GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Audi Prologue Avant

Audi heralded the design of its next-generation large cars, including the A6, A7 and A8, with the extravagant Prologue coupe concept at the Los Angeles motor show last November, and now a five-door version heralds the look of its next-generation wagons.

Due to make its world debut at the Geneva show next month, the Audi Prologue Avant concept could provide a pointer to Audi's next all-new wagon, the A4 Avant, which along with the redesigned A4 sedan will be revealed later this year.

But it also raises the prospect of a larger, more stylish wagon than the A6 – Audi's largest current wagon, excluding SUVs like the Q7 – in the same vein as the Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake.

Like the two-door Prologue, the Avant concept's sleek styling is the vision of Audi's relatively new design chief Marc Lichte.

No technical details have been revealed for the Audi Prologue Avant, but the coupe was powered by a 445kW/700Nm 4.0-litre V8, with a new 48-volt electrical system providing mild hybridisation.

The Avant clearly borrows the Prologue coupe's massive hexagonal grille and slim, angular headlights with signature LED lighting positioned above large front air intakes – a theme echoed at the rear by slender linked tail-lights and bumper-integrated twin outboard exhausts.

Inside, the Prologue wagon is likely to share the coupe's ground-breaking interior, which links the cabin architecture with operating systems by integrating display and control surfaces with the console and instrument panel.

Expect a development of the TT's 'virtual cockpit' instruments and a multitude of displays – some of them curved -- to operate the lighting, assistance, navigation, climate and media systems.