All-new Q4 crossover coming in 2019, and will be built at Audi's Gyor plant in hungary
Audi's 'Q' range of SUV will continue to expand over the coming years with the arrival of coupe shaped crossovers and full sized 4x4s. One of them - a small crossover coupe based on the Q3 - has been confirmed for production in 2019, and will go under the Q4 name. It will be built at the firm's Gyor plant in Hungary alongside the TT.
While there are few official details, it has been described by the firm as a “sporty, compact utility vehicle”. In real terms, it’ll be a production version of the TT Offroad concept revealed at the 2014 Beijing Motor Show – a coupe SUV to rival the BMW X4 and Mercedes GLC Coupe.
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We've no other official information on the Q4, but we do know that Audi has a much bigger brother planned for it too. The firm has confirmed a new rakish, flagship SUV called the Q8 will arrive next year.
It appears Audi is pushing ahead with plans to get sporty coupe SUVs to market, and following the large Q8 it will finally deliver the production version of the TT Offroad (pictured) before the decade is out.
Audi officials talked openly of a Q4 project at the TT Offroad’s launch back in 2014 - but the idea was stymied by a bitter disputewith Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which also trademarked the name (and Q2 with it) for use on transmission systems. Audi wasted little time in bringing the Q2 to showrooms though, and now it appears to have locked down the Q4 nomenclature too.
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2019 Audi Q4 SUV: plug-in hybrid tech on the cards?
Intriguingly, Audi’s September 2016 application for the Q4 name came barely 24 hours before Korean technology giant Samsung SDI confirmed that it will invest 400 billion won (£273m) in a new battery factory in Hungary. The facility is scheduled to open in the second half of 2018 and will be able to produce enough batteries for 50,000 EVs per year.
The proposed site for the plant is in God near Budapest, around 90 minutes away from Audi’s TT production base in Gyor, where the existing TT is made and where Audi has announced the Q4 will be built too. The move raises the possibility that Audi’s sporty TT-inspired SUV could be built at the same facility as its coupe and convertible stablemates - and that the supply chain is being put in place for at least some of the Q4 line-up to feature electrification.
This could mean a pure-electric Q4 e-tron, but it’s more likely to mean plug-in hybrid technology. The TT Offroad concept, which was based on the VW Group’s MQB platform, had an electrically driven back axle and the ability to travel around 30 miles on electricity alone. More modern battery tech could feasibly drive this range up to the 50-mile mark - and allow Audi to see off likely hybrid versions of the X4 and GLC Coupe.
Audi has confirmed already that Samsung SDI will join LG in supplying battery cells to its EV projects. However, production of the firm's first electric SUV, which likely won't take on the Q6 nameplate, is likely to be reasonably modest - allowing the new Samsung facility, and LG’s recently announced plant in Wroclaw in Poland to supply a hybrid sports SUV that could be sold in much greater numbers - the smaller, cheaper Q4 plug-in.
The production Q4 will use the MQB chassis too, sharing many of its components and powertrains with the all-new Q3 due next year. The VW Group's new 1.5-litre TSI engine will form the base petrol option, while 2.0-litre TDI diesels will also feature. At the top end of things, expect an RS Q4 model using the 395bhp, turbocharged 2.5-litre five-cylinder from the new RS 3.
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