Audi's latest concept is an EV that expands and contracts: Details here

Business Standard Audi's latest concept is an EV that expands and contracts: Details here

Audi has unveiled the first of an upcoming trio of concept vehicles, the Audi Skysphere.

An all-electric roadster with carriage-style doors and oversized wheels, the Skysphere’s most notable characteristic is that it can shorten or elongate its wheelbase with the push of a button. Skysphere presages two other concept cars planned for debut this year: The Grandsphere concept, due out next month, and the Urbansphere concept, which will debut in 2022.

“This is the first piece in how we are foreseeing the future,” said Henrik Wenders, the head of brand for Audi AG, at a private preview of the vehicle August 9 at a studio in Hollywood.

“The present is offering everything we need for the future … and we had better hurry up.”

News of the concept comes as Audi reports its best-ever first six months in the 52-year history of the modern iteration of the brand, with net cash flow between €4.5 billion ($5.27 billion) to €5.5 billion, up from €3.5 billion to €4.5 billion previously. In July, parent-company Volkswagen AG lifted its forecast operating return to as much as 7.5 per cent, thanks in part to big double-digit margins at Audi. Closer to home, Audi of America increased deliveries by 92 per cent in Q2 over the same period in 2020. Year to date sales in North America are up 60 per cent, Audi reported in July.

Meanwhile Audi has committed €15 billion to electrification across its entire fleet, said Hildegard Wortmann, the member of the board of management for sales and marketing for Audi AG. By 2025, Audi will offer 20 different electric cars across its global portfolio. Audi’s hybrids and EVs are already profitable and best-sellers in Europe, Wortmann said.

In the United States, 30 per cent of sales will come from electric vehicles by then, a spokesperson said. The hybrid Q5 already comprises 12 per cent of total Q5 sales. So the electric concept series fits right according to plan, she said. “We are not going to do this by half,” Wortmann said. “We want to go the full way. We want to be the leading sustainable premium brand.”

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