All non-core Audi car development has been put on hold as the diesel-emissions scandal has compelled the premium carmaker to speed the arrival of its e-tron Quattro battery-powered SUV, which the company has announced will reach production in 2018.
Allegedly, the board has diverted engineering and financial resources toward bringing its all-electric e-tron Quattro and hydrogen fuel-cell h-tron Quattro models to market, since Audi simply doesn?t have the resources to deliver the rest. ?Everybody is of course concerned about the aftereffects of the diesel crisis, and the thinking is that Audi has to show people we are serious about these kinds of cars,” said a source close to the board.
?Every kind of thinking has changed since the diesel problems. We are pushing to bring zero-emission cars to market as fast as we can now?and pushing to do them right.? Meanwhile, the Q4, the TT Offroad concept, and the TT Sportback have all been put on the back burner. The Q4, which originally was slated to go on sale this year, is no longer a confirmed development project inside Audi, meaning it couldn’t arrive before 2019 at the earliest. The TT models were part of a dream of retired Audi development director Ulrich Hackenberg to create a TT family of models within the Audi brand. With a coupe and convertible already on sale, there was an internal competition to deliver the third model. The slinky four-door was the favorite of the engineering and design teams, but it was the TT...