Audi?s e-tron badge has been bandied about for some time now, attached to vehicles both real and imagined, to the point where it’s getting hard to follow along. The latest twist in the e-tron saga is that the long-teased Q7 e-tron plug-in hybrid?originally slated to arrive in the first half of 2016?probably won?t get here at all. Instead, an all-electric crossover, the e-tron Quattro, is being fast-tracked for production and is said to be two years away. With the Volkswagen Group?s new prioritization of electric vehicles, that new EV is just the start of a strong future for the sub-brand, which has had its share of plot twists recently.
At one time, the Q7 e-tron plug-in hybrid was to be joined by companion e-tron PHEV versions of the A6 (and possibly the A7), but those, too, are now off the table, mostly owing to the fact that the A6 or A7 e-tron was to use a 3.0-liter TDI V-6 in conjunction with its electric motor. A reformulated version with a four-cylinder gasoline engine isn’t likely to show up, either.
The only current U.S.-market Audi to wear the nameplate is the A3 e-tron plug-in hybrid, which has been unusually successful for a PHEV: In 2016, according to Audi, 4280 A3 e-trons were sold, out of 31,538 sales for the A3 model line?nearly 15 percent of the mix. That may be due in part to the fact that the A3 Sportback comes only as an e-tron (the Sportback also had been available with the TDI four-cylinder, but obviously that’s no more). For 201...