Audi‘s first SUV based on the electric platform it is co-developing with Porsche will arrive in 2022, CEO Markus Duesmann said at the brand’s Annual General Meeting. According to Auto Express, the executive confirmed that it will be named the Q6 e-tron and will be built in Ingolstadt, which Audi is converting into an electric vehicle facility. Duesmann also announced that the company will build a battery assembly facility in the vicinity of its Ingolstadt plant.
Based on the Premium Platform Electric
(PPE) architecture, the Q6 e-tron is expected to share many of its components
with the electric Porsche Macan in much the same way as the e-tron GT shares
much of its parts with the Taycan. It will sit between the Q4 e-tron and the
e-tron SUV in Audi’s lineup.
The PPE architecture will be the basis for
the Volkswagen Group’s premium electric vehicles. Whereas the Q4 e-tron is
based on VW’s MEB electric platform for volume vehicles, the Q6 will be more
luxurious. The e-tron SUV, meanwhile, was built on a modified version of Audi’s
existing MLB platform.
The PPE platform is already the basis for
the Porsche Taycan and the e-tron GT sedans. In the Taycan 4S, the platform is
good for 225 miles of electric range according to the EPA, though the e-tron GT
is capable of more than 300 miles on the European test cycle. Its platform will
also give the Q6 E-Tron access to 800V fast-charging.
The Q6 e-tron should be roughly the same
size as the Q5. The SUV is one of the brand’s biggest sellers, so getting back
into that market segment with an EV may prove crucial to Audi’s electric
ambitions.
