It’s no surprise the eye-catching Audi nanuk quattro concept looks suspiciously like a Lamborghini.
The new go-anywhere two-door Audi sports car is a development of the Lamborghini-based Parcour off-road concept penned by Italdesign Giugiaro for the Geneva show back in March.
The Parcour concept was believed to be a potential design direction for a Lamborghini crossover vehicle, but it now appears Lamborghini has gone cold on the idea, allowing sister company Audi to swoop in on the unique crossover blueprint.
Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi’s Technical Development board member, explained that Lamborghini was given the task of coming up with a rugged supercar, which itself came about due to customer demand.
“It’s an idea which came from the market, where we gave a job to Lamborghini to think about a design for such kind of cars,” he said.
The Audi nanuk quattro concept clearly borrows styling cues from the Italdesign Parcour concept: “Parcour was a pre-study,” says Hackenberg.
“It’s a translation of the idea of the Parcour to a car with Audi technology and core values. And it’s a car to fulfil the dreams of people who want to have this special thing,” he says of the nanuk.
“They might be living in a specific area, not Manhattan or Paris, but a lot of areas where people have the money and they want to fulfil their mobility dreams,” he said, having previously tagged rich Arab nations and Russia as potential markets for the nanuk.
With a low-volume production run expected in the near future due to growing customer demand, the nanuk will likely be based on the next-generation Lamborghini Gallardo/Cabrera platform, which will also be underpin next year’s redesigned Audi R8 – design cues for which can also be found on the nanuk.
Dr Hackenberg confirmed the nanuk concept — which is slightly larger than the current R8 at 4.45 metres long, 1.99 metres wide and 1.34 metres tall — shares some of the Audi R8’s architecture: “In general it shares a drivetrain. It belongs to a mid-engine family,” he said.
This, by virtue, would mean that Lamborghini could base its new Urus SUV on the same next-generation Gallardo/R8 platform, with the Audi nanuk a litmus test of sorts.
“It’s a technology which is available. We have the drivetrain, we make it maybe a little bit bigger, and we have this concept which is quite close to an R8.
“But the combination between sports utility and super sport is something completely new, and that’s the reason why we found the idea quite appealing. Especially because the idea was coming from customers,” noted Hackenberg.
Platform sharing between Audi and Lamborghini, both of which are owned by the Volkswagen Group, would help ameliorate development costs, and Hackenberg agrees this approach would be more financially viable.
“In the future we can imagine this. It’s one direction as to create volume in a mid-engine sports family.”
Lamborghini boss Stephan Winklemann bristled somewhat when asked if the rugged Audi nanuk quattro concept was stepping on the Italian sports car company’s toes.
“This one? No” said the flamboyant Lamborghini chief.
But Dr Hackenberg — who is the Technical director not just for Audi but the entire Volkswagen Group, including Lamborghini — had the final word.
“It’s an Audi show car, but Lamborghini belong to the Audi group, so we can play,” he grinned.
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