Audi has confirmed that it is still working the Quattro – a modern take on the iconic, rally-bred four-wheel-drive performance coupé from then 1980s – as well as a pure electric vehicle. In the past few years, Audi has shown two concept versions of the modern Quattro – the 2010 Quattro and the 2013 Sport Quattro.
The company’s new design director Marc Lichte revealed at the LA Auto Show, “We are working on Quattro, it is still alive.” Although details are sparse, the future Quattro is likely to be more extreme than the two concepts previously shown. “The two concepts we did had base potential, but we can do something more extreme,” Lichte said. “We have restarted this project and made them more extreme. It’s still a secret though; there will be surprises.”
Lichte also went onto add that a pure electric vehicle, “completely different” in design to anything else on the market, was also under development. “The battery electric vehicle will be one of the most important new cars,” Lichte said. “It will be very different to every car on the market.” The car is also likely to be very different from the Tesla and BMW i range of EVs. Even the platform used for the new Audi EV will be all-new, and not the modular MQB platform. “The architecture will be completely new, something completely new,” said Lichte.