GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Audi Q2 teased off-road

Audi has teased a video of its all-new Q2 being driven on dirt roads ahead of the small SUV's official launch at the Geneva motor show next month.

The short film captures the Q2 using a high-flying drone or helicopter. Frustratingly, this means Audi gives little away of how the small SUV is shaping up since it was spied in January.

Following on from last week’s empty car park space tease and an earlier Q2 under wraps image, we’re still not clear if the smallest SUV in Audi’s range will have evolutionary styling or make a bold stylistic break from the rest of its siblings.

What is known is the Q2 will be on sale in Australia some time next year and that, instead of being based on the current small A1, it will sit on the bigger Volkswagen Group’s MQB platform.

From spy shots we also know it will be a small five-door wagon with a sharp, rising shoulder crease, T-shaped LED running lights, low ride height and ‘fast’ front and rear windscreens.

Confusingly, the small Q2 was supposed to be called the ‘Q1’ but Audi, at the time, didn’t own the rights to use that name. Since then, the German car-maker has done a deal with Alfa Romeo (which previously owned the names) to secure the right to use both the ‘Q1’ name and ‘Q4’ tags.

Former Audi R&D boss, Ulrich Hackenberg, has already confirmed a Q1 is in the works, and that car could be a small SUV/coupe.

When the Q2 arrives it will be a more premium rival to the Nissan JUKE and Renault Captur.

Expected to offer customers the choice of VW’s 1.0-litre, 1.2-litre and 1.4-litre turbo-petrol engines, plus a single 2.0-litre turbo-diesel, some have gone on to speculate the Q2 will also be offered in SQ2 form with a 170kW/370Nm turbocharged 2.0-litre engine from the Audi S1.

Top-spec Q2s will channel power to the road using Audi’s quattro four-wheel drive. The rest of the Q2 range, meanwhile, will almost certainly come with front-wheel drive.

When it eventually arrives here Down Under some time next year, the Q2 is expected to command a hefty premium over the current A1, with prices kicking off at around $35,000 for the 1.0-litre turbo petrol-powered Q2.