Audi will be adding some new electric cars to their lineup in the near future.
In the last two years, Audi has revealed two electric car concepts it plans to bring to market: the e-tron quattro and the e-tron Sportback.
But the German automaker, which is a subsidiary of Volkswagen, also has a third electric vehicle in the works and will probably compete with Tesla’s upcoming Model Y.
They are looking to also introduce a smaller SUV, which is going to be fitting more into the “A” segment, so in the place where the Q3 competes today.
It’s a car that is based on the VW group MEB electric platform. While not sharing when the car will become available to the North American market they did say that it’s going to be following those two cars (the e-tron quattro and the e-tron Sportback). So roughly speaking in the 2020 time-frame, but no closer introduction timing at this moment is really known.
Audi plans to launch its e-tron quattro SUV in late 2018 and it’s e-tron Sportback in 2019. These vehicles will have the same powertrain and share many similarities.
But the third SUV will be smaller and built on VW’s new MEB platform, which is a modular architecture designed specifically for electric cars. No price point was given for this vehicle, but he did say that it will compete in the same segment as Audi’s Q3 crossover, which begins pricing at about $31,000.
Tesla also plans to launch its Model Y, a compact SUV, within the same timeframe and it’s speculated it will price in a similar range. Other automakers, including Volvo and Ford, also plan to bring smaller SUVs to market by 2020.
Audi has promised to invest big in electric vehicles in the wake of the VW Dieselgate scandal.
Audi’s chief executive Rupert Stadler has previously said the company will have all three electric vehicles in its lineup by 2020, and by 2025, it aims for 25% of the cars it sells to have batteries.
But the company isn’t just bringing all-electric cars to market. Audi also plans to deliver new hybrids.
They are looking at a couple more plugin-in hybrid applications for their market.