Bigger flagship Audi E-Tron model to arrive after 2025

Audi will add an 'upper-large' flagship model to its E-Tron electric SUV line, expected to launch soon after 2025.

The model could logically be called Q8, although recent reports suggest the existing E-Tron SUV will be renamed Q8 E-Tron in an upcoming update.

A Q9 badge, then, could perhaps debut this big new model – although a recently spied prototype, believed to be a more conventional ICE and plug-in hybrid offering, is also expected to wear the Q9 badge.

No official images of the new flagship E-Tron SUV have surfaced, but sources say we can expect similar styling to the current crop of Audi electric vehicles – which have slim headlights, a fully-covered grille, and hulking proportions similar to those of the Q4 E-Tron, although much bigger in this new model's case.

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Audi's E-Tron

The performance will come courtesy of Quattro dual motors producing in excess of 370kW if the base model E-Tron GT is anything to go by (and at least 390kW on ‘overboost’), with a performance RS variant potentially bringing around 500kW and thumping acceleration from the big electric SUV.

Providing the juice will be a large battery nearing 100kWh and enabling a driving range over 600 kilometres in normal circumstances, and perhaps even more with the advances Audi is making in battery technology.

Most likely to based on the latest PPE platform developed in conjunction with Porsche, which underpins the upcoming Audi Q6 e-tron, it should have an advanced 800-volt electric system compatible with DC rapid charging speeds of up to 270kW. Such voltage will help provide five to 80 per cent charge in less than 25 minutes.

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Audi E-Tron GT

The latest advanced technology from Audi will be inside too, and styling could be inspired by the Grandsphere concept shown earlier this year at the Munich motor show – a vehicle which featured a revolutionary cockpit.

Although it likely won’t be fully implemented in the new E-Tron SUV, newly developed MMI touchless response systems, gesture controls for climate functions and Level 3 driverless systems could all become standard equipment.

In line with the rest of the E-Tron range, the new model is due to be built on Audi’s production line in Brussels rather than in Ingolstadt, Germany, where the Q6 will be produced.