SHANGHAI MOTOR SHOW: Audi reveals e-tron Sportback SUV

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The Audi Gran Turismo e-tron Sportback concept is a nearly seamless mix of the marque's traditional design detailing, long battery range and high performance. And it's headed for production in 2019.

A competitor for both Tesla’s Model X and Jaguar’s upcoming i-Pace crossover, the four-seat, four-door concept comes with lithium-ion energy storage and 320kW of all-wheel drive power from its three electric motors.

It shares its entire powertrain with Audi’s 2015 e-tron quattro concept and sits on Audi’s C-BEV architecture, purpose designed for premium Volkswagen Group battery-electric crossovers and SUVs.

The production version of the e-tron quattro concept will beat it into production, though, and is due on sale next year, a full year before this swooping sculpture reaches production.

Combining elements of Audi’s own IMSA racers in the tail, hints of Bentley’s Bentayga on the rear haunches and plenty of A7 in the glasshouse, the Gran Turismo e-tron Sportback concept will have a claimed range of more than 500km from a single charge of either direct (DC) or alternating (AC) current.

“Our Audi e-tron will be starting out in 2018 – the first electric car in its competitive field that is fit for everyday use,” under-fire Audi chairman Rupert Stadler explained.

“With a range of over 500km and the special electric driving experience, we will make this sporty SUV the must-have product of the next decade.

“Following close on its heels, in 2019, comes the production version of the Audi e-tron Sportback – an emotional coupé version that is thrillingly identifiable as an electric car at the very first glance.”

Audi plans to push the concept’s powertrain into production almost as it sits in the Gran Turismo e-tron Sportback concept, with one electric motor on the front axle and two on the rear.

While it has 320kW of power as the standard claimed output, it can jump up to 370kW in an overboosting mode, pushing the sleek crossover SUV to 100km/h in 4.5sec.

The liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery stores 95kWh of energy and is stored beneath the passenger compartment, lending the crossover a 52:48 front-to-rear weight distribution.

The 4.9m long concept car will also sit on a 1.98m wide stance and 2.93m wheelbase. Just 1.53m high, its closest philosophical cousin in Audi’s internal-combustion range is clearly the A7, which is due to be replaced by an all-new model this year.

The electric car rides on 23-inch, custom-made alloy wheels and part of its unusually clean sculpting is down to Audi ditching side mirrors for smaller cameras, which also clears a forward blind spot.

While there’s no need for a traditional grille, with enough airflow to cool an internal-combustion engine, Audi has given it hints of its traditional single-frame grille, though it’s broken up with a few new interesting visual tricks.

It boasts trick new LED headlights that are not only full-beam headlights, but also uses a set of mirrors to project their Daytime Running Lights onto sections of the bodywork to act as reflected scrolling indicators.

It also uses a next-generation Matrix Laser lights at both ends which not only stretch the high-beam illumination out to 600m but project information on to the road itself.

Inside, the Gran Turismo Audi e-tron Sportback concept combines three digital displays, including a touch-sensitive unit below the central display, which is the same position as the prologue concept’s similar screen, without its curved surface.

With China the world’s biggest BEV new car market with 150,000 charging stations already in place, Audi plans to release five new e-tron electrified vehicles there, all with more than 500km of range, within the next five years.