elegant and has a decent enough range (303 miles) to be an effective substitute for a conventional car. 

As we’ve previously noted, the Achilles heel of all big, fast electric cars is that you can enjoy the performance or use the range, but rarely both together. Easy access to fast charging takes the sting out of swiftly depleted battery backs, but for the time being, the performance EV GT remains something of an oxymoron. That’s especially pertinent if you opt for the higher performance ‘RS’ spec, the first Audi EV to get the badge usually reserved for its most extreme conventional models.

The e-tron GT is still an impressive car at more modest speeds. It’s comfortable, spacious and has all the bells and whistles that you’d expect – superior mapping, excellent infotainment, sophisticated driver assistance. Perversely, the e-tron GT feels a little less sophisticated than its electric SUV siblings, with more buttons and less touchscreens. It’s also not quite as driver focused as the Taycan, which remains the gold standard for the segment, with an interior that feels brighter and more contemporary. 

So where next? It’s safe to assume that at the very minimum, big sedans and limousines will be hybridised as standard from now onwards. Whether the A8 will ever spawn its own EV variant is for Audi to decide, although the recent Audi A6 e-tron concept vehicle points to exactly that kind of strategy.

However, there’s also a series of top-secret Audi concepts in the offing, starting with next month’s ‘Sky Sphere’. These promise a new approach to interior and exterior design in order to reassert the lead in the competitive market for luxury EVs, where the bar is getting ever higher, and technology is the primary driver. Despite the RS e-tron GT’s undeniable sophistication, for now it must concede to Mercedes, which has confidently usurped the long-held dominant position of its S-Class limousine with its new EQS EV.  Audi needs a similarly bold production model – not just a concept – to keep its discrete charm intact.

INFORMATION

Audi A8 L 60 TFSIe, from £ 88,195

Audi RS e-tron GT, as tested £ 134,565

audi.co.uk

Audi is setting out its stall to become the preeminent supplier of premium electric vehicles. The company has been slowly ushering in its e-tron family of pure EVs since 2018 and the slow trickle of bespoke models is finally turning into a flood. This, the e-tron S Quattro, is a more practical version of the e-tron Sportback, with a more conventional SUV-style body shape and the same electric underpinnings.

Thus far, the Audi approach has been to give its customers exactly what they expect, with no unwanted surprises. So you get a smart, beautifully put together interior, with excellent tech, graphics and input systems. You also get a chiselled, rather brutish exterior that is similar in appearance and proportion to Audi’s extensive range of conventionally powered and hybrid cars.

Within a couple of months, the e-tron and e-tron Sportback will be joined by the Q4 e-tron and Q4 e-tron Sportback. Are you sensing a whiff of confusion yet? Regardless of how finely finished these electric Audis are, there’s a light filter of confusion over the whole e-tron sub-brand. We think there are two problems. The first is the name itself. Audi hoped that ‘e-tron’ would quickly gain the same kind of brand halo as ‘quattro’, the badge that began as a specific car in 1980 and evolved into a signifier of the company’s premium four-wheel-drive models. Over the years, ‘quattro’ has been gradually eroded as four-wheel-drive became the rule, rather than the exception. A similar thing will happen with ‘e-tron’; electric cars might be a novelty now, but within a decade, every Audi will be electric, so the suffix will become moot. This particular car is both an e-tron and a quattro, muddying its image still further. 

The other issue is one of design. Just like all the other premium manufacturers, Audi is pivoting fast towards pure electrification. However, it’s arriving at this new, urgent reality from a world dominated by SUVs and crossovers, whether big or small. As a result, the first EVs from many companies are SUV-shaped, bringing all the advantages – and disadvantages – that this niche has to offer. The e-tron S is big. Physics dictates that in order to achieve any kind of acceptable range, batteries have to be big as well. But batteries are heavy, and thus the car gets bigger still. And so on. Very few EVs manage this engineering tightrope with aplomb; dare we say it’s only the stripped back, minimal ethos of Tesla that gives the wholehearted impression that the car is doing its best to be as efficient as possible. The e-tron S has a range of 222 miles, which puts it fairly in the doldrums of range anxiety – sufficient for everyday use but not quite far enough for you to be completely carefree. 

In a large, luxury SUV like this one, there’s little impression of efficiency. Instead, it is left to the driver to hone and deploy the most parsimonious driving habits they possibly can. E-tron models are good at harnessing wasted kinetic energy wherever they can, but the bottom line is that the performance benefits of electric drive become little treats you can only dispense towards the end of a journey, when a charge station is well within sight. Otherwise, every excess ounce of pressure on the accelerator feels like a waste of precious juice. If only we’d learned to treat petrol powered cars the same way. 

Audi has just unveiled its new Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron models and they feel a bit like more of the same; an established template given an electric spin. The e-tron GT is also on its way, a more conventional sedan-shaped vehicle that puts even more focus on performance. At least every e-tron goes all in on Audi’s fabled adeptness at tech – the Q4 models include an augmented reality head-up display and touch-sensitive controls on the steering wheel boss, as well as the introduction of an audio system from Sonos. The e-tron S Sportback even has the option of screens instead of rear-view mirrors.

As batteries improve, ranges extend and expectations shift, we have to hope that the automobile settles down and becomes a friendlier object, not an overbearing piece of mobile architecture that completely cocoons its occupants from the world. The e-tron S does this with style, at the expense of helping EVs become the friendlier face of the car. Still, there’s more come. The Q4s will be the smallest and most affordable electric Audis to date. Time, and physics, will tell whether the company will ever create a truly premium compact electric car.

INFORMATION

Audi e-tron S quattro, from £86,285

audi.co.uk

The Audi Q3 Sportback is a useful insight into the complexities of the modern car industry and the myriad niche desires that have to be catered for. It’s also a finely-crafted car that neatly distills Audi’s design and tech ethos into a (relatively) mass market product. The company has used the ‘Sportback’ name since 2009 when it debuted on a concept car. Since then, it’s gone on to signal models that blend practicality with purpose, whether they’re extrapolated from saloons or SUVs. The Q3 Sportback is one of the latter, with a swoopy rear window and more pronounced haunches that turn it into a slightly more streamlined version of the existing Q3. Both cars are compact SUVs, tapping into a niche that has proved especially popular with urban and suburban upscalers looking to move on from a hatchback. 

The flipside to this new niche is obvious. It’s said that accelerated SUV uptake is unbalancing the scales of progress; even though cars are apparently getting more efficient, overall emissions are up because bigger cars are increasingly popular than small ones. In comparison to some of its siblings, the Q3 Sportback isn’t especially oversized, but that’s only by the skewed standards of the modern era. Audi is positioning it as a mini-me version of the much bigger Q8 Sportback, pitching it as a medium segment car with maximum attitude. Much of that attitude is exuded by the aggressive detailing; the grille, in particular, is almost hysterically over-wrought, a mash-up of plastic, chromed plastic, and vast dimensions. Branding has descended in parody. 

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Nevertheless, the Sportback still manages to tick almost all the expected Audi boxes. There’s quattro all-wheel drive, a ‘virtual cockpit’ consisting of two screens for instruments and info (this one is a touch screen, naturally), as well as a three-year subscription to Audi’s portfolio of ‘connect’ services, which include traffic info and the constantly updated mapping of Google Earth. Bang & Olufsen supply the audio, as they have done on upscale Audis for many years, while a clever mild hybrid system (not tested) does its best to claw back the inherent inefficiencies of scale and weight. With this in mind, the big-engined 45 TFSI model is probably overkill for most applications. 

It’s tempting to think the Q3 Sportback’s ulterior motive is to further blur the boundaries between Audi’s all-electric SUVs and their conventional siblings. If given the choice between this machine and the upcoming Audi e-tron Sportback, one quickly realises that the latter car makes more and more sense in the modern world. In addition, a new version of the regular A3 was recently showcased (after its unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show had to be abandoned), indicating a possible shift in design towards a very slightly softer design language. Twenty years ago, Audi’s fresh design focus led the premium car market. These days, however, the firm’s penchant for edgy aggression seems to be going against the tide.

INFORMATION

Audi Q3 Sportback, as tested, £50,665
www.audi.com

Pictured top, Pininfarina Battista (around $2m). Pitched as Italy’s ‘most powerful ever sports car’, the Battista packs 1,900hp of battery power within its sleek frame. Go easy, and you’ll get a 280-mile range. pininfarina.com. Pictured bottom, Rivian R1T Truck (available in 2020). Boasting a 400-mile range, the Rivian Truck (also joined by a new SUV) is an all-American utility vehicle hoping to bring rugged, go-anywhere chic to the EV market. rivian.com. 

As of this month, you’ll be able to put down a deposit on a brand new Volkswagen ID, a Golf-sized all-electric vehicle that comes pre-loaded with a weight of expectations. The car itself won’t be shown to the public until this September’s Frankfurt Motor Show, and this sight-unseen marketing strategy is hitherto unknown for a volume car manufacturer. Two things have changed the automotive landscape in the past decade. The first is the unpredictable combination of aspiration, ego, innovation and bottomless funds that has driven the American manufacturer Tesla to the forefront of the industry. The second is the fallout from the Volkswagen emissions scandal, a corporate cluster-bomb that had the unintended consequence of vastly accelerating change by killing off the very fuel it was trying to promote.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are now all the rage. At this year’s Geneva Motor Show, EVs were thick on the ground, from high-end sports cars to compact city runarounds, over-styled crossovers, outlandish luxury SUVs and conventional family cars. Almost overnight, the EV market has blossomed to fill every niche. For the industry, the shift to EVs is a no-brainer; brands will flourish under a system that promotes zero-emission driving. Over a century’s worth of automotive heritage will simply shift gear to accommodate a new generation of car buyers. For governments, cities and the public, the answer isn’t so clear. Tax revenues from fuel sales look set to plummet, while congestion and auto-centric urban design will persist.

Pictured top, Citroën Ami One (concept only). Citroën’s Ami One is a nod to the French firm’s innovative small city cars of the mid 20th-century. The two-seater is aimed squarely at the urban market. citroen.com. Pictured bottom, Polestar 2 (from €59,900). An all-electric fastback design, the Polestar 2 promises a new approach to car ownership, with seamless digital integration and smart minimal design. polestar.com.

For aspirant carmakers, this shift seemed an opportunity. Building an auto brand from scratch is a colossal undertaking, but EVs have lowered the barrier to entry, with shared platforms and far lower start-up costs. Where Tesla led, others followed. The clean-slate approach of new names such as Lynk & Co, Byton, Nio, Faraday Future and the revived Fisker brand, or even the secretive Dyson project, suddenly all seemed to have a place at the table. That window of opportunity may be narrowing, though.

Volkswagen has dug deep into its corporate pockets and set about reinventing itself as an electric powerhouse. By 2028, it promises 70 new electric models across its various brands; it claims it will be a CO2-neutral company by 2050. Other manufacturers are also taking stock. In 2017 Volvo was first to announce that all its new cars launched from 2019 would be hybrids (either ‘mild’ or ‘plug-in’) or entirely electric, with 50 per cent of its fleet being pure electric by 2025. Honda also recently committed to the total electrification of its European sales output by 2025. Porsche (a Volkswagen subsidiary) is making a massive push, bringing the sleek Taycan saloon to market later this year, with other EVs to follow. Other makers are adopting the strategy of electrifying small cars and keeping hybrid tech for larger vehicles.

For many car owners, the EV is still an unknown. Big name support might bring confidence, but other companies are resorting to another tactic: pure temptation. Electric vehicles represent a new design opportunity in an image-obsessed industry. BMW’s i division debuted in 2013 with two defiantly distinctive models, the i3 and the i8. Jaguar’s i-Pace is the style-obsessed manufacturer’s most glamorous and desirable car, while debut EVs from Audi, Mercedes, Mini, Hyundai and Kia all major heavily on design. Honda is bringing out a chic little city car in 2020, previewed by the delightful e Prototype, while other quirky urban electrics include Quadro’s eQooder (bolstered by a collaboration with Tod’s), Citroën’s Ami One, Seat’s Minimó and Fiat’s Concept Centoventi (a rather late entry for a company with gold-star heritage in the urban sector). Brands such as Polestar and Lynk & Co (both owned by Chinese manufacturer Geely, which also owns Volvo) combine contemporary design with new ownership models, reasoning that future drivers might not need to have 24-hour access or responsibility for their own vehicle.

Other start-ups are going further still to bring EVs into every conceivable niche. Rivian is hoping to create an ‘electric adventure vehicle’ sector. The American company’s R1S SUV and R1T pick-up truck are due on the road towards the end of next year and boast a 400-mile range (‘San Francisco to Yosemite and back’). Rivian’s vice president of vehicle design, Jeff Hammoud, describes an emphasis on design from the outset. ‘The first thing we paid attention to is the proportion,’ he says, explaining that the company’s EV platform (which it may license out) allows for a plethora of body styles and functions. Branding is also consciously different. ‘Trucks have grilles to communicate strength and power – they tend to be very big. We don’t need a grille, but we have kept everything intelligent and blunt. That identity also has to scale into the future.’

Hammoud describes Rivian’s style as a ‘Patagonia jacket, not an Armani suit’, emphasising the brand’s inherent functionalism. The rebirth of Lagonda, on the other hand, is pitched at the consumer of luxury attire. Part of Aston Martin since 1947, Lagonda resurfaces in 2021 with an SUV, previewed at Geneva by the All-Terrain Concept. Purely electric from the outset, the target is the Rolls-Royce market and the ethos is contemporary luxury, underpinned by cutting-edge craft, materials and tech. ‘We aim to reimagine luxury travel in a way that could only be done in the 21st century,’ says Gerhard Fourie, Aston Martin Lagonda’s director of marketing and brand strategy. ‘We don’t see luxury and technology at opposing sides of the spectrum; together they can create wonderful experiences.’ Luxury buyers seem keen to embrace the new. ‘We obviously get the strongest reaction from customers who are open to change,’ Fourie admits. ‘They have strong views on design and quite a healthy relationship with the technology in their lives – I’d say they are “technology enabled” rather than “technology obsessed”.’

Pictured top, Lagonda All-Terrain Concept car (available 2021). Lagonda’s All-Terrain Concept will hit the market in 2021 as the first luxury electric SUV. The British brand, revived in 2018 by Aston Martin, is majoring on design and quality. lagonda.com. Pictured bottom, Honda e Prototype (available 2019). Inspired by the original Honda Civic, this prototype previews Honda’s ultra-compact city car, a neat four-door with retro styling, a chic interior and, of course, zero emissions. honda.com

Also at the high end you have the Pininfarina Battista, an electric hypercar that’s out to steal the super-rich away from their Ferraris. ‘If we want to do justice to the brand we have to start where people perceive us,’ says Automobili Pininfarina’s CEO Michael Perschke, who describes the 89-year-old design house as the ‘Château Lafite of car design’. The Battista – named after the brand’s founder, Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina – is intended to be the ‘most powerful Italian sports car ever made’. With a motor in each wheel, the car will have a scarcely credible 1,900hp (over 25 per cent more than its conventionally powered rival, the Bugatti Chiron). ‘The design is a balance between radical technology and timeless Pininfarina design,’ says Perschke. ‘We want people to fall in love with an electric car for the first time.’

For well over a century, the motor car has been a totem of identity as much as a mode of transport, embedded for better or worse within society and culture. The success of all these cars depends on the premise that the automobile is here to stay, yet calls to curb or cut out car use are given increasingly serious consideration. Early EV adopters might have already reaped all the available rewards, sucking up the rebates, subsidies, free parking spots and absence of tolls. The other as yet unanswered question is that of charging. Although manufacturers are helping new networks seed across the road system, what’s really needed is a top-down overhaul of park and charge infrastructure, from city streets to supermarkets. That’s a whole different story. What’s certain is that for a time at least we’ll have more cars, not fewer, as EVs blur the lines between concept and reality and find new ways of seducing the drivers of the future. 

As originally featured in the June 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*243)

The world’s biggest vehicle market is fast becoming the most influential too. At China’s most important motor show for 2019 – Auto Shanghai (18-25 April)  – electric car unveilings were the rule, not the exception. The only significant global premiere that Wallpaper* noted without an electric powertrain was Mercedes GLB small SUV – and even that model will spawn an electric variant soon.

The reason? While the western world slowly moves towards electric vehicles – accelerated by the ripples from VW’s ‘Dieselgate’ emissions scandal – the Chinese Government is promoting electric vehicles as never before. This is in large part to alleviate the vast country’s urban traffic and pollution problems but also because, as one non-Chinese designer working for a local Chinese maker put it: ‘the Chinese Government wants its auto industry to take over the world via electrification’.

Despite a slight sales decline in 2018, down 4 per cent to 23.8m units, the Chinese market is still massive and firmly number one – the US shifted 17.3m and Europe 15.6m by comparison. Chinese designers at local car brands – albeit often under the guidance of older Western design chiefs – are now showing more maturity in exterior execution and creating interiors bristling with innovation. Meanwhile, many historic western brands are being revitalised under new Chinese backing (Volvo and more recently Lotus are two examples, both now majority-owned by Geely Holdings).

All in all, China has become a key market, investor and player in the auto world. Out of the myriad global unveils across a dozen-plus halls over multiple floors, here are Wallpaper’s 2019 Auto Shanghai favourites…

Geometry A

Chinese brands unknown or at least new to most western eyes were in abundance at the 2019 Shanghai show. In contrast to the various mystery start-up concepts with only projected on-sale production dates, the model A from all-new, all-electric Geometry brand of parent company Geely Auto, was one of the most convincing unveils. Why? Because a) the compact saloon is already on sale in China, for RMB150,000 (about £17,000), due for distribution worldwide and offering two credible electric-range options – 410km and 500km and b) the well-designed vehicle has a remarkably sophisticated interior with details like embedded under-the-surface buttons that not even high-end Western makers have yet managed to get into production.

Lotus Type 130

Historically much-loved but currently under-performing sports car brand Lotus chose Shanghai to announce its effective re-birth with backing from Chinese owner Geely Auto. The first product in the new range will be a £1.5m-plus full-electric two-seater hypercar called Type 130. Development is well under way – we've seen exclusive full-scale model evidence – but publicly for now Lotus only showed an enigmatic silhouette render. Expect Le Mans prototype-style aero tricks and serious power and performance from the final model to be revealed later this year in London, and more sporting models from Lotus to come swiftly after. Promising.

BYD E-Seed GT

Build Your Dreams (BYD) is a Chinese supplier of electric buses to London – routes 153, 360, 507 and 521 in case you were wondering. It’s also a major manufacturer of batteries and trains and boasts being the best-selling electric car maker in the world. So far so functional, but at Shanghai BYD broke free from its practical self to unveil a gull-wing doored E-Seed GT concept created by a supergroup of western designers led by ex-Audi design boss Wolfgang Egger and ably assisted by ex-Mercedes interiors man Michele Jauch-Paganetti and ex-Ferrari exterior expert JuanMa Lopez. More about styling direction than tomorrow’s production reality and far removed from BYD’s regular electric SUVs and saloons, the E-Seed GT nonetheless shows BYD’s ambition to build some more dreams, and knowing its track record, sooner than you think.

Karma GT by Pininfarina

Another western brand resurrected by Chinese backing – even if far less established than Lotus – is the nascent US EV brand Karma. The brand’s first Revero four-door model has been on sale for a few years now and sold a few hundred in the US, but Shanghai saw the reveal of a revised version plus the far more striking two-door coupe GT alongside it. Created by legendary Italian design house Pininfarina behind almost all the great Ferraris of the late 20th-century, it presented a highly elegant future design direction for the upmarket EV Tesla rival. If we were Karma, we’d take it.

Mercedes Concept GLB

Master niche-filler Mercedes, unveiled another SUV – the small but upright seven-seat Concept GLB which will make production barely changed later this year – after chatting to Chinese customers and realising they’d missed a trick. ‘The design is a mix of G-Wagen and GLS and came as a direct result of customer feedback from China,’ Mercedes’ head of exterior design Robert Lesnik explains. ‘Not every market wants a third row, but China was keen and it will be sold worldwide, with the third row optional in European markets.’ Unlike almost every other car at the Shanghai show the GLB was shown with a 224hp four-cylinder petrol engine. But fear not EV fans, an electric version called EQB will follow in 2021.

Volkswagen ID.Roomzz concept

VW’s upcoming family of EVs are all prefaced by the ID moniker and its sixth – the ID.ROOMZZ – was revealed in Shanghai. Despite the German brand’s misplaced obsession with spelling most of its EVs with too many capital Zs – CROZZ, BUZZ and VIZZION are three others – the idea is still not sending us to sleep, as the concepts genuinely preview a change of course from the disgraced business famously caught fibbing about its diesel models’ emissions back in 2015. The ID.Roomzz – capitalisation now dropped for the sake of sanity – is VW’s seven-seat electric SUV and its clean aesthetic inside and out is firmly in line with the rest of the ID range which should lead to a more beautiful and cleaner landscape from 2021 onwards. China is a key part of that push too. VW has gone on record as saying its overall Group (including Audi, Skoda et al) aims to produce 22 million full-electric vehicles by 2028, of which it hopes 11.6 million will be sold in China. Serious and likely.

Aiways U7 ion

Yet another example of a Chinese start-up recruiting established talent from more mature automotive markets, Aiways – born in 2017 – recently hired independent designer Ken Okuyama and gave him the rather grand title of ‘chief advisor of design and art’. The Japanese veteran is best known for his work at Pininfarina, including the Ferrari Enzo, 612 Scaglietti and 599 GTB Fiorano as well as the Maserati Quattroporte. Okyama also has his own eyewear range and designs trains and bikes. In Shanghai, his first design for Aiways was the U7 ion concept, a spacious four-seater equipped with 12 high definition screens that aims to be a sanctuary for modern life. Somewhat unbelievably it boasts a self-learning robot, mounted to a roof rail inside the cabin that moves around the vehicle to offer on-board sound recognition, passenger identification and more. Okuyama is clearly convinced. ‘I chose to work for this company because they do technology in a way the Japanese and Koreans don’t,’ he explains candidly. One to watch.

Audi AI:ME

Audi’s design has been going through an awkward phase of late so it was refreshing to see and sit in the very well-resolved AI:ME megacity concept in Shanghai. Displaying bold ideas with a truly original interior it also gained bonus points for including, as far as we are aware, the first use of hanging plants in a concept car. Beyond that original aesthetic flourish, the AI:ME offers space for four people, Level 4 autonomous capability and high levels of artificial intelligence (thus the vehicle’s name). The idea behind the AI:ME is that it will learn users’ preferences over time, reacting to eye movement, voice, gesture and touch, to make each journey more tailored. So for instance, the lighting in the car only switches on when the driver approaches and the order in which the lights come on guide the user’s gaze towards the car’s various functions.

Dial in the use of material not normally associated with vehicle cabins, like Corian (which covers the door rails and touch pads), high-quality wooden struts (and those hanging plants) in the large panoramic roof area, electro-chromatically tint-able windows, and a sound system with noise cancelling to shut out traffic noise and city dwellers’ inward gaze when required, and the AI:ME creates quite a vision for shareable future city mobility. As Australian-born interior designer James Nissen explains: ‘Overall, our approach was to make the AI:ME less like a car, and more like a home.’ The best interior concept of the show by far.

INFORMATION
Auto Shanghai runs until 25 April. For more information, visit the Auto Shanghai website

ADDRESS

National Exhibition and Convention Center
333 Songze Avenue
Qingpu District
Shanghai

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Staying ahead in the car game isn’t easy. Take a glance at the collection of futuristic concepts adorning the cavernous halls of this year's Geneva Motor Show and it’s clear that the level of competition in the automotive world is fierce. But making a concept is reasonably easy. The difficult part comes when bringing to market a production car that is truly ahead of its competitors. Aiming to do just that is German car giant Audi as it rolls out its very first all-electric production car – the e-tron.

‘The main task was to create a car that wasn’t scaring anybody off,’ says Audi exterior designer Stephen Fahr-Becker. ‘The temptation was to be very radical with the design. As designers, we knew this was ground-breaking, so we wanted to make it look totally different.’ Despite the e-tron representing a seismic shift in the product offering of a marque at the heart of the ‘Dieselgate’ scandal, it’s looks are far from revolutionary. ‘We did product clinics all over the world, and people said: “Why can't you just make a decent looking electric car? Why does it always have to look like a stranded whale?”’ said Fahr-Becker with a wry smile.

But looks can be deceptive. While its overall aesthetic appears to be an obvious – and albeit restrained – progression of Audi’s current design language, the car carries certain design cues that hint at its unorthodox underpinnings. ‘Because it's the first really proper electric car from Audi, we wanted to give the customer the feeling that this is an electric car,’ explains the designer. ‘At the front, we have a mostly closed grille that has almost a shield-like expression. Then, on the rocker area – basically the lower third in between the wheels – we made it a little more extroverted to point out where the new centre of power lies.’ In the region Fahr-Becker highlights, lies a 95 kWh lithium-ion battery – the SUV’s state-of-the-art powerplant, which gives the car a range just short of 500km (310 miles). ‘I like the rear view a lot, I just like the fact that the rear light band is basically a shoulder line that's coming from the top-front light and going all the way around the car.’

For what the e-tron lacks in radical exterior styling, it more than makes up for in performance. Despite the fact that fast, mass-production electric cars have been commonplace since Elon Musk first created the Tesla Model S, the novelty of blitzing the 0-62mph dash in under six seconds and near silence never gets old. While it may have all the characteristics of an SUV, the e-tron is, like so many of its peers, competent and agile, be it on the highway or on a technical and twisty B-road. In the cabin, it’s a similar story to the subtle exterior, save for the two video screens in the top of the front doors, which serve the same purpose – albeit digitally – as the non-existent wing mirrors.

In an industry where manufacturers are striving to set apart new age technology from the old guard, the e-tron could be mis-labelled as a considered but all too conservative EV challenger from the German powerhouse. In reality, it’s a bold attempt to integrate forward-thinking technology into a car designed to appeal to today’s mass market. ‘There's a lot of nice cars coming where in our design studio’, admits Fahr-Becker. ‘I'm really looking forward to the next few years, because there's some really expressive and sporty cars coming. People already saw a glimpse of the e-tron GT – it's quite sculptural, it's clean, but it's also very emotional.’

For a marque still recovering from a loss of consumer confidence, the e-tron is a steady but reassuring start to a new and exciting electric era for Audi. With deliveries of the proven, production-ready e-tron starting imminently, Audi’s charge into an all-electric future is well underway. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Audi website

There is a noticeable paradigm shift in the automotive world towards the car as consumer technology, with the bright halls of the 2019 Geneva Motor Show painting a colourful picture of what will drive our near future. The narrative arc is approaching sustainability through clean drivetrains, inventive design and use of ecological material. It is also about utilising autonomous technology to assist the driver and help make the car a safer product. This, the industry hopes, will rekindle our romance with the automobile, and encourage the desire for ownership – private or shared.

The Polestar 2 perhaps epitomises the sentiment best. Everything from Volvo’s new electric car company is considered – from the sustainable production methods, to the electric drivetrain, clear functional design, vegan interior, affordable price and shared ownership schemes. Even the white-cube minimalism of the exhibition pavilion at Geneva tells a bold story of the car as consumer technology.

The Battista, on the other hand, highlights an alternative dialogue of modern motoring – design for desire. The work of another newly-formed brand, Automobili Pininfarina’s premier product is an ode to the splendour of the motor car with an eye on the future. Underneath the surface brilliant of its meticulous sculpted car, and beyond the lush interior of quilted leather and crafted aluminium, is a highly advanced, pure electric drivertrain promising clean power and speed, although in the case of the Battista, only for a select few.

With all these theatricals, it is easy to assume innovation is solely in the hands of the start-ups. The truth is that much of the real advancement is happening quietly behind R&D departments at some of the main traditional makers with a raft of products present and in the pipeline that will populate our roads. BMW has proved its electric credentials with the radical i sub-brand, so it is refreshing to see Audi present a second car, the Q4, in the e-tron family.

No motor show though is quite complete without the sort of extreme motor cars that are so very wrong in today’s world but nevertheless fuel the imagination. The McLaren 720S Spider takes the roof off this carbon-bodied sports car coupé, Ferrari’s F8 Tributo honours Maranello’s epic turbo V8, and Lamborghini’s Aventador SVJ Roadster is an unapologetic, loud open-air racer. All these pale in comparison to the Bugatti La Voiture Noir though – the most ostentatious car by the world’s most exclusive marque and, at some £12 million, possibly the most expensive new car ever built. It is pure motor car grandeur though, translating the timeless elegance of the 1936 Type 57 Atlantic.

The imagination can bloom in times of uncertainty, with some of the most radical creative movements born in volatile times. And it was promising to see that against the cloud of political chaos, economic fragility and pressing climate concerns, this year’s Geneva highlighted the (sometimes overlooked) progressive side of motoring – a sentiment that chimes with the early days of the motor car, when it was a spirited industry rooted in innovation. Here are our top picks of production and near ready cars.

Polestar 2

The Polestar 2 is a premium compact urban electric car by Polestar, announced in 2017 as an independent electric car arm to sit alongside Geely Auto and Volvo Car Group. Whereas the inaugural Polestar 1 is to be an exclusive powerful car, the product displayed at Geneva is a much more egalitarian affair. The clear visual expression speaks of its Scandinavian heritage, and the interior is all vegan. Polesar’s lead designer Maximilian Missoni says he worked with ‘progressive textiles to appeal to a forward-thinking audience’. The car has an expansive panoramic glass roof, delicate frameless side mirrors, Pixel LED lights as well as proximity lighting for a ‘unique welcome sequence’, and an illuminated Polestar logo.

Two electric motors and a 78kWh battery on-board promise an impressive range of up to 310 miles; and the all-wheel drive produces some 408 horsepower and 660 Nm for zero to 62mph in just under five seconds. The Polestar 2 is a hugely tech-advanced gadget too, its backbone provides an adaptable digital environment for apps and vehicle functions to coexist. A Phone-as-Key technology helps with the logistics of car sharing schemes, for a more integrated ownership experience, and it helps the vehicle sense the driver upon approach. Production will begin in early 2020 and, like all Polestar products, the cars will be available to buy exclusively online. From £34,000. polestar.com

Automobili Pininfarina Battista

The Battista is an all-electric gran turismo by Automobili Pininfarina. Named after the carrozzeria founder, this is the pinnacle and first product by the legendary Italian studio’s new automotive arm with ambitions to create pure-electric performance cars. The hypercar’s carbon fibre monocoque chassis and carbon body support acceleration to 62 mph in less than two seconds, top speeds of above 250 mph and with power and torque at 1,900 horsepower and 2,300 Nm. The Battista also promises an impressive zero emissions range of up to 300 miles.

For the design, the creative director Luca Borgogno looked at the studio’s impressive design history, naming the 1947 Cisitalia 202, 512S Modulo of 1970 and the 2008 hydrogen fuel-cell Sintesi as inspiration. The Battista’s carbon body is full of movement with sweeping glass elements, a single dynamic strip of light cascading from the front of the car in place of traditional headlights. The cabin is a curious mix of extreme technology and traditional luxury materials – a feast of soft quilted leather on the seats and inside the doors, and crafted metal elements. Borgogno notes that the fabrics are ethically sourced, the woods natural and paints non-chemical. The interface sees two screens on either side of a motorsport-inspired steering wheel angled towards the driver, whilst a third in direct view replaces conventional dials.

Pininfarina has the advantage of being a design consultancy with clients from most industries from which it can source ideas. Each of the 150 planned Battista cars will therefore have a unique identity. The cars are hand built at the home of the Italian coachbuilder in Cambiano, with deliveries expected to be from 2020. From £1.5 million. automobili-pininfarina.com

McLaren GT

McLaren Automotive used the occasion of Geneva to announce the upcoming GT. Little more was revealed other than this camouflage image and we are told the design is based on the exotic, almost deco-styled Speedtail – a car inspired by the brilliant McLaren F1. Chief executive officer Mike Flewitt says the grand tourer will broaden the marque’s appeal to include customers who want to use their cars for long distance travel. ‘Our cars are track focused and raw, whereas the GT is a more comfortable, luxurious and usable McLaren. The whole design language is different – it is a very elegant and beautiful car,’ he told us. ‘In addition, it will be the lightest of grand tourers and, by also having the best power-to-weight ratio, I promise it will be one of the quickest.’

Flewitt did admits that now that McLaren is on target to produce 18 new models and derivatives by 2024 to include hybrid-electrics, his focus is on building brand awareness especially in key markets such as the US, and this GT will be a key car for attracting new customers. ‘Everyone always asks me if we are planning an SUV – and no we are not – but never a grand tourer, which to me feels like a much more natural evolution,’ he says. McLaren has pioneered a visual language anchored around carbon fibre, and come May, when the car is revealed, it will be interesting to see how the team interprets a McLaren gran turismo. cars.mclaren.com

McLaren 720S Spider

The McLaren Automotive Geneva pavilion was a show of the marque’s incredible success, which in under a decade since the company started has grown into a comprehensive family to include this latest 720S Spider. This convertible will sit in the marque’s Super Series alongside its coupé sibling with which it shares a design theme. With a structure and body made of carbon fibre, a material at the heart of all McLaren cars, it is said to be the lightest of any open-top supercar, using the same 710 horsepower, 568lb ft 4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine as the coupé with the promise of zero to 62mph time in just 2.9 seconds. The new electrical retractable hard-top roof raises and lowers in just 11 seconds and can be operated at speeds of up to 31mph. It is an impressive element too, this single piece of carbon is designed to seamlessly blend into the 720S body and maintain the coupé’s overall sculptural shape. Prices from £237,000. cars.mclaren.com

Audi, Q4 e-tron

The Q4 e-tron is the second electric concept by Audi. The marque has been teasing with the promise of an all-electric family for a decade, with some of the earlier concepts truly avant-garde. These premier e-trons were radical product designs showcasing what was then generally considered to be the electric vehicle vernacular – heavily aerodynamic in shape with a great deal of visual clues, especially with the grille and wheels, as to the sustainable drivetrain.

This Q4 crossover coupé offers a more cautious approach to electrification. It follows a similar design theme to the e-tron SUV we sampled in July for a more traditional car vernacular than the futurism we had hoped to see with Audi’s electric cars. It has an assertive face with slim headlights and a special electric grille with its automatically swivelling vents – a feature that will differentiate the e-trons from the marque’s regular cars. It is inside the clean, digital cabin where there is a noticeable departure with a new steering wheel design flanked by some brilliantly bold vents. It ride on a Volkswagen Group shared flexible electric vehicle platform. The mechanics on the Q4 mean the two electric motors, one at each axle, provide approximately 301 horsepower, zero to 62 miles can be achieved in 6.3 seconds, and the 82-kWh battery can last for up to 280 miles.

Even though the e-tron project has taken some time to materialise, Audi says, by 2025 every third car it sells will be electrified to include the e-tron SUV, the Q2L, a long-wheelbase Q2 made for China and a e-tron gran turismo. Chief designer Marc Leicht says to expect much more progressive design from this electric sub-brand going forward. Speaking to him at the show, he also alluded to the company re-visiting the decade-old Audi Urban Future initiative and join the dialogue around sustainable cities through working with architects and other urban designers. audi.com

Alfa Romeo, Tonale

The Tonale is the second sports utility vehicle proposition from Alfa Romeo. It follows on from the more robust and larger Stelvio and previews a compact car as well as the marque’s first petrol-electric hybrid crossover. The name alludes to the Tonale Pass – the mountainous route through the Italian Alps. The design is a more refined, quiet affair than the bold Stelvio. The slim ‘tre più tre’ headlights at the front frame the distinctive V-shaped ‘scudetto’ Alfa radiator grille, as a subtle nod to the SZ sports car and Type 939 models. The rear lights are equally refined.

Inside is a blend of digital and analogue. It is dominated by a large screen showing the driving dynamics, and a smaller one for infotainment. The system has two new features called Alfista and Paddock. Alfista is a lifestyle-oriented environment that lets people connect with Alfa Romeo clubs for gatherings or drives, and it also offers access to news. Paddock allows for browsing the marque’s products and apparel, in addition to performance upgrades, some of which you can buy directly through the in-car app. alfaromeo.com

INFORMATION
Geneva Motor Show runs from 7 – 17 March. For more information, visit the Geneva Motor

The last major auto show of the 2018 calendar takes place in LA, a city built around the cult of the car. It’s a love affair that shows no sign of abating, and for the most part the new vehicles on display didn’t do much to move the game on even though the show has rebranded itself as AutoMobility LA, mindful of the need to cater to more than mere cars. The car is having something of an image crisis right now, not that you'd know from observing the crowded, broad highways of Los Angeles, thicker with private automobiles than it has ever been. But with GM cutting 15 per cent of its workforce and shuttering eight factories, as well as an increasing interest in car-sharing over ownership, all is not rosy in auto world.

Volvo exemplified this shift, with a spacious stand that included not a single car. Instead, the company pushed its subscription model, highlighted its hook-up with Google and showcased their autonomous pod concept. Elsewhere, it was business as usual, however bland. The home audience was more thrilled by Jeep’s new Gladiator pick-up truck than anything else, although BMW’s massive X7 came closest to synching up with local taste. Elsewhere, there were the usual clutch of EVs and SUVs but the only real flash of American innovation was the new Rivian electric SUV, which breaks the mould in many ways, not least in terms of its elegant, unaggressive design. Practically every other brand is spreading its identity across numerous models and sectors, creating a wafer-thin layer of design consistency in their desire to please every possible buyer.

Individuality was thin on the ground. The basement of the Los Angeles Convention Center was given over to ‘The Garage’, where specialist tuners and aftermarket accessory makers showcased American car culture untrammelled by taste, practicality and common sense. Occupying the wildcard spot in between the two main exhibition halls was the Icona Nucleus, a big ‘self-driving living room’ concept with a name unnervingly similar to Ford’s nuclear-powered Nucleon proposal from the late 1950s. Another out-of-hall exhibit was the frankly hilarious Karlmann King, a faceted, ‘stealth’-inspired SUV that just reeks of criminal intent. Overall, however, the usual auto show tropes were still in evidence; practically every other stand had the obligatory hi-def screen displaying expansive landscape imagery, these days just as much of a diversionary cliche as the ongoing dependence on spokesmodels.

Here’s our selection of best in show...

Mazda 3

Mazda chose LA to go big on the launch of its new compact saloon and hatchback, the Mazda 3. Bringing in a global press corp numbering in the hundreds, it was an old fashioned kind of launch, with bombastic son et lumiere and a laboured emphasis on the eternal value of design. This is ironic, because although the Japanese manufacturer is late to the party when it comes to emphasising the importance of the ‘d’ word, Mazda is actually responsible for some of the most accomplished mass market design statements you can buy.

The 3 has been shepherded into our consciousness via a programme of concept cars and grandiose statements about flowing, naturalistic forms – Mazda’s so-called ‘Kodo’ design philosophy. The first Mazda 3 came out in 2003 and while this kind of compact hatchback means next to nothing in the US, in Europe it’s a potential big seller. The big selling point is inclusion of the company’s evolving ‘Skyactiv’ technology – doing clever things with the traditional petrol engine in the name of efficiency and entertainment, as well as better refinement all round. Ikuo Maeda, global head of Mazda design, described the 3 as part of a quest ‘to elevate our design quality to that of art’. It’s a tall order but it certainly shows that qualities that were once the preserves of luxury brands are increasingly available to all. Price TBC

AUDI e-tron GT

Audi has taken its time in getting serious about electric cars but are now getting into their stride. The e-tron SUV kicked off the new era and will soon be joined by the e-tron GT. Shown in concept form at LA, this is an undeniably handsome fastback that is intended to steal sales back from Tesla. It’ll have the same 800-volt battery system as the forthcoming Porsche Taycan, and promises to deliver 80 per cent battery charge in just 20 minutes, with a maximum range of just under 250 miles. If this city’s ongoing love affair with Tesla can be disrupted, California-friendly brands like Audi and Porsche are best placed to do it. Full-on electric performance comes as standard, with 0-62mph in around 3.5 seconds.

Kia Soul

Audi might have the prestige market all sewn up, but mass-market EVs are arguably far more important. Kia’s next-generation Soul will be one of the most significant, chiefly because the UK market will only get an all-electric version, unlike with the current model. The Soul is a sparky little compact SUV, boxy and upright and aimed squarely at millennial buyers who are put off by overt displays of automotive machismo. A revised battery pack promises a much improved range over the previous generation’s 110 miles. Price TBC

BMW X7

As its name suggests, the X7 is the biggest BMW SUV ever, rounding off a set that starts with the X1 and currently runs to X6. With seven full-size seats and an increased emphasis on luxury, tailormade details and in-car comforts for every passenger, this is a machine that doesn’t mess about, aimed squarely at conservative markets where brawn and bulk are still key indicators of status. The company’s new ‘Intelligent Personal Assistant’ system will be fitted as standard, promising true speech recognition for a variety of functions in the vein of Amazon’s Alexa. Even if the other six seats are empty, the X7 driver will still have someone to talk to. Available from April 2019, from £72,155

Lincoln Aviator

This is what the X7 is up against, a smarter, sleeker yet still hugely traditional take on the large SUV. Lincoln is betting big on its new Aviator, with hybrid models from the outset and smooth, uncluttered lines. There’s a hint of Range Rover in those flanks (Gerry McGovern made waves as Lincoln’s chief designer at the turn of the century, interestingly enough) but Ford’s luxury brand is also weighing in with other novel features, such as a set of warning chimes recorded by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the ability to use your smartphone as a key. The seven-seat interior lives up to the exterior promise, refined and restrained but still undeniably luxurious.

Porsche 911

LA might seem an unlikely place to re-launch a German classic, but this has long been a heartland for the brand; Porsche’s Beverly Hills dealership spans three blocks along Sunset Boulevard. The eighth generation 911 will not exactly surprise you. This iconic model name is now 55 years old and Porsche is making a big deal about this impressive legacy. Visually there’s not a massive evolution, but then the 911 has always been wedded to the modestly sporting shape that has defined Porsche’s image for generations.

Much has been made of the newest model’s potential for hybridisation, although it seems the first ever petrol-electric 911s won’t appear for several years. Instead, this new car represents incremental improvement all the way round, from efficiency to performance, with a slight increase in size as well. The interior eschews the ‘glass cockpit’ trend of recent years in favour of a traditional instrument binnacle that evokes the earliest models. From £93,110

Volkswagen I.D. Buzz Cargo concept

Why laud a commercial vehicle? Back when the original VW Type 2 debuted in 1949 it was as a light van designed to help post-war Europe get back on its feet. Fame and fortune as the iconic VW camper/Kombi came later. Volkswagen has already committed to an all-electric version of the I.D. Buzz minivan and with the newly unveiled Buzz Cargo it has another potential winner on its hands. Urban deliveries are on the increase, thanks to our app-driven shopping and eating habits. Flooding cities with electric vans is the obvious answer, and few are as stylish or desirable as this. Deliveries, in every sense, should start in around 2022. Concept only

Rivian

One of the undisputed stars of the show was American start-up Rivian. New EV brands have been thick on the ground in recent years, all hoping to capture a bit of the Tesla buzz, but few have translated their impressive concepts into cars you can buy. Rivian has taken its time and done its research. Using a ‘skateboard’-style architecture that can take a variety of body styles, Rivian chose to debut with the R1S and R1T, an electric SUV and pick-up truck respectively. These are two vehicle types that America is still very much in love with, but the kicker is the vastly improved space provided by the EV powertrain, a 400 mile range, the impressive performance promises (a 3-second 0-60 time) and a visual identity that stands decisively apart from the rugged, shoulder-height, light- and bullbar-festooned machines on offer from the established American auto makers. Deposits being taken now.

INFORMATION
LA Auto Show runs from 30 November – 9 December 2018. For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

Los Angeles Convention Centre 1201 S Figueroa St Los Angeles, California 90015, USA

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Apparently the options on the table for the Audi Q8 SUV launch were the boulevards of Paris and Chile’s Atacama Desert. It’s hard to imagine a more yawning difference in atmosphere and landscape, but presumably the company thought that this consummate all-rounder could shine pretty much anywhere.

The Q8 comes at an interesting point of transition for Audi. From a purely product-based perspective, it’s a new kind of flagship, heading up the company’s SUV family (Q2, Q3, Q5 and Q7, with which it shares a fair amount of packaging and underpinnings, and a rumoured Q4 as well). It also runs neck and neck with the more conventional A7 Sportback and A8 saloon, sharing a fair chunk of their interior design ethos. And finally, it’s also an unashamed, traditional internal combustion engine powered machine – there’s even a diesel – launched just a few months ahead of the company’s very first all-electric model, the e-tron. More troublingly, as we sat on the terrace of the Tierra Atacama hotel and watched an augmented reality design presentation, Audi’s long-term CEO was twiddling his thumbs in an Augsburg prison, temporarily held as part of the ongoing investigation into falsified emissions tests.

The alleged engineering subterfuge might have given way to boardroom shenanigans but it’s clear that everyone else in the VW Group is keen to move on, and fast. All this goes unspoken, but they make an interesting backdrop to a car test. Is the Q8 the best getaway car? Out here in the Atacama, the air is thin and the arid landscape far-reaching, unforgiving and ruggedly beautiful. The Q8 is a quiet triumph for the company’s design team, whose job is to conjure up off-the-wall ideas that don’t always align with the deeply conservative thoughts of the company board. Less practical than the Q7, substantially larger than the Q5, more luxurious than either and also self-consciously ‘designed’, the Q8 pushes the company’s design language up a notch.

The grille is more prominent and self-contained, the flanks wider and more pronounced and the rear detailing, with its car-width lighting bar, emphasises the broad, muscular stance. The design team claim there are nods to the original ‘ur’ Quattro in there, the iconic 1980s rally supercar. The low rear roof-line and steep rear screen are the key elements here, for they’re meant to convey style (and therefore sophistication). This is a strict five, not seven-seater; Q8 buyers are not supposed to be practical types.

There’s now an SUV for every conceivable niche, small to large, and the Q8 pushes the genre into the luxury sector, the final slice of a keenly segmented market pie. In fact, Audi is rather late to the game. The car’s close rivals are those in the oxymoronic ‘SUV coupe’ sector – the BMW X6 and Mercedes-Benz GLE, both of which parlay the scale and stance of the large SUV into a less practical but more ‘stylish’ body shape.

The Q8 is an easy winner of any comparative beauty contest, outside and in, being well proportioned and handsome and not in any way freakish. Car companies frequently catch flak for showing their products in unrealistically aspirational surroundings, with all other traffic surgically scrubbed out in post-production and the golden hour of sunlight bathing everything in a sympathetic glow. Atacama certainly fits the bill. Dry as dust, monochromatic and monumental, with sprinklings of snow at high altitude and long, straight stretches that are as barren and devoid of life as the surface of Mars, it is the best backdrop for a car launch outside of pure CGI. Unsurprisingly, the Q8 stands out amongst the local fleet of battered pick-up trucks and coaches – ‘it’s like a spaceship,’ the Q8’s lead interior Mauricio Monteiro Dos Santos notes as we trundle down another spectacular dirt road.

The interior is certainly a nice place to be, regardless of the location. Monteiro Dos Santos and his team have worked hard to integrate technology. Of course, there are a lot of screens, their glassy black mirrors embedded within the general cabin architecture, all the better to showcase new features like the ‘intelligent driving partner,’ an automotive version of Alexa or Google Assistant, as well as a navigation system that ‘learns’ your regular routes and warns you of unexpected delays. In total, there are 39 driver assistance systems, including a quasi-autonomous trailer mode that keeps track of what you’re towing to keep it on the straight and narrow when manoeuvring.

All lifestyle bases covered, then. Audi expects Q8 sales to be equally divided between Europe, US and China. An RSQ8 is in the works, ramping up the power and dynamics, taking this car close to its raucous VW Group relative, the Lamborghini Urus; closely united under the skin although very different in attitude and aesthetics. Like any modern ICE machine, the Q8 provides plenty of power and although the steering is hardly razor sharp, it is a perfectly decent thing to drive, both on the smooth desert roads that taper to the distant horizon and for the occasional bit of light off-roading. Privately, some at Audi mutter that this car will take a big chunk out of Q7 sales, for most car buyers chose aesthetics over abilities, time and time again. It’ll also come up squarely against the forthcoming e-tron; there is a strong familial resemblance.

How much longer will the SUV rule the roost? Car design is entering a new phase. The current conventions feel like they are having a final fling, as choice, change and new technology create hitherto unavailable options. The Q8 is a case in point, leading the charge for a typology – and a company – in a state of flux. Big and bold, it epitomises contemporary thinking about car design and technology. In five years time, things might not look the same. 

INFORMATION

Audi Q8, price to be confirmed. For more information, visit the Audi website

‘The best digital car interface,’ explains Rupert Spielvogel, ‘is the one you won’t notice; surfaces that are almost invisible.’ The Audi user interface developer is driving us around Copenhagen in a prototype e-tron. We head out to the coast observing sun-kissed locals cruising by on bicycles through the digital rear-view mirror – a screen so clear you feel immersed in the surroundings. The car is utterly silent too, bar for the light sound of the tires and the gentle hum of the electric motors. We tap on the sound system on the digital centre display, receiving a light haptic response, and opt for the 3D surround as the cabin floods with music.

This is the e-tron SUV, Audi’s first pure electric model. The marque has been teasing us with the promise of an all-electric family for some time, showing conceptual studies as far back as 2009. These were pioneering products and a touch avant-garde, displaying what was then considered to be the electric car vernacular – super aerodynamic in shape with lots of visual clues as to the sustainable drivetrain. Even though the e-tron project has taken some time to materialise, Audi expects every third car it sells to be electrified by 2025.

This SUV is powered by a 95 kWh battery pack promising a 249-mile range on a single charge, and recharging from flat to 80 per cent in less than half an hour at a DC charging stations. The complete e-tron product will be revealed next month before going on sale later this year, but for now, Audi is focusing on the advanced interior with Copenhagen, the ideal location to talk about progressive design and sustainability. The city benefits from a thorough network of cycle lanes; there are more pushbikes than cars here, and benches double up as wireless charging zones.

In the absence of a conventional engine, the e-tron interior is an open cabin space to seat five adults comfortably and there is ample luggage space at the rear and at the front. Audi excels at interior design, and this is no exception. The e-tron dashboard is an evolution of the floating virtual cockpit first introduced on the TT concept four years ago, which then materialised inside the A8, A7 and Q8. It is a brilliant piece of product design; a generous arc wrapping around the cascading instrument panel – the horizontal lines spanning the sculptural door trims. It incorporates the virtual cockpit that hovers in the space in direct view of the driver.

Interior designer Thomas Pinel says the focus was on visually expressing the lightness and sustainability of the car. Everything therefore feels weightless and many of the elements hover in space including the centre console, which incorporates a rather practical hand rest that doubles as a gear-change leaver. The cabin is driver-focused with the MMI touch response displays angled subtly enough not to isolate the front passenger. The graphical user interfaces are clearly structured so that the information can be assimilated quickly. All pictograms are precisely dimensioned; a few are subtly animated.

The optional virtual exterior mirror is one of the main highlights of the e-tron, introducing a pioneering technology used for the first time in a volume-production car. They function through small integrated cameras whereby the image is digitally processed and displayed on high-contrast seven-inch OLED displays in the interior. These are smart mirrors able to adjust seamlessly to darker environments and tilt automatically when parking. They can be adjusted via the touchscreen to the driver’s height, and the image detail can be moved for the required field of vision. It gives superior vision eliminating the need for, often clunky, side mirrors and helps with overall aerodynamics.

Sound is also a focus here. To fully experience the acoustics, Audi has laid on a special event. We are driven onto the stage of the Royal Danish Playhouse where singer songwriter Tom Grennan performs live as we listen to his recordings inside. The e-tron body has undergone special soundproofing and sealing in all zones that could transmit noise interference. Some 16 loudspeakers and an amplifier delivering up to 705 watts of power have been installed to enable the Bang & Olufsen 3D Premium Sound System reproduce the music in perfect reproduction and without any artificial effects, as we experience through Grennan’s performance.

The e-tron SUV only makes subtle design departure from Audi’s mainstream models inside and out. The electric car we experience today has much more in common with a conventional motor car than the original conceptual ideas presented a decade ago. The advanced digitalisation is appropriate, yet this would have been a great opportunity to explore novel sustainable fabrics too, premium materials that express Audi in the age of electrification. The marque says it will push design and technology forward as consumers ease into the idea of driving battery-run Audis. This e-tron might not be a mould breaker, but feels like an appropriate flagship for the first wave of electrified cars. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Audi website

May was a busy month in the automobile industry, with marques far and wide launching refreshed models from well-loved lines, as well as especially eye-catching one-off releases. Stylish saloons, stoic SUVs, nimble urban navigators and stealthy supercars captured our attention at Wallpaper* – explore our selection of the best releases of the month, and be sure to read our full features for in-depth reviews.

Ferrari SP38

Another rabbit pulled from the Ferrari hat, the Special Project 38 (joining the marque’s One-Off division) is something genuinely unique – built to order with close collaboration with a dedicated customer. The Ferraristi will recognise the basic proportions of the company’s mid-engined flagship 488 GTB, with a bodywork inspired by the legendary F40 model and hints of earlier models such as the snubby 1970s GT4. Intended for both road and track, the SP38 will most likely find itself an impressive investment, a project bringing a loyal customer to the heart of the brand whilst adding another chapter to Ferrari’s ever expanding design history.

Volvo XC40

Explicitly positioned as a ‘designer object’, Volvo XC40 is relatively compact, undeniably trim and a very pleasant place to sit. A beautifully tailored interface is fast and intuitive, akin to those found in its larger siblings the XC60 and XC90. The bodywork is a little more expressive, featuring a chunky, blade-like D-pillar that kicks up from the backdoor and dovetails into Volvo’s signature arrow-like rear lights. Volvo imbues its decades-long heritage into the XC40, values of safety, solidarity and stoic simplicity, all of which it lives up to.

Bentley Continental GT

Bentley Continental GT has sold over 65,000 units since 2003. For the latest model, engineers were still tweaking the gearbox right up until the last minute, illustrating the amount of time invested into making the new model just right. Exterior proportions bring to mind the best in Italian and French car design from the 60s and 70s, whereas inside, technology and tradition meet at tactile switches and dials, metals and woods. Whilst throttle response and steering isn’t razor sharp, the available power and unflusterable balance make it delightful to push, with a top speed of 207 mph and reaching 0 – to 60 in around 3.6 seconds.

Volkswagen Up GTI

VW continues to excel at building small cars in an age where SUVs, saloons and supercars are all the rage. Small, light and peppy, VW Up is a piece of near-perfect packaging, with 115 PS eked out of a 1 litre 3-cylinder engine, a six speed gearbox, powerful hi-fi and heated seats. On the flip side, the Up does away with the touchscreen, reasoning that you’d rather use your smartphone in place of an integrated system (however, VW need to update their phone cradle so it takes the current generation of smartphones). Amazingly economical, the Up delivers a purist experience, and is the embodiment of old school fun.

Audi RS4 Avant

The new Audi RS4 demonstrates that the attraction of stealth performance is still undiminished. Joining the RS branch of the Audi family tree (reserved for ‘racing sport’ models), the latest RS4 features a twin turbo-charged V6 engine, making it a relentlessly quick and efficient machine, with extremely fast handling and power delivery best deployed for lightning-fast overtaking manouevers. Sufficient refinement makes everyday use a pleasure and not a grinding chore – some owners will seek out every opportunity to put the car through its paces on the track, whereas for others, it’s the knowledge that absolute power is available in such a convincing and capable package.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit our Cars tagpage

The new Audi RS4 demonstrates that the attraction of stealth performance is still undiminished. Grey is the new white, the new silver, the new black. Car colour is important. Over the decades, Audi has demonstrated that it can divine the right hue for the era.

Given the sheer volume of performance cars the German marque manufacturers (in 2017 the company sold 1,878,100 cars, of which just over a third were ‘Q’ SUVs), it’s unsurprising that Audi sets trends in colour design – this was the company that ushered in a decade’s worth of silvery cars, after all.

The Audi RS4 Avant we had the pleasure of sampling was resplendent in Nardo Grey, a battleship-y hue that oozes purposeful menace. The colour flattens the already purposefully bare flanks, widened to accommodate big wheels, cooling ducts and aerodynamic enhancements. The RS (for RennSport, or ‘racing sport’) is the top of the tree designation for a sporting Audi, a nameplate first bolted on way back in 1994, when the company collaborated with Porsche on the RS2 Avant. That car was remarkable for a number of reasons, not least because it had in-gear acceleration that would out-perform a Formula 1 car, all wrapped up in a practical estate car body shape.

Ever since then, Audi’s RS models have been highly prized by enthusiasts, even if they haven’t always received such acclaim. It’s also the reason why estate car variants retain more cachet; there’s nothing like the frankly eccentric mix of pure performance and everyday ability to tick all the boxes. The previous generation RS4 had a V8, an engine that makes a very specific noise, so there were rumblings of discontent when the new car was revealed to have switched over to a twin turbo-charged V6.

Of course, these fears are both groundless and the differences imperceptible to the vast majority of people, for this is still a relentlessly quick machine, and now a marginally more efficient one at that. The problem is that along with every other relentlessly fast motorcar on the market, it gets harder and harder to find the sweet spot between what this car is capable of doing and the legal and ethical opportunities to do it.

Suffice to say, the RS4 is massively enjoyable, with sufficient refinement to make everyday use a pleasure and not a grinding chore (as it can often be with overpowered supercars that feel like they're being kept on a leash). That power delivery is best deployed for lightning-fast overtaking manoeuvers, and the handling is quicker than your fastest reactions. Some owners will seek out every opportunity to get this car on a track, as this is the only place where it can really stretch its legs. For others, however, it’s the knowledge that absolute power is available in such a convincing and capable package that will make the RS4 their supercar of choice.

INFORMATION

Audi RS4 Avant, as tested £79,975. For more information, visit the Audi website

From hybrid supercars to hi-tech campervans, Germany is pushing auto innovation into top gear. Think AI dashboards, pure electric ideals and cult concept hits. Here’s all you need to know about the very best in German motor manufacturing and design in 2018...

BMW i8 Roadster

When the BMW i8 Coupé debuted in 2014, it was like nothing else on the road. The flag bearer for the Munich manufacturer’s drive to electric propulsion, the sporting four-seater was a grand tourer with bold style and a minimal environmental footprint. Now the line-up is joined by the i8 Roadster, which retains the Coupé’s dihedral doors and replaces the rear seats with a quick-folding electric soft-top, while new battery tech increases the all-electric range. BMW now has a total of nine electrified vehicles, with an all-electric Mini waiting in the wings for 2019. Next up is the BMW iNext, a concept SUV that points the way to a pure electric future; by 2025, the company hopes to over 25 electrified cars, 12 of which will be fully electric.

BMW i8 Roadster, from £124,000, bmw.com. Photography: Leon Chew

VW ID Buzz Concept

Many credit Volkswagen’s original Type 2 as the car that shaped the company’s image. From 1950 onwards, the various Type 2 vans, campers and buses projected an image of friendly functionalism, industrious but also countercultural, with a design that was compact and reassuringly durable. The ID Buzz is the concept version of the vehicle that VW hopes will recapture those glory days. Come 2022, the all-electric descendant of this pure concept car will be silently gliding along the boulevards of the future. With seating for eight, a projected 250-mile range and more clever design touches than you’d find in three regular-sized cars, the Buzz promises to replicate its forebears’ cleverest trick and become a cult hit that’s also a commercial success.

Volkswagen ID Buzz, concept only, volkswagen.com. Photography: Leon Chew

Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid

If there’s a more complete supercar on the market, we’ve yet to find it. Serving as our photographer’s trusty steed for the epic road trip behind this story, the new Turbo S E-Hybrid version of the Panamera combines space with pace, and pure dynamics with a veritable deluge of technology. Under its sleek bodywork is a turbocharged V8 mated to an electric motor and a hefty chunk of batteries. The result is a car that can glide silently and emission-free in EV mode, but still tear it up on the Autobahn, with a scarcely credible 3.4 second sprint time, thanks to instant electric torque. The finely detailed interior is perhaps the gold standard of what a tech-centric luxury sports car should look like inside. This is the ultimate hybrid machine and Porsche’s own all-electric saloon arrives next year.

Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid, from £137,140, porsche.com. Photography: Leon Chew

Mercedes-Benz CLS

The CLS-Class has been led by design since the first swoopy saloon was launched back in 2005. Now on its third generation, it’s still the machine of choice for those who want a sober saloon with a subtle hint of class. Shown here as a 4MATIC four-wheel drive 400d in special Edition 1 trim, the CLS has the option of accommodating Mercedes-Benz’s cutting-edge driver assistance technology, widely seen as a stepping stone to the next level of  autonomous driving. The top-of-the-line 450 model also incorporates EQ Boost, a new ‘mild’ hybrid system that throws in a few more electric horsepower to help with acceleration. Add in the optional Widescreen cockpit, which scatters the dashboard with panoramic display screens, and you have a classically elegant car that fuses traditional style with the building blocks for tomorrow.

Mercedes-Benz CLS, from £57,510, mercedes-benz.com. Photography: Leon Chew

As originally featured in the April 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*229)

Audi Elaine Concept

By the end of 2018, Audi will have had an image overhaul unlike any before. For decades the face of rock-solid German dependability and classically modern design, the brand is embracing an electric future with gusto. First up this autumn will be the E-tron SUV, a conventionally-styled pure electric challenger to Tesla et al. It’ll be followed by a more stylish Sportback sibling, previewed here in the shape of the Elaine Concept. That personable name is no mere placeholder; it shows the company trying to humanise its rather aloof image. The core technology is Audi AI, with autonomous functions ranging from self-driving highway mode to self-parking, charging and even washing. This is all still future thinking, but the recently launched Audi Smart Energy Network pilot project – a home charger system designed to integrate with the power grid – shows the electric road ahead.

Audi Elaine, concept only, audi.com. Photography: Leon Chew

Geneva used to be a place for imagining wondrous and not-so-real motor cars. The annual motor show was a stage for fictional products and fantastical scenarios. Nowadays realism appears to have taken hold. Most show cars are previewed under embargo weeks in advance; some are intentionally leaked leaving little room for suspense. Walking the soulless Palexpo halls, the setup feels a touch archaic – as if echoing the traditional combustion engine that still powers most of these cars. Maybe it is time to rethink the motor show model.

This is not to say all the products displayed here are to be dismissed. This year’s motor show sends a clear message that electric driving in all forms and shapes, from entry to supercar level, is a reality and it is imminent. It is also refreshing to see a confidence in the design of these sustainable products with some carmakers showing an intellectual, measured approach – finding interesting, visually compelling solutions to help direct an industry tentatively navigating its way to a new era of mobility. This alone makes Geneva worthy of the trip.

Tesla agitated traditional carmakers when Elon Musk showed the possibilities of electric technology – his cars refuse to compromise on design or performance, altering the landscape of electric cars. Now Jaguar’s I-Pace sets out to continue this dialogue. This is the marque’s first pure electric product. It is also an attractive, practical, performance car. It will certainly challenge the publics’ image of electrification.

Check out the seven best concept cars from Geneva Motor Show 2018 here – expect flying vehicals and AI masterpieces...

Speaking with Jaguar’s creative director Ian Callum at the show, while the company will continue with combustion engine cars, he feels there is an opportunity to ‘take a ground on this and become an electric car company,’ he says. ‘With I-Pace, we have made a stance and a declaration, and we should continue on this.’

The performance electric car genre was explored elsewhere too. Porsche showed its intentions with Mission E Cross Turismo while sister company Audi’s E-Tron Prototype is a fully-functioning performance electric car, and Volkswagen’s Vizzion concept joins the progressive I.D. electric car range.

Motor show halls are always a clash of the brutal and aesthetic. The selection of extreme sports cars on display this year didn’t disappoint either. McLaren revealed the Senna GTR concept as the most powerful machine from Woking this side of a Formula One, Ferrari displayed the powerful 488 Pista, and Lamborghini a rather fierce looking Huracán Spyder.

At the adjoining Bentley stand, the Bentayga Hybrid SUV was on display alongside Phillippe Starck’s home battery charging dock. While the Rolls-Royce pavilion performed as a testimony to the marque’s unparalleled bespoke skills with yet more highly-crafted customised products on display. We were particularly drawn to a commissioned Phantom with a textile sculpture by London designer Helen Amy Murray for the interior ‘gallery’, and the Spirit of Ecstasy clad in rose gold.

Here’s our choice of the best in-production and near-production cars…

BMW Concept M8

Ahead of the debuts of the production 8-Series coupé and convertible later in the summer, BMW used the occasion of Geneva to present the exotic Concept M8 Gran Coupé, a performance saloon study car with the fashionable coupé styling, long wheelbase and short overhang. The yellow lights are a tribute to Le Mans. Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW Group creative director says Concept M8 Gran Coupé ‘embodies the next stage of our vehicle design language.’ It also previews a later, four-door version of the 8 Series due in 2019.

Jaguar I-Pace

Jaguar’s first pure electric vehicle explores a more sustainable design theme for the marque. The I-Pace proportions reflect the battery-electric technology powering the car for this cab-forward profile instead of the typical long Jaguar bonnet. Much of the design is dictated by aerodynamics to achieve a drag coefficient of just 0.29. The low bonnet is therefore curved in a way that allows air to flow seamlessly across; there is a sweeping roofline and squared-off blunt rear, while flush door handles help direct air away from the volume of the car. ‘The electric powertrain offered us unprecedented design freedom,’ says design director Ian Callum. ‘We have produced a concept car for the road.’

The face takes on a more conventional turn to continue the contemporary Jaguar theme. The grille design maximises airflow through the integral bonnet scoop and over the windscreen onto the roofline to reduce drag. Airflow for battery cooling and the climate control system passes through the grille and active vanes in apertures in the front bumper, which open when required. Inside the car, the TFT digital display is joined by a couple of tactile rotary controls to feel more like a fighter-jet cockpit.

The I-Pace is powered by a 90kWh lithium-ion battery promising a range of almost 300 miles, while the combination of all-wheel drive, 400ps and 696Nm of instantaneous torque gives this clean performance car impressive acceleration, reaching zero to 60 mph in just 4.5 seconds and with 80 per cent charging promised in just 40 minutes.

Callum says on the next e-project he would be more confident, revealing, ‘the next generation of this car will be a bit more rakish, a bit more radical.’ On sale now, from £63,000.

Lexus UX Urban

Lexus is firmly aiming for younger buyers with the latest UX. Designed for urbanites seeking easy manoeuvrability in the city, this compact crossover is the smallest vehicle in the expanding SUV family, sitting below the NX. It continues the current Lexus design theme including evolving the distinctive spindle grille with a block-shape mesh pattern. The cabin is spacious and airy with the upper deck of the instrument panel appearing to be extending out and beyond the windshield, and an optional material trim inspired by washi paper. A UX 250h hybrid model will also be available, pairing the same 2.0-litre engine as the normal model with battery power. On sale from 2019.

Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo

The pure-electric Mission E Cross Turismo concept study car joins the upcoming Mission E saloon in Porsche’s anticipated electric car family. It has four doors and four seats; the low-cut front bonnet visually relates to the 911, while overall package is inspired by the compact Macan crossover. Elements are translated from the Mission E saloon including the distinctive headlamps with four-spot LED daytime running lights, vents and body creases.

Like the E saloon, the car uses two permanent magnet synchronous motors offering some 600 horsepower, zero to 62 mph in less than 3.5 seconds, and a battery range of around 250 miles. Porsche is gauging public opinion with this ecological crossover saying the car ‘presents a picture as to what a Turismo model with features of a crossover utility vehicle could look in series production’.

McLaren Senna GTR

Following the announcement of the Senna supercar in the Ultimate Series, McLaren Automotive has revealed the Senna GTR concept at Geneva. This offers an extreme take on the road car to be the fastest non-Formula One machine created by the marque. For the GTR, the Senna’s twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 has been reworked so it now produces some 814 horsepower – up from the standard car’s 789. McLaren describes the drive as ‘race-style transmission’.

Ferrari 488 Pista

The track-focused 488 Pista mid-engine supercar is based on the marque’s standard 488 GTB with some modification and re-sculpting to improve aerodynamics and speed. This includes a new bonnet and front splitter, a large air intake sculpted into the bonnet to help air flow and at the rear the car is fitted with a large carbon-fibre diffuser.

This is one of Ferrari’s fastest road cars – power on the 3.9-litre twin-turbocharged V8 of the standard 488 has been boosted from 661 to 710 horsepower which, alongside some weight reduction, means this supercar can go from zero to 62mph in just 2.8 seconds while achieving a top speed of 211mph. On sale now, from £204,000

Range Rover SV Coupé

The Range Rover SV Coupé is the latest product to emerge from Jaguar Land Rover’s bespoke Special Vehicle Operations department in Warwickshire. Based on the Range Rover but with two doors and a swooping coupé roofline car, the SV further explores the marque’s interior craft skills offering novel materials within the automotive world, including bespoke tailored fabrics from Kvadrat.

‘SV allows you to amplify things,’ says Gerry McGovern, creative director at Land Rover. ‘This SV Coupé is very exclusive and very rare. Our Range Rover customers want to put their twist on their cars, although in this case most have opted for our curated design choice.’

Made in limited 999 numbers, the Range Rover SV Coupé celebrates the marque’s 70th anniversary year. It follows another limited-edition special project the Defender Works V8, unveiled earlier this month. Order books are open now, from £230,000.

Hyundai Kona Electric

Hyundai and Kia are offering electric versions of their popular SUVs in the form of this Kona Electric and the Niro Electric – both made in limited numbers to gauge the electric market. Debuting at Geneva the redesigned Santa Fe, the Kona Electric will be available in two versions with ranges of 186 miles or 292 miles per charge. The short-range teams a 39.2 kWh lithium-ion battery pack with an electric motor for 132 horsepower, while the more powerful has a 64.0 kWh battery pack, and makes 201 horsepower with both models promising 291 lbft of torque. On sale July 2018, from £30,000.

BMW X4

By 2020, BMW would like to be the world’s leading premium marque. This was the message delivered at the Geneva Motor Show with the company promising some 20 new and revised models by then starting with the X4, then the X2 and all-new X7 as well as extending the progressive electric i range to include the i4. Categorised as a sports activity vehicle – for it is a hybrid of coupé design with SUV promises – this second-generation X4 production car follows a similar design theme as the smaller X3. ‘We are going to make our design more distinct and focused,’ explains creative brand director Adrian van Hooydonk, ‘to offer clean modern exterior design with slim wide tail-lamps.’ On sale July 2018, from £41,000.

Audi A6

This is the upcoming A6 production car, on show at the Audi pavilion in Geneva alongside the pure-electric E-Tron crossover prototype. This is the executive saloon’s first re-design in six years and it follows the theme set out by the A8 and A7 Sportback to be polished and technical – the grille extending in width and height to take up a good portion of the car's fascia, while the LED tail lights extend the width of the car. All cars come with mild hybrid engines. Audi will reveal full details of the much-anticipated E-Tron in August. On sale June 2018, from £35,000.

Volvo V60

Volvo shared the allocated Geneva pavilion space with Polestar, the marque’s new electric sub-brand – one side designed in classic Scandinavian light natural wood, the other clean, dark and technical exhibiting the brand’s sole model the Polestar 1 hybrid making its European debut here. Volvo’s main exhibit was V60 estate, a roomier, high-tech premium redesign of the previous model. The petrol and diesel options will be joined later in the year by the T6 and T8 plug-in hybrid engines. On sale September 2018, from £31,000.

RM 11-03 McLaren

McLaren Automotive used the occasion of Geneva to reveal the RM 11-03 McLaren automatic flyback chronograph. This advanced technological watch has been created in collaboration with Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille as part of a ten-year relationship between the two companies. Elements on the watch observe some of the styling cues found on the exterior and interior of McLaren cars, while the highly technical and lightweight materials used to build this wristwatch, including carbon-fibre, are reflective of what constructs the high-performance super cars. Only 500 are planned with first refusal given to the 500 McLaren Senna owners. On sale now, from £137,000.

INFORMATION

The Geneva Motor Show 2018 runs from 8 March – 18 March 2018. For more information, visit the website

The Geneva Motor Show (8 – 18 March 2018) is quite simply the best place in the world to see the widest range of concept cars. From the big players to the small, this year’s event included all manner of electrified and sportscars, saloons and coupes – plus two flying cars – one of which is slated to be less than 12 months away from final customer delivery.

Read on for our seven favourite showstoppers...

Pininfarina HK GT

Renowned Italian design house Pininfarina (behind countless historic Ferraris) uses Geneva to showcase its talent to the world. Although now owned by Indian vehicle maker Mahindra, it’s still based in Turin and works for many marques including the Hybrid Kinetic Group. Indeed, the elegant near-five-metre 2+2 GT is the fourth concept Pininfarina has conceived for the Hong Kong-based emerging tech brand and features an electric powertrain with range-extender capability via an aero industry-inspired micro-turbine, fuel cell or conventional combustion engine to give 620 miles of range. Created by new design VP Carlo Bonzanigo, the GT boasts a well-resolved exterior paired with a modern and tasteful interior. HK says it is on course to launch a production model for the Chinese market by 2020 with some of this concept’s upmarket character and pitched as a luxury Asian marque to rival Tesla and Bentley. High-end stuff.

Icona Nucleus

The Icona is a name you’ve probably not have heard of because it’s not a car brand but a design business – based in Turin, Shanghai and now California – that creates cars for other brands to produce. Already officially eight years old and boasting ex-Bertone senior personnel among its ranks – including Icona VP and global design director Samuel Chuffart – the group chose Geneva to reveal its 600hp in-wheel-electric Nucleus concept. Pitched as a ‘Level 5-autonomous’ vehicle – one that can drive itself in all situations – the Nucleus was born, Chuffart tells Wallpaper* from the ‘idea of a car that you will still love and want to own, despite autonomy’ in a retort to the notion that all future cars will merely be hired as necessary. 

It’s big: 5.25m long, 2.12m wide, 1.75m high and riding on 27” wheels with a 3.3m wheelbase, those dimensions allow for a huge interior space for up to six people. ‘As this will be a car for all occasions, you won’t need to own so many cars,’ Chuffart reasons, ‘so you might invest more on this one, perhaps it will cost €60,000 or so. As it’s autonomous, it could drop you off at the airport, pick up the kids from school and take the grandparents to the doctor as well’.

The other striking element of the design is the lack of conventional glass windows – there’s no driver so no need for a front windscreen, and occupants can look out the sides through semi-transparent body colour panels that allow for privacy from the outside. Considerable time was spent on a well-resolved human machine interface too, which works like a more intuitive Uber app, requesting user interests as well as destination info to curate a more tailored journey, that might for instance, suggest restaurants and other points of interest along the way based on your daily preferences. Despite its two-tonne weight, grand-tourer flexibility is promised via a hydrogen-powered range-extender good for circa 750 miles of travel… in about 2030.

GFG Sibylla

On the small GFG Style stand at Geneva sat two concept cars – the 1963 Chevrolet Testudo concept and the 2018 GFG Sibylla – 55 years apart but designed by the same man: 79-year old Giorgetto Giugiaro. Arguably the most important car designer of the 20th century, behind the VW Golf mk1 and Lotus Esprit among dozens of others, Giugiaro launched a new car design firm called GFG Style in 2015 – named after him and his son Fabrizio, who runs the day-to day business – after selling the final part of his Italdesign business to VW.

This year’s Geneva show was the first time GFG had its own exhibition stand though, where it revealed a four-seat 400Kw electric concept for Envision – China’s second largest wind turbine company and a manager of 100GW of worldwide energy assets. There’s no production intent for this car though. It exists to promote Envision’s EnOS electricity system concept where EVs integrate into a wider energy eco system by contributing power to domestic houses and back to the grid. But GFG has two SUVs launching in 2019 in the Chinese market for a Chinese brand, and plans to open an engineering company with an EV-specialist partner in Shanghai by the end of 2018 (as well as continue its thriving industrial design and architecture businesses).

Italdesign Airbus Pop.Up Next (concept flying car)

VW Group’s Italdesign and Airbus added seriousness to the flying car race at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show with their Pop.Up all-electric part-car, part-drone modular concept. At 2018’s Geneva show the Pop.Up Next – now with added Audi – aims to make clear that the big-hitting companies are still taking the idea of a connected, hail-and-ride, eco-friendly, congestion-busting fly/drive future vehicle seriously. The two-seater has been made more aerodynamic, lighter and a bit more stylish – enough to warrant Audi adding its four rings to the nose – and Italdesign and Airbus’s engineers have improved the coupling and de-coupling systems between the car and flying modules. Although smarter in every sense then, the electric city commuter concept still only offers a 30-mile range and could be 5-10 years away from being production- and cost-viable.

PAL-V Liberty (production flying car)

Unlike the Italdesign Airbus Pop.Up Next, the PAL-V flying car is production-ready – albeit powered by a conventional airplane engine and fuel – with first deliveries due in 2019. The Dutch business Dingemanse behind the vehicle says it has taken 100 orders at between €400-600,000 each, depending on specification (and with 25 flying lessons thrown in) and says the vehicle shown at Geneva only needs certification before customers can literally take-off.

300 miles of flying range is promised and much more on land alone. CEO of PAL-V was more than bullish at what he sees as the first-ever production flying car: ‘This is the moment of truth. All certifications for commercialisation will be granted on the basis of this production model. It is the pivotal point that separates pioneers from dreamers.’

Hyundai Le Fil Rouge concept

The South Korean powerhouse group – also boasting Kia and now Genesis within its ranks – has made a great job of transforming into a globally-accepted mainstream volume maker of reliable and smart cars. Now it’s looking to move a little more upmarket and has hired two high-profile ex-Bentley designers – Luc Donckerwolke and SangYup Lee – to help do just that. The Le Fil Rouge concept is their first statement of intent. The four-seat, four-door coupe’s exterior might be classically conventional at first glance, but its simple lines hide new ideas. These include LED pipes underneath its feature lines to create a distinct side profile light signature and a pared-back interior where space normally reserved for bulky dashboards is stripped bare to create curvaceous laminated wood pathways for air flow. A big leap on from today’s Hyundai range, Lee sums ups the change well: ‘Our cars today are practical and good value but in the future that won’t cut it, we have to create emotional value too.’

Touring Superleggera Scià di Persia

It takes old-school Italian design house Touring Superleggera up to 5000 man-hours to transform the Maserati Gran Turismo donor car into the shapely Scià di Persia (‘Shah of Persia’) limited edition that graced its Geneva show stand. The first of only ten units maximum, head of design Louis de Fabribeckers explains that the design house’s focused business model is based on very special customers (with very deep pockets to match, Touring wouldn’t reveal guide prices) who want something bespoke and luxury. ‘With this approach the customer creates a piece of automotive history, regular carmakers can’t match. We do one-offs too.’

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Geneva Motor Show website

A luxury grand touring coupé is bought because desired. It seduces through the promise of speed, comfort and handling. The design inside and out needs to be suggestive of the most-subtle of driving pleasures. The A7 Sportback lives up to this promise. Audi’s second-generation coupé is a handsome car – it is also a highly technical product, akin to an advanced mobile tech gadget.

We are in South Africa and Cape Town’s extraordinary physical setting is perfect for testing the A7. We head out of town from our base at Thomas Heatherwick’s Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa at the V&A Waterfront, framed by Table Mountain. We cruise the wild coastal route observing ancient African penguins at Boulders Beach and baboons at Cape Point. The following day, the road trip takes us high into fertile mountains and deep in the South African winelands.

The 340PS 3.0-litre V6 petrol powering our ‘triton blue’ A7 55 is teamed with the optional four-wheel steering system for a smooth drive. The chassis is agile yet comfortable and the quattro reaches 62 mph in a healthy 5.3 seconds while achieving a top speed of 155 mph. There is a great deal of traffic by Sir Lowry’s Pass and then heading back into Cape Town where Audi’s mild-hybrid assistance with fuel-saving stop-start, offered on all engines, comes in handy.

The A7 is one of the most advanced cars on the road today – certainly in this price range. Audi has programmed in some 39 driver-assist innovations such as hands-free autonomous driving in traffic at speeds of up to 37 mph, and self-park in a garage and bay from the outside. Sadly, at this stage local regulations mean many of these cannot be enabled, but they will be introduced in stages as laws gradually relax throughout the year.

The A7 continues the distinctive contemporary Audi aesthetic theme. There is a formal simplicity to its design whereby seemingly simple surfaces curve and concave in just the right places, then pinch forming sharp edges when needed for a highly polished and technical product. The single-frame grille, a distinguishing feature on all contemporary Audis, is slim and horizontal here to extend the width of the car. We enjoy the flat light strip graphic at the rear which unexpectedly performs a little light dance when the car is locked and unlocked.

The A7 is more than pleasantly comfortable. The coupé roofline is set a little lower than the previous A7 yet as interior length has increased by 21 mm, there is more knee and head room for rear passengers. On models with the three-seat rear bench design, with the backrest fully stowed, the luggage capacity can expand from 535 to a generous 1,390 litres although we found adequate space to carry three small suitcases without the need to lower the back seats.

A GT coupé needs to be driver focused and the designers here have ensured the dashboard tilts enough to feel this way. The A7 benefits from Audi’s virtual cockpit, first seen on the Prologue concept car and then introduced on the pinnacle A8. A fully digital MMI multimedia system replaces the old rotary controller and technical buttons with almost all operations happening through the dual touch-screen. The system is intuitive and it provides helpful haptic and acoustic feedback when your fingertips trigger a function.

This is a quiet and uncluttered environment. All digital elements and the few remaining mechanicals, including the gear lever, integrate into the dashboard as a single framed unit which itself mirrors the exterior radiator grille design. This may not be noticeable at first, but this sense of precision, of harmony, offers a superior sensory experience when you drive this car. Audi has long been a master of vehicle interior design and the A7 is testimony to this. The cabin lights up at night with a wide choice of theatrical ambient lighting and the massage menu is a pleasant addition when put to the test as we get stuck in standstill traffic heading back to the airport.

There has been some criticism as to Audi’s more cautious approach to design of late. This is a marque which gave us some brave products in the 1990s – the original TT and A2 broke conventional vehicle design rules. The contemporary family of Audi cars follow strict codes – they are almost unashamedly perfect. The A7 doesn’t disrupt the rulebook but inserts a few flourishes – the dancing rear light design, for instance, delivered, of course, in a very measured Audi way.

The conjunction of the subtly-perfect A7, driven in the more brazenly-perfect South African landscape, certainly adds up into an exciting experience.

INFORMATION

Audi A7 Sportback, from £54,940. For more information, visit the Audi website

We’ve always had a soft spot for the Audi A8, the German company’s flagship saloon car. Yet in an age of mega-SUVs and Crossovers, the big saloon has become something of an anachronism, a throwback to an age when might and pomp signified status. Such cars were made to be driven in, not to drive, with the focus on extra legroom, reclining seats and an intentional disconnection from the dirty work of getting from A to B.

All that has changed, and no modern car maker would dare release a premium product that didn’t offer the same level of exquisite attention detail to those in the front seat as well as the back. While the basic triumvirate of upper-level executive saloons – Audi A8, Mercedes S-Class and BMW 7-Series – has stayed essentially the same for three decades, there are now still a host of challengers, from Range Rover to Lexus, Maserati to Bentley, none of which would concede their cars were anything less than brilliant to drive.

So with style, comfort and performance considered a given, the next battle is taking place over technology. Tradition demands that new technology appears first in high-end models before filtering down the range. As technology becomes more and more integral to the image of the car, and interior experience, sitting in a top of the range machine offers up dashboards of immense complexity and sophistication, with the nuances of each company’s human-machine interface fast becoming a matter of personal taste that you lock into for life, a bit like your preferred desktop or smartphone operating system.

Audi has been working hard on this interface for decades and the A8 represents the pinnacle of its current thinking. The MMI (Multi-Media Interface) debuted way back in 2002 and has evolved into a massively sophisticated way of controlling every facet of a car’s systems, from air-conditioning down to massage seats, smartphone integration, suspension seatings, even the hue of the LED cabin lighting.

With so much experience, it’s not surprising that Audi does these things better than most, but the A8 also hints at even more massive complexities to come. Our world is all data-driven now, so it stands to reason that cars need to soak up as much information on their surroundings as possible. You can see where this is heading – a world of self-driving, super smart cars. But you can also see where the gaps might lie. No solution is seamless: the A8 uses Google Maps, yet it still managed to incorporate a one-way street as part of a navigation route, then assign no-entry status where it didn’t exist. In an age of increasingly smart home assistants, it also feels lumbered with toddler-grade speech recognition.

While the A8’s sensor package is all present and correct, this car is running way ahead of existing legislation. Eventually, perhaps later in 2018, a switch will be flicked and a whole bunch of Level 3 autonomy features will come online. Level 3 is a major benchmark, meaning ‘fully autonomous under certain circumstances,’ i.e. highway driving or nose-to-tail traffic. Right now, even the best in-car systems are running at Level 2, meaning they’ll happily track the road ahead, steer through sweeping corners and match speed to the surrounding traffic. Crucially, while this might feel like the work of magic, you’re also not supposed to switch off and do something else; all the high-profile ‘autonomous’ accidents have been Level 2 cars treated as if they were at Level 3.

Audi is hoping to be the first manufacturer to attain self-driving status in the wild, thanks to its array of battery of cameras, radars and laser sensors. In fact, in very specific circumstances, namely slow-moving traffic below a certain speed on a dual carriageway separated by solid barriers, the A8 will take over and help you crawl your way to and from work. Ironically, this is not only the most miserable and uninspirational driving scenario you can possibly be in, but also the precise situation where most execs have a driver up front so they can make full use of the A8’s spectacular rear compartment.

The Audi A8 is undeniably a good-looking car, and the refinement and interior are unmatched, especially in this long-wheelbase version. But in a sense, the A8 isn’t quite finished. Will it ever be? We’re entering an era where car companies are realising that hardware and software move at different paces. Just like with smartphones, perhaps every new car owner will end up waiting expectantly for version 2.0.

INFORMATION

Audi A8L TDI quattro, from £72,210, as tested £108,780. For more information, visit the Audi website

The Frankfurt Motor Show is traditionally a time for the big three German car marques to flex their muscles – their respective oversized pavilions bursting with shinny products. It can be a bit of a spectacle, overshadowing others, certainly smaller makers who tend to stay away. This year was no exception with the BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen groups seizing the limelight.

The overarching theme was, of course, electrification. As the era of the gasoline car drifts into a close, any carmaker wishing to survive the next chapter has committed to electrified products in the next decade – and so the Frankfurt Messe was packed with clean, autonomous driving concepts, and a few realities too.

BMW showed the second-iteration to the i3 electric production city car, as well as a couple of study vehicles - the i Vision Dynamics as a prelude to a mid-size vehicle in the electric sub-brand and the Electric Mini. Audi’s Aicon is an autonomous electric concept with no pedals or a steering wheel. While, Mercedes presented the all-electric compact Concept EQA and the Smart Vision EQ Fortwo driverless shared urban car. Then, just to prove electrification doesn’t always mean boring, through its high-performance AMG arm, the marque debuted Project One, a hybrid hypercar, boasting F1 technology and £2 price tag.

Mercedes-AMG Project One concept

Project One by Mercedes-AMG brings Formula One technology from race track to the road. Engineered at the Mercedes performance arm with close collaboration with F1 experts, this dramatic high-performance hybrid hypercar boasts 1,000 horsepower, and a top speed of 217mph. Project One celebrates AMG’s 50th anniversary. It will be made in very limited numbers with prices said to be around £2.3m. Together with the four-door AMG GT Concept, it provides another insight into the future performance-hybrid drive strategy of the sports car brand within Mercedes-Benz.
 
 
BMW i Vision Dynamics

The BMW i Vision Dynamics is much more than a futuristic conceptual study. This four-door gran coupé is the prelude to an electric production car, a mid-size model to sit somewhere between the electric i3 city car and the i8 supercar. When produced – dates haven’t been confirmed – it will be the third product within BMW i electric sub-brand set up six years ago.

By 2025, BMW has promised to release 25 models with an electrified drive system, of which 12 will be pure-electric, and i Vision is an indication as to how far the marque is willing to explore its design language in the age of electrification. Much like the two i cars that came before it, this latest study involves enough experimentation to stand apart from the mainstream cars, while retaining a family link through translating some of BMW’s classic elements – the long wheelbase and flowing roof, and the ‘kidney’ grille, closed here and flanked by slim LED lights.
 
 
Audi Aicon

The Audi Aicon is a fully autonomous electric concept car without driving pedals or a steering wheel. Seats slide back and forth so the car can be configured from two to four seats. Aicon offers a luxurious cabin environment, where occupants are encouraged to get on with their daily chores, make calls, watch movies, browse the internet, using the touch-screen control panels. Audi says the design team were inspired by luxurious private and first-class airline cabins. Aicon is purely conceptual at this stage, yet Audi is promising 348 horsepower and 405 lb-ft of torque, and a 500-mile electric range on a single charge.
 
 
Mercedes-Benz Concept EQA

Mercedes-Benz has promised to bring ten new electric vehicles to market by 2022 under the EQ banner. The EQA concept is the latest in the series, and the first all-electric car in the company’s entry-level compact A class. Company CEO Dr Dieter Zetsche says Concept EQA proves that the marque ‘is serious about introducing electric mobility throughout the portfolio’.

EQA is a three-door model designed around the marque’s ‘sensual purity’ theme and what design chief Gorden Wagener calls ‘progressive luxury’. The front and rear lights are laser fibres – the spiral-shaped light design evoking the copper windings of an electric motor and the animation visualising electrical impulses, says the company. There is no grille here, instead the black front panel has an LED matrix that alters according to the selected drive programme.
 
 
Volkswagen ID Crozz concept

Volkswagen’s ID Crozz concept previews a high-riding electric crossover vehicle expected to go into production in three years. The third member in a new family of zero-emission cars, it forms part of the company’s ambitious eco plans aiming for up to a million electric car sales by the middle of the next decade. ID Crozz II continues the theme explored with concept vehicle exhibited at the Shanghai Show in April, refining elements such as introducing a new light graphics. The shape is a bit of hybrid, combining sportcar aesthetics with off-road capabilities, and it shares a modular platform and electric drive with its siblings, ID Hatchback and ID Buzz.
 
 
Smart Vision EQ Fortwo

Vision EQ Fortwo by Mercedes-Smart is a small toy-like fully-autonomous urban concept. It explores future urban mobility, ideas surrounding shared transport and personalisation by being both a public and personal pod. The two-seater Vision EQ has no steering wheel or driving pedals for a relatively roomy cabin. The ‘black panel grille’ will allow the user to recognise the car by displaying their name. It is controlled via complex algorithms but, much like Uber, responds to smartphones and has voice control. It also doubles up to do parcel deliveries at night.
 
 
Honda Urban EV Concept

The Honda Urban EV is just that – a concept study of an all-electric city car to be produced for Europe in 2019. The Japanese firm is aiming to have electrified technology in two thirds of its new cars by 2030. Here the design is simple, the proportions low and wide. Urban EV can accommodate four to five passengers across two bench seats. This and the proportions appear to be a nod to kei cars, the little boxy run-arounds plentiful on Japan’s busy city streets yet sadly never popularised in Europe. Urban EV is built on a completely new platform, and showcases advanced technology. A screen displays interactive messages for driver and passengers to communicate while on the road. The Honda badge is backlit in blue, which previews a new feature for the company’s future EVs.
 
 
Mini Electric Concept

The Mini Electric Concept is simply just that, an electric model to join the family in 2019. Mini began experimenting with electric drives as far back as 2000, conducting trials, yet this latest concept is very much production ready. Mini Electric will share driving components of the revised BMW i3. The proportions are very Mini too, with design features to clearly set it apart – a closed grille, new light treatments with a union jack appearing in the rear, and plenty of aero elements to visually express the car’s clean drive.
 
 
BMW X7 iPerformance

This Concept X7 iPerformance previews a new model to join BMW’s expanding crossover, or as the company likes to call this segment ‘sports activity vehicle’, family. BMW says X7 gives a clear idea as of what to expect when a production model arrives next year. It will join the 7 Series family – visually indicated by the metal strip between the lights at the rear - forming part of BMW’s plans to substantially increase sales in this luxury space.

The X7 has three rows of two seats, but the production car will use a more conventional two-row layout. The minimal body lines and more subtle sculpting continues the design revisions as seen on the recent Concept 8 Series and Z4. The upright grille and slim headlights feel like a nod to BMW’s former premium cars, namely the 3000 Coupés.

BMW X7 is offered with both petrol and plug-in-hybrid. Ian Robertson, member of the management board responsible for sales and branding says X7 ‘demonstrates it’s perfectly possible to combine a large sports activity vehicle with an electrified drivetrain.’
 
 
Renault Symbioz

The Renault Symbioz is envisaged as a connected, autonomous, pure electric concept vehicle that is an extension of the home interior by integrating itself into your house when not in use. The French marque is viewing future electric cars as mobile energy-storage packs to power car and home – for instance in peak energy times. Symbioz has a retracting dashboard and the seats can swing around to face one another; it can drive itself in and out of the home, park itself in your room to double up as a sanctuary pod.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the International Motor Show website

Trying to get a handle on the Audi personality is increasingly tricky. After three decades of coasting along under the auspices of ‘Vorsprung Durch Technik’, the rest of the auto industry eventually caught up with Audi’s technocratic idealism. What’s rather more secure is the company’s lead in terms of perceived quality and sophistication. Audi is still the industry leader when it comes to interiors, navigation and dashboards, with rigorous attention to detail.

As we've often noted, there’s an Audi for every occasion, big or small, sporty or practical. The latest in what promises to be another deluge of new models (eight in two years) is the RS3, a high performance variant of the A3 available in both sedan (saloon) and Sportback versions. ‘RS’ is Audi’s magic performance glitter, a dedicated division that has been building limited run high-speed versions of its regular production models since the 1990s.

The RS3 is notable chiefly because this is the first time the magic dust has been dappled on a compact saloon car – as opposed to something larger, sleeker or more capacious. The move shows how important traditional saloon car markets still are to Audi (the US, China, India, etc.); even as markets like Europe switch to SUVs big and small, a sports car still has a halo effect across a range. 

Audi chose to launch the RS3 in Oman, away from the European circuit and not far from those key target markets. The car might be a canny bit of marketing, but there’s no denying its ability. A landscape of wide, fast, empty roads – goats, camels and cattle notwithstanding – Oman offers the kind of fantasy world that best suits the modern performance machine. We can report that the RS3 – in both variants – is both competent and comfortable, with the quattro four wheel drive and numerous other stability aids endowing deity-like control over the car. Way up in the country's sparsely-inhabited Dhofar mountains exists a veritable paradise for drivers, with the kind of wide, empty, far-sighted roads that usually exist only in car ads and on press launches.

Herein lies the paradox at the heart of the traditional performance car. You simply can’t use it to its full abilities anywhere. With a ‘supercar’, the trade-off for this inability to deploy all the bells and whistles is the sheer visual and sonic drama of ownership and display. The RS3, on the other hand, is a pumped-up compact car, albeit one from a premium brand. It’s designed as a gateway purchase to more (and more profitable) performance (although you can of course specify some very expensive options, like carbon ceramic brakes). The car is even explicitly described as the ‘entry ticket to Audi Sport’ by CEO Stephan Winkelmann, who also notes the RS3 will probably be the sub-brand’s biggest seller.

That being said, Audi Sport models make up less than two per cent of Audi’s total sales; they exist almost purely to garnish the brand. Yet the main course is changing. In Europe, the SUV is the only sector that continues to expand, year in, year out. At the same time, the electric car market seems forever poised for massive expansion. By the end of 2018 Audi will have joined BMW in having its own dedicated electric car sub-division, dubbed e-tron. The role of Audi Sport in enhancing our enjoyment or ownership of these all-electric machines remains to be seen. For all its ability on the road, the RS3’s most important job is to steer Audi Sport towards commercial relevance.

INFORMATION
Audi RS3, from £47,000. For more information, visit the Audi website

You'd have thought that there were no more niches left to fill in a marketplace crowded with every conceivable size and type of car. The biggest manufacturers cast their design nets as far and wide as possible, hoping to ensnare the demands and desires of the broadest spectrum of consumers. Audi’s new Q2 is the latest manifestation of this policy, joining a line up that currently consists of the A1, A3, Q3, A4, A5, Q5, A6, A7, A8, Q8, R8 and TT (without even factoring in the various ‘S’ and ‘RS’ variants). This showroom full of alphabet spaghetti runs along relatively organised lines; the bigger the number, the bigger the car, with the ‘Q’ suffix added in 2005 with the introduction of Audi’s first SUV, the Q7.

There have been eight Qs since, if one counts variants and new generations, and the Q2 is the latest in the line-up. The Q7 is simply enormous, but even the Q3 isn’t exactly small. Hence the need to plug the perceived gap below it with what the company is calling a ‘premium compact SUV’, explicitly pitched at gadget-aware millennials who like their cars connected, compact and forward thinking. It’s a triumph of marketing, first and foremost, but the company has done its utmost to cram in technologies once found on much bigger cars, from the virtual dashboard, head-up display and semi-autonomous traffic jam assist system.

It may be small, but the Audi family resemblance is clear. Perhaps grille sizes are like hemlines, acting as a subconscious indicator of market confidence as they rise and fall, shrink and grow. In the case of the auto grille, bigger and bolder seems to imply some kind of over-compensation for brand insecurity. Two decades ago, Audi’s brand was rock-solid, and the famous four-ring badge was mounted on a slender radiator grille barely twice its width. Today those rings are marooned atop a cliff of horizontal bars that plunge from the bonnet down below the bumper. Mercifully, the Q2 is an indication that this trend might be finally waning, and although the car has a veritable jigsaw of slots, openings and light fixtures, the relatively small scale means it’s not quite as intimidating a presence.

Audi has a long aesthetic memory. There are strong shades of the 2001 Steppenwolf Concept in the Q2, one of the first renderings of how an Audi 4x4 might look. The thick slab-like C-pillar dominates both designs, and on the Q2 it can be specified in various contrasting colours as part of the copious personalisation packages (just like the R8’s signature side blade). Such flashes of character are pretty rare in a contemporary Audi, and the Q2 makes a quietly tasteful overall package. The bluff ends, chamfered bodywork and excellent build quality make it a pleasant object to look at and sit in, and it’s also suitably impressive and relaxing to drive. More performance-focused variants will arrive some time next year, but in many respects this is a car for people who care increasingly little about speed and dynamics. Having ready access to your music and contacts is far more important, as is accurate, Google-powered mapping.

The main rivals in this newish sector are the Nissan Juke, Mini Countryman, BMW X1 and the Mercedes GLA, all ‘soft’ roaders that use their elevated ride height for easier urban maneuverability, not scrambling along muddy tracks. Most of these alternatives conspicuously fail the aesthetics test, struggling to combine their rugged features with sympathetic proportions. In this respect, the Q2 wins before you’ve even got behind the wheel, but it also emerges triumphantly ahead of its siblings. It may be small, but it’s at the head of the queue.

INFORMATION
Audi Q2, from £19,545. For more information, visit the Audi website 

When the eulogies for the combustion engine comes to be written in a few decades time, a generous obituarist will no doubt throw a few lines in the direction of Audi's V8. It's by no means the most emotive or evocative engine ever built. It doesn't roar like an American muscle car, or scream like an Italian supercar. There's no burble like one finds on a classic British sports car. Instead, there’s the bottomless abyss of thrust, a muted roar that barely finds its full voice before you're travelling at a rate better suited to take-off and almost certainly in excess of any posted limits. It’s deployed in a number of Audi’s more outré sports cars – the R8 and RS6, for example, but for our money the best place to experience it is in the elegant RS7, a big four-door ‘coupé’ that’s explicitly pitched at those who like their cars to make an aesthetic statement just as much as an engineering one.

It’s a beautiful car, the A7. Admittedly the RS7 Sportback doesn’t exactly improve on the flowing line of the well-proportioned original as enhance it – it’s a matter of personal taste as to whether spoilers, ducts, grilles and a generally more aggressive vibe gel well with the tailored simplicity of the ‘basic car’. But it has an undeniable presence, helped no doubt by the hefty scale that gave Audi’s designers plenty of room to perfect the lines. Inside, the usual Audi interior quality is present and correct, although aficionados might note that everything is looking a little bit last generation; Audi’s most recent models have wholeheartedly embraced the ‘digital cockpit’ concept, with screen-based dashboards that change according to the tastes and information demand of the driver. A full plethora of driving aids, including the Quattro four-wheel-drive system, help get the V8’s power down with a minimum of fuss, and the adjustable ride does a good job of cosseting or bolstering depending on the road surface and speed.

Building big beautiful cars simply isn’t enough in today’s auto market. The RS7’s replacement is waiting in the wings, but rather than simply replace the current car with something a little swifter, sleeker and more impressive, any new model will have to better represent the culture change that is sweeping through the car industry. Political rumblings in Germany recently suggested that there’s enough momentum and popular support – among consumers and manufacturers – to instigate a ban on new traditionally-powered cars being made after 2030. Instead of the expected howls of outrage (imagine if such a scenario had been suggested in the US or UK), there was a steely silence; you can sure that there’s a spreadsheet somewhere that plans for exactly this scenario. 

Audi has largely dodged the bullet taken by its parent company for its well-documented sins against emissions testing, even though both companies share many of the tainted components. The VW Group knows it must fight back and becoming a big player in electric cars and Audi and VW itself will help rebuild its image (hence VW’s sparky ID concept exhibited at Paris last month). The next A7 will almost certain include a hybrid option; Audi are predicted to start their all-electric car push with SUV models at the beginning, with saloons and hatchbacks to follow. Right now, however, the RS7 represents a final charge, doomed yet dramatic, for the raw deployment of old-fashioned power. It’s a fine note on which to sign off on, but expect the next generation of big, bold Audis to move the company’s image on to another level.

INFORMATION
Audi RS7 Sportback, from £85,485. For more information, visit the Audi website

The Audi S8 is a limousine with a dark side, the polar opposite to the sedate hybrids that glide near-noiselessly around the city. It is the anti-Uber, with nigh-on 600 horsepower pumped out by a twin turbo-charged V8 and, in this special ‘Plus’ model, an indecently high top speed that places it squarely in supercar territory. Yet all this drama is cloaked with a stylish, sober façade, the power lurking beneath the long, subtly fluted bonnet. In truth, you needn’t deploy it all and simply revel in the hush and refinement of Audi’s flagship saloon.

Unlike the raucous AMG variants of Mercedes’ S-Class, the S8 is more subdued. It’s a titanically fast car that you don’t feel the urge to thrash and delivers a far better experience when it’s just wafting along serenely. The V8 is an especially emotive engine; tuned right it produces a deliciously waffly exhaust note that has come to define a certain type of brutish, heavyweight performance. Pushed hard, it will roar, but overall it’s been tuned to stay discrete, not diabolical. The same engine is also found in Bentley’s GT V8S, but Audi recently hinted that their most recent V8 might also be their last, as the anachronistic combination of noise, emissions and raw power slowly fades into history.

It’s certainly at odds with the S8’s otherwise high-tech demeanour. The big limousine sector is traditionally a tech showcase and an all-new A8 and S8 will appear in the next 18 months. Unfortunately, this knowledge unwittingly highlights the current car’s shortcomings. The dashboard design has been usurped by other Audis, with their digital ‘virtual cockpits’, and although the interior still oozes quality, the MMI (multi-media interface) has become less, not more, intuitive, with the passing years, as the ubiquity of touchscreen interaction seeps successfully into car design. Audi might argue that tactile feedback is the way to go, but while the rotary dial and button combination clicks and twirls with satisfying precision, more often than not you dial something in the wrong direction.

These are minor quibbles about what is undeniably an impressive and desirable machine. S8 buyers care not for what others think, preferring to focus on the sensation of stealth, the knowledge of hidden power and the majestic solidity of Audi’s build quality. 

INFORMATION

Audi S8 Plus, from £97,700 (available October). For more information, visit the Audi website

Plenty of thoughts rattle around your brain as you explore the outer limits of the Audi R8’s abilities. Aside from self-preservation, concern for those around you and a healthy respect for the legal restrictions of the land, the dominant train of thought is what on earth does one do with all this performance? The R8 blends huge capability with high levels of practicality, but there’s no escaping the car’s primary raison d’etre: to get from A to B as fast as is technically feasible.

This is the second-generation model of a car that has given Audi’s image a healthy fillip. Until the R8 arrived, Audi’s only dedicated sports model was the TT, often dismissed by purists as a design-centric bauble aimed at the overly self-conscious. That characterisation is largely unfair (and almost totally negated by the current version of the TT), but it was the R8 that proved without a doubt that Audi could do ‘sport’ just as well as its rivals. In truth, this was a ridiculous qualification given the marque’s long domination at Le Mans and the fundamental dynamic solidity of its range, bolstered by the acclaimed ‘quattro’ four-wheel drive system. But the car industry has more than its fair share of stereotypes and sometimes a manufacturer has to address them head on.

The R8 also means that like several of its peers in the premium sector (BMW and Mercedes spring to mind), Audi now finds itself stretched between two potentially conflicting goalposts; forging a new future of ultra-low emission urban transportation, driven by steadily increasing levels of automation, versus powering ahead to create the most swiftest, most desirable and most outrageous mode of four-wheel transportation available.

Audi will always have stiff competition in the latter category. Eighty years ago, when its 16-cylinder racing machines dominated inter-war competition, it might have had a claim, especially since the Italian supercar industry had yet to be conceived. But today, an R8 must not only best a Ferrari, it also has to take on Aston Martin, McLaren, Porsche and Lamborghini, a clutch of totemic brands who all fulfil the primary function of the supercar without turning a wheel; to make you look.

That’s not to say the R8 is humdrum. The new model sharpens the creases and blunts the edges of the original but retains the wide stance, transparent engine cover and grille-bedecked rear fascia of the original. Like all contemporary Audis it gets a lower, deeper grille, although the R8’s slender profile keeps it from being too overbearing. The silhouette speaks of function, not seduction, with a ‘cab-forward’ profile that’s not quite as rakish as its rivals. Perhaps there’s a reason for that, given how much the platform is shared with Lamborghini, Audi’s sibling brand. The Italian manufacturer’s Huracan model is closely related to the R8, although such is the skill of the designer and brand engineer that not a trace of the other’s existence remains in either interior or exterior.

Inside, the R8 suffers slightly from a desire to be elaborate and over-emotional, when we all know that Audi’s excel best when they just stick to the functional script. There’s little to fault in terms of finish and tech – the digital dashboard is especially well done – and everything works with the kind of seamless functionality we expect from our digital devices. Levels of comfort, dynamism, bite and snarl can be dialled in and out and tweaked to suit your preferences, allowing the R8 to ride with the serenity of a small limousine (on the right road surface). Flick a switch and that mighty engine makes itself felt (its raucous squawk set off a nearby car alarm when started from cold). The lightning fast connection between steering wheel and road, gearbox and engine is never in doubt and on a regular road only the upper, upper echelons of driver skill could discern any significant disadvantage in having an R8 over anything else if your primary motivation is to make spirited progress. 

Ultimately, it all comes down to the shove. All R8s are now V10 powered, with an electric version in the works. Deploying such power is all about responsibility, perhaps, but it’s a small salve to the conscience to know that the R8 is probably one of the cleanest and most efficient cars capable of cracking 200mph – even the enhanced V10 ‘Plus’ model as driven here. The received wisdom is that the R8 tames the unwieldy image of the supercar, banishing the idiosyncratic and eccentric in favour of Teutonic functionalism. In truth, this car satisfies neither cliché, but it does still offer a relatively discrete option in a sector crowded out by extroverts. It’s low, loud and undeniably bold, but the R8 still sneaks in under the radar, a fast car for those not looking to make a big splash.

INFORMATION

From £132,715. For more information, visit Audi’s website

The Audi A4 – especially in the saloon format – is a global product with a diverse customer demographic. What's more, with some 12 million cars sold since its birth in 1972, it's also the company's best-selling model. European buyers are typically business drivers and families, but in regions like China, smart German saloons are prestigious purchases. The new design has had to appeal to a broad group.



We caught up with Audi's exterior designer Frank Lamberty at the company's Ingolstadt HQ ahead of the car's official unveiling at the Frankfurt Motor Show this September. Each Audi product line, Lamberty explains, will now have its own light and grille design, 'for some differentiation within the family'. Audi has spent a good part of the last decade visually uniting its cars. It needed to be universally recognised as a brand – but the next stage is for subtle individual personalities to shine through.



A distinct, pinched line runs the length of the new A4's shoulder, abruptly cutting the smooth metal surface. It makes a bold graphic statement – yet this is not merely fancy decoration. This character element has functional value, incorporating the shut lines on the bonnet at the front and the boot at the rear so they appear invisible.



This precise line redirects the eye away from the car's more functional elements towards its more aesthetic aspects, pulling the viewer's gaze from the serene face and along the sculpted body, to the polished rear. It defines what Audi does so very well: employing design to express precision and refined engineering.



The ninth generation A4's face is punctuated by a modified single-frame grille – an Audi hallmark – that is wider and lower than before, offering a softer expression. The geometric headlights, on the other hand, add a touch of drama (and that's before factoring the optional Matrix LED lamps). Taillights are narrow, with elegant sweeping indicator lights; a subtle nod, perhaps, to the radical jewelled light design the marque took on almost a decade ago. Here, the execution is less showy, more in-keeping with the character of the car.



Lamberty agrees that designing saloon and estate cars can be a challenge, largely as they lack the inherent sex appeal of sportier models or the practicality of crossovers. There isn’t an anarchic design statement here – and yet, the longer body and shorter stance, elongated overhang and more pronounced metal work on the body and wheel-arches give both models a confident poise. They appear, Lamberty notes, to be more ‘masculine’ and ‘ready to take to the road’. As a piece of elegant industrial design, the A4 is peerless, ready to slip effortlessly into service across the globe. 

The second-generation Q7 has been awhile coming - the first one launched in 2006 - but Audi has taken the time to put its large SUV on a serious weight loss programme, improve its fuel economy and emissions, digitally-enhance its interior and offer a catalogue of hi-tech safety options.

Where the first model's design pushed a coupe-crossover exterior aesthetic with a slim window graphic and sloping roofline to hide the vehicle's five-metre-plus length, the brief to its designers for the mk2 model was to find a more SUV-like silhouette appearance - to distance it further from Audi's large Allroad and Avant estate models. Together with this boxier and more horizontal approach, the new Q7 sports a more three-dimensional and angular, chrome-edged front grille too. The end result is subjective but either way, the mk2 is unlikely to be mistaken for the mk1.

Less subjective is the thoroughly modern interior that is as hi-tech and high quality as we've come to expect from Audi. Beyond the subtle combination of superbly fitted surfaces covered in leather and aluminium there are some genuinely excellent features. One example is the Q7's ability to display the navigation map across the whole driver display while reducing the size of the rev and speed dials within it for greater clarity. Although first shown on the mk3 TT in 2014, the Q7 goes one step further by replicating the infotainment on a separate centre screen so that passengers can also get visual confirmation of their MMI controller inputs without having to lean over the driver's shoulder (as on the TT). Apple CarPlay or Google Android Auto software - where the car's centre-screen mirrors those smart phones' interfaces and can be used in the same way - will be an option later in the year. The second-row seats can now fit three separate child seats (should you be procreating with such frequency or carrying the offspring of those who do) and also move fore and aft to give extra room for the now electrically operated, but still small, third-row. If that third row is not required the seats stow neatly into the load floor, and if major haulage is required, the second row can fold down to give a large 1995-litre maximum luggage capability.

Kudos should also go to Audi for shedding up to 325kg - or three very large men - from its kerb weight by optimising lighter aluminium and hi-strength steel wherever possible (it's even got an aluminium brake pedal). Although still a two-tonne-plus vehicle in the seven-seat version standard in the UK, economy and emissions are improved by almost 30 per cent. The UK dropped the old model's petrol engine in 2012 (due to dwindling demand) so the mk2 range starts for now with the 272hp 3.0 TDI diesel unit offering 47.9mpg and 153g/km of CO2 from £50,340. A lower-power 218hp 3.0 TDI (52.3mpg and 144g/km) arrives in the autumn from circa £48,000 and a greener, but more expensive, third option - the 373hp, 166mpg and sub-50g/km CO2 eTron plug-in diesel hybrid - goes on sale at the end of 2015.

Audi makes no pretence that its Q7 is a serious off-roader but it is more than capable on it. The 272PS 3.0 TDI quattro rapidly propelled the SUV up various steep inclines on its mountainous Verbier test route and also had sufficient stability control to feel secure and comfortable through twisty corners. The lower-power 218PS 3.0 TDI was noisier paddling through the eight-speed automatic gearbox, but more than able too. Standard all-wheel drive and decent ground clearance should allow both to traverse gravel, grass and sandy 'soft-road' conditions with ease.

No world firsts are claimed for the mk2 Q7 but Audi does say it has 'the world's largest offering of driver assistance systems in the segment.' The 'exit warning' system is one of the better ones, alerting occupants of oncoming but unseen cars or cyclists, by flashing lights in the wing mirror and turning interior light strips from blue to red if they start to open the Q7's big doors into other road users paths.

All in all, the latest Q7 moves the game on in technology and interior quality. But if you like what you hear and see, perhaps wait until later in 2015 to investigate the Apple and Google-enabled versions and also the hybrid option, before making your final decision.

The new A3 Sportback e-tron is a sign of the fast maturing electric car market. A few years ago, the idea of a mass production plug-in hybrid model would have required all sorts of marketing hoopla. Yet the new Audi is simply a revised version of the existing A3, a car that’s sober, sensible but not exactly a standard-bearer for edgy new technology.

Naturally, it’s what's going on under the skin that’s important. The company has been plugging away at the engineering for years to ensure their electric offerings stack up. Like its rivals, the A3’s sophisticated drivetrain blends battery power with a modest capacity petrol engine, extending range, fuel efficiency and – thanks to the instant torque and punch of the electric motor – a decent turn of speed.

The e-tron is certainly clever, constantly working out the most efficient way of progressing, whether you’re in town or on the open road. Slip it into sport mode and the car sharpens up nicely, doling out a big shove of electrically-assisted acceleration – an experience that is fast becoming the most desirable fix for speed merchants.

In terms of design, not much has changed, save for a more detailed display on the car’s MMI entertainment system. The e-tron model receives a decent standard specification too, including top quality navigation, internet connectivity and hard-disk based music system. By gaming the official fuel consumption tests, Audi claims over 176 mpg, although the 30+ miles of all-electric range will be a far more useful (and achievable) attribute as cities start to clamp down on emissions.

The A3 is a credible if not exactly earth-shattering mid-sized car that's available in a variety of sizes and engine types. It conforms to every statute in the Audi rulebook – a firm ride, polite styling and an admirable all-round ability. As a result, it makes plenty of sense for the company to debut their long-awaited e-tron capabilities on this tried and tested platform (which was engineered from the outset to take the electric motor and batteries). In the future, however, e-tron is expected to play an even greater role in the Audi line-up. With a rumoured flagship R8 e-tron to tackle success stories like the BMW i8 and perhaps an all-electric city car, it would seem a redefinition of the brand is on its way.

The Prologue exudes an easy elegance. With its long wheelbase, wider track, low cabin and intricate 22-inch wheels, Audi's latest design study is a graceful car. It is more than just a concept though - the Prologue expresses the marque's new design language. As such, it's also a pretty good indication as to the look, the feel and the technology to expect in the upcoming exclusive Audi luxury coupé. Furthermore, with a 605hp 4-litre petrol V8 feeding the quattro all-wheel-drive system, the Prologue is, according to the company, 'the sportiest car in the luxury segment'.



The car, revealed to us at a pop-up venue in Milan, takes Audi's clean design aesthetic to another level. In the past decade the German car maker has worked hard to establish a recognisable look with a distinctive single-frame grille and precise, sculptured surfaces. Now it's time to move on and the Prologue is the first evolutionary step that should see a greater dose of differentiation between its models.



We caught up with Audi chief of design Marc Lichte to find out more...



Wallpaper*: You came to Audi from Volkswagen in February, bringing a fresh perspective. How do you see design developing?

Marc Lichte: Audi has to be sporty, progressive and sophisticated, and these core brand values need to be emphasised even more in the future. A big part of the history is technology. This is something we want to emphasise in exterior and interior design.



W*: Can you explain how you have evolved the single-frame grille design, first seen on the A6 ten years ago, and now the recognisable face of Audi?

ML: The single-frame has been one of the most important steps for Audi design and it has taken ten years to establish this as the face. Therefore a revolution at this stage is dangerous so we have evolved the shape by making it more horizontal, by extending the width of the grille adding volume to the car.



W*: You say all future Audi cars will express the quattro drive system.

ML: Our competitors have rear-wheel-drive cars, so they stress the rear wheels. We are quattro. Quattro is more than a drivetrain concept - it is one of our most important brand values. Expressing it is about balancing the proportions and emphasising all four wheel-arches.



W*: This is a highly advanced car, taking the TT's virtual cockpit a step further, yet the technology remains invisible.

ML: As cars become more advanced, technology has to become more visually subtle, almost invisible as in the Prologue where we integrated the displays into the architecture.



W*: How will you differentiate between the compact cars, saloons and SUVs?

ML: This will include the proportions of the single-frame, so that the A8 will have a more dominant, proud grille than, say, the A1.



W*: Will the electric Audi you've been working on be a radical design?

ML: Yes, but it is still top secret! The only thing I can confirm is that in the same way we will differentiate A, Q and R, we will differentiate our future e-models.

The first TT coupé delighted aesthetes. Unveiled in 1998, it was a viscerally exhilarating design with architectural expressions of form and line. At a time when cars were increasingly commoditised, bland products, Audi's new compact sports car was a wonderful piece of contemporary automotive design that helped elevate the marque to a whole new level.



Today, Audi's world is quite different. In 1998 the company was just beginning its march into the premium sector with only 17 models in its portfolio. Now Audi boasts close to 50 and rising, with sales of close to 1.3 million cars this year. Perhaps risk taking isn't so necessary. To this end, the third generation TT isn't as exciting as the original model. However, it follows a similar visual narrative and certainly has the same considered approach.



We tested the TT in Scotland, where the landscape and roads have the kind of poetry that make most cars shine. The wild drama and autumnal palette act as the perfect canvas for the clean and precise surfaces of the new TT.



The original model was characterised by its low, seemingly 'added-on' roof and wheel arches where the circular shapes formed a powerful contrast with the blunt horizontal lines along the flanks. Here these elements are echoed but tamed to be much more subtle. The fuel lid remains defiantly round; the exhaust pipes are large and circular.



This third generation car is more compact but with a longer wheelbase and shorter overhangs, providing a bit more boot space but still tiny rear seats. As with all recent Audis, it is exquisite in its execution too, the mainly lightweight aluminium body is impressively sculpted and lovingly detailed.



Crucially, the TT is now more closely linked to Audi's ultimate sports car, the R8, through its low positioned wide single-frame grille and distinctive light design which makes it visually much more of a sports car.



The story gets exciting when you enter the cabin - this clean clutter-free environment captures the tech zeitgeist. The highlight is what Audi is calling the 'virtual cockpit'. Here the usual central screen has been replaced with a 12.3-inch fully digital LCD display - the Google Earth satellite navigation is so unusually high in resolution that we can almost count the leaves on the trees - and ergonomically placed directly in the driver's view.



The screen can be personalised under 'infotainment' and 'classic' interfaces using handy wheel-mounted buttons or the central MMI knob that is also touch sensitive, with full smartphone connectivity available to stream your playlist, and listen to, on the optional Bang & Olufsen 12-speaker, 680-watt sound system.



The TT is also great fun to drive on these empty, seemingly endless roads. One of the issues with the original car was its lack of sportsmanship - it is after all categorised as a sports car. To combat this, Audi engineers have benchmarked the Cayman at sister brand Porsche to improve this lightweight car's Nürburgring times. They have also added a range of petrol and diesels, with the pinnacle RS model completing the family in March - so there will be a TT to suit any aesthete with an appetite for speed.



When the first TT was introduced, Audi didn't have the R8 sports car and the little coupe had to perform a dual role as the firm's design and engineering ambassador. Now the TT can relax a little, be more of a niche product that is still about good design, possibly less about shifting the paradigm, yet with its definite quality of conception, proportion and detail, it remains a beautiful example of modern automotive design.

Like many big car companies, Audi is spending considerable amounts of time exploring how to make its products gel better with the urban environment. Cars have a contentious relationship with cities, but it's obviously in the best interests of a car maker to ensure that the two coexist in sweet, profitable harmony for many years to come.

At the heart of their efforts is Audi's Urban Future Initiative, a heavily branded venture that sees invited teams of architects, designers, planners and other professionals suggest new ways of dealing with the myriad problems of 'urban mobility'. Audi launches its own technology-driven solutions alongside stylish renders and slick CGI, creating a virtuous circle of innovation.

That's the idea. It works because technology is one of Audi's brand identifiers. Ever since a bright spark at a (British) ad agency minted the phrase 'Vorsprung durch Technik' in the early 1980s, the company has mostly lived up to the image of a technology-driven innovator. In that time it has also marched steadily upmarket and is now one of the world's most desirable premium brands. From here, there is genuine potential for innovating beyond the ream of car-making and CEO Rupert Stadler set up the Urban Future Initiative soon after his appointment in 2010 as a marketing-friendly think tank.

For 2014, four teams took on the challenge of four very different cities: Berlin, Seoul, Boston and Mexico City. Their exact goal could be loosely described as 'explore how cars can continue to play a role in the future megacity'. Although plenty of august commentators would fundamentally disagree with the premise, this is not what a car maker wants to hear. Instead, we were treated to four densely argued research documents that, variously, sifted through data to calculate the best options for a particular journey (Boston and Mexico City), transformed the car into an almost architectural object that expresses and promotes social desire, status and interests (Seoul) and a far-reaching plan to transform abandoned city infrastructure into a quasi-autonomous personal transportation system (Berlin).

Each team based its ideas in a concrete reality, although the tether didn't prevent them from flying off into fanciful realms. The winner – and recipient of €100,000 – was the Mexican team, consisting of architect Jose Castillo, analyst Carlos Gershenson and think tank-leader Gabriella Gomez-Mont. Their proposal triumphed largely because Mexico City – a sprawling metropolis of 20 million – has barely scratched the surface of its congestion issues. Surveys and raw data are desperately thin on the ground, so the Audi-sponsored initiative has strong potential for helping planners figure out how to cut the huge social, economic and environmental cost of traffic.

The Initiative has previously highlighted the work of J Mayer H and Bjarke Ingels, implying that stylish visuals typically triumph over pragmatic data-crunching. Mexico City's victory bucked this trend, implying a new maturity in the company's desire to tackle the way its products interact with the world around them. Autonomous driving is, of course, a hot-button topic in the motor industry. Audi took the time to demo its latest innovation after the awards ceremony. Traffic Light Assist might sound prosaic, but getting it to work typifies the hugely complicated data maze that has to be negotiated every step of the way.

TLA links your car into the city's traffic system. It then feeds information about the approaching intersection to a dashboard display, giving you the optimum driving speed for reaching the light before it changes, or so it'll change just as you arrive. If you get caught at a red, it'll cut the engine and count down to when the light goes green, firing up five seconds before it's time to go. In practice it works seamlessly, though fewer than half of Berlin's 2,000+ lights are linked in.

The future of cars in cities is likely to be the piecemeal introduction of countless little systems like this, each requiring the synchronisation of vast swathes of realtime data. Audi isn't glossing over the challenge. But it knows full well that being an innovator means it will set the standards that others will have to follow.

The little A1 was a big success when it was launched back in 2010. Having made its name as a saloon car supplier, the A1 took Audi back to its roots - specifically the Audi 50 of 1974, subsequently rebranded as the VW Polo, and the futuristic A2 from the turn of the century.

The A1 was an exercise in compressing the German brand’s rigorous values into a smaller package, skimping only on scale and not quality or design. By and large it worked, extending the marque’s octopus-like reach into every conceivable sector of the marketplace. Rather than being an ‘entry-level’ Audi, the A1 is pitched as a smart city car for those who don’t want to downsize their everyday environment.

There are two main ways of taking your small car into the premium marketplace: build in craft and technology or make it very, very fast. The original A1 had the former qualities but now Audi has turned to the latter. The main selling point of the S1, the new flagship of the range, is, naturally, power. There's oodles of it, channelled to all four wheels by the company’s justly celebrated ‘quattro’ system. The 2.0-litre turbo engine delivers 228bhp and a hefty chunk of torque is accessed through a manual six-speed gearbox.

Far be it for us to trot out that perennial cliché of the ‘pocket rocket’, but the S1 is proof positive that the horsepower wars of modern car manufacturing know no bounds. Aficionados nostalgically recall the heyday of compact sports cars back in the 1980s - the so-called 'hot hatchbacks' - but the relentless march of technology makes these precursors look truly archaic and unrefined. 

The S1 is tall and narrow, and the driver’s stance and view feel rather counterintuitive at first. But the view ahead and compact dimensions make the car shrink around you. The horizon seems to shrink as well, with ample acceleration available right through the gears. Audi’s skill at a taut-handling lightweight sports car with a premium interior is what sets the S1 apart. The detail design never slips into vulgarity - the chrome isn’t too over the top and the switches click with tactile precision - and the whole package screams taste and refinement. The S1 is also happy to dial down the thrills when required, with an eco mode to eke the most economy out of the powertrain.

No true city car needs to top out at 155mph, nor does it need to corner on rails. But whereas the standard A1 is a suitable second machine for those times you want to downsize, the S1’s abilities make it the perfect only car for the peripatetic enthusiast unwilling to sacrifice style, speed or scale.

The Audi RS7 Sportback epitomises the morass of conflicting emotions faced by the contemporary car buyer. Occupying the rarefied sector of the market where conveyances are chosen through badge perception, build quality and raw ability, it is something of an oddity. Why would you buy one?

If you're a statistician, the RS7's numbers will suffice. The sub four-second 0-62 time and derestricted top speed of around 189 mph are impressive - doubly so when the car's size and weight are taken into account. Near rivals are fast four-doors like the Porsche Panamera and BMW M6 Gran Coupé, both of which exist to charm speed-obsessed buyers who find themselves unable (or unwilling) to run a conventional sports car.

If you're not a speed freak, the RS7 is a harder sell. Audi keeps the 'RS' designation for its fastest cars, a sort of special reserve. Not every Audi has its equivalent RS, and models are typically made only for a year or two before being allowed to 'run out', keeping demand and prestige high. Even so, the perils of running a vertical operation aren't hard to spot. There might not be many RS7s, but you're still buying into what plenty of people consider to be Audi ubiquity; there are an awful lot of them, in all shapes and sizes.

Audi's brand is still riding high, however, so we have to assume that badge snobbery isn't going to be an issue; if anything, this car appeals to those who don't want to make a conventional statement. And it's true, the RS7 has a certain brutish charm - a Bond car for a world where the Savile Row suit has been usurped by Prada Sport and carbon fibre has replaced walnut veneer.

Inside and out, the 7 is still Audi's best-looking car. It has a bit more body kit - all the better to contain that terrifying top speed - which makes it look more aggressive and less elegant. On balance, the entry level A7 looks better (and costs about half the price) but you'll lose bragging rights and the undeniably visceral shove of the turbo-charged V8.

It's luxurious without being especially comfortable (fast Audis are traditionally unyielding on bad roads and the RS7 is no exception) and stuffed to the gills with new technology (as always, our car was loaded with bounteous, expensive options, adding nearly 30k to the base price). Driving it is a pleasure, provided you have the space and don't mind the fuel bills. For those who want to fly under the radar, however, there's not a lot else like it on the road.

Audi Q8, Ingolstadt


Audi’s Q8 concept exemplifies the Ingolstadt-based company’s next-generation luxury crossover. The backdrop is Audi’s new Academy building, opened as a training centre in Ingolstadt in 2015. As the brand’s traditional home, the city hosts around 40,000 workers and Audi’s largest factory (the second largest car plant in Europe), while the public face of the brand is the glass-walled Audi Forum museum. Buyers will soon be able to slip inside their very own Q8, which is due in showrooms in 2018. Sleeker than your average SUV, the model is the flag-bearer for Audi’s burgeoning electric-drive and autonomous technologies, alongside the dedicated all-electric e-tron model that the company hopes, will make it an EV class leader within a few years.

Audi Q8, on sale in 2018. For more information, visit the Audi website

BMW 530d xDrive, Munich

The swoops and curves of Coop Himmelb(l)au’s spectacular BMW Welt stand in stark contrast to the conservative simplicity of the new BMW 5 Series. That’s not to say that the 5 Series is prosaic. The model has a well-deserved reputation as the most aspirational choice for corporate types, mainly because BMW uses it as a showcase for all the interesting things you can do with a conventional car. The current model, codenamed G30, is the seventh generation of the car that ushered in BMW’s current nomenclature back in 1972. Today’s 530d xDrive is a rocketship for the ambitious executive, stuffed full of quasi-autonomous tech and the design confidence, inside and out, that BMW has made its own. Bavarian Motor Works doesn’t do things by halves – it’s one of the most avant-garde mass-market manufacturers in the world, as its architectural commissions testify.

BMW 530d xDrive. From £30,405, for more information, visit the BMW website

Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, Stuttgart

Although Porsche has five other facilities, including an R&D centre at Weissach and another major production hub in Leipzig, the historic association with Stuttgart makes it the brand’s spiritual home. Ferdinand Porsche began working in the city in the early 1930s, but the first true Porsche factory opened in Stuttgart’s northern Zuffenhausen district in 1952, on what is now called Porschestrasse. Today, the brick-built structure is hemmed in by relentless and ongoing expansion, including Delugan Meissl’s striking 2009 Porsche Museum (in the background). Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, Stuttgart The Panamera is now in its second generation, with the blunt edges of this big four-door sports saloon chiselled off to reveal something really rather handsome. Its low-slung bodywork hides a hybrid powertrain that allows for purely electric pottering as well as ferocious Autobahn storming. With an even swifter hybrid variant waiting in the wings, alongside the stretched ‘Executive’ version and a ‘shooting brake’-style estate, the Panamera has become one of the world’s most seductive saloons.

Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, from £79,715. For more information, visit the Porsche website

W Atlas, Wolfsburg

The chimneys of the Wolfsburg North power plant tower over a 5 sq km fiefdom dedicated entirely to the car. The Atlas illustrates just how far VW has come since its days of manufacturing a single model designed to suit all purposes. This ‘full-size’ SUV, 5m long and with seven seats, is pitched primarily at the all-important American and Chinese markets, and a hybrid version is in the offing. If long-term plans aren’t frustrated by political chicanery, VW’s aim is to lead the way in mass-market electric cars, sharing tech and expertise developed by sister companies Porsche and Audi.

VW Atlas, on sale summer 2017. For more information, visit the Volkswagen website

As originally featured in the April 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*217). Friend 

The new Audi A3 saloon bridges the gap between 'premium' family hatchbacks and traditional executive saloons

There is a new trend emerging on the automotive scene in the shape of compact saloons. The classic three-box silhouette may appear a little sensible, almost prudish, compared to some of the more lively ideas floating around car design departments, yet Europe's loss of love for the safe saloon isn't a sentiment shared globally. Young, bright, professional American and Chinese drivers, for instance, are extremely hungry for these so-called junior executive cars.



This is the slot for the new Audi A3 saloon, which joins other newcomers like Mercedes-Benz CLA in bridging the gap between 'premium' family hatchbacks and traditional executive saloons. Audi expects the A3 saloon to be a big seller, predicting one out of every two A3 customers will opt for the saloon rather than the hatch or sportback models.



We drove the A3 saloon in Hungary, where the cars will be assembled at the newly expanded Gyor factory. The chosen route focused on Budapest, with its picturesque heavy rush hour traffic, and the surrounding countryside, giving a good sample of A3's assumed role as a commuter car.



In this modest context the saloon is a very decent proposition. It may not excite the senses like a coupé or small hatch, but it looks and feels safe, with plenty of cabin space especially in the rear where two fully-grown adults can sit reasonably comfortably, along with a decent 425-litre boot.



The cabin is uncluttered, restrained yet elegant in that familiar Audi way, while there's also an impressive equipment list on both Sport and S line trim levels, including Audi's Drive Select system that allows you to adjust the throttle and steering weights, 17-inch alloys, a simple MMI infotainment screen, dual-zone climate control and DAB radio. All this comes at a price, naturally, ensuring the A3 is premium in both feel and cost.  As well as a couple of diesels and low emission petrol engines, a sportier Quattro S3 is expected in 2014.



Like it or not, the reality is that this small saloon is a crucial car for Audi in the ongoing fight for global recognition. Markets like the US aren't as familiar with the marque as they are with rivals BMW and Mercedes, both of whom offer compact saloons. The A3 saloon will bolster the brand in emerging markets and maybe even provide the perfect platform for any forthcoming convertible, working hard to earn our respect.