Audi roadmap delivers a long line of new vehicles in next four years

Audi designers have been working on a trio of concepts branded with the word Sphere, all presaging aspects of the battery-electric and autonomously capable future Ingolstadt has planned for not long from now. The Sky Sphere sports car debuts tomorrow from the automaker's Malibu, California, studio, the Grand Sphere sedan is expected at the Munich Motor Show, the crossover Urban Sphere should join before the year is out. For a timeline recap, remember, Audi announced it would stop developing new gas-powered engines in 2025 and stop selling ICEs in 2033. Given Audi's roughly seven-year product generation cycles, the oracles at Automotive News divulged what they believe is coming for Audi's gas- and electric-powered U.S. range over the next several years.    

The TT and R8 sports cars are the two cars closest to meeting Charon at the River Styx. What Audi would do with two of its longest-tenured icons has been the subject of rumor for years. The consistent line has been that if Audi retains the nameplates, both will go electric. AN says whatever's going to happen, it's likely to happen in 2024 for both models. The current-generation TT will be 10 years old at that point, the R8 will be nine. An Audi exec said of a potential new R8 EV this year that it "won't just be an R8 with an electric motor," it would be, rather, "an R8 but different."  

In the sedan family, the recently launched A3 is said to have established the template for the impending generational makeovers among the whole lineup. That means freshened exteriors with minimal but noteworthy adjustments, new mild hybrid systems, and entirely overhauled cabins with the latest infotainment and driver assistance systems. The A6, A7, and A8 are expected next year, the A4 and A5 the year after that. We've a couple of years to wait for movement in Audi's crossover bin, the now six-year-old Q3 coming first in 2023, the same year as the A4 and A5, plus a refreshed Q8. The new Q7 is expected in 2024, the last new gas-powered Q5 pulling up as the caboose for the ICE train in 2025.

During all of this, the brand is concurrently plotting the rise of its all-electric lineup that's commenced with the E-Tron crossover and E-Tron GT sedan launched already. The Q4 E-Tron crossover is due this year, an updated E-Tron crossover should come next year and bring better range with it. The A6 E-Tron sedan, presaged by a gorgeous concept, and the Q6 E-Tron crossover could come by the end of 2023 for the 2024 model year. The former would go on sale next to its gas-powered counterpart, the latter would be a new entry.

Those electric offerings are built on a mix of the Volkswagen Group's MEB battery-electric platform and the PPE all-electric platform Audi shares with Porsche. In the latter half of the decade, the Volkswagen Group plans to transition to its Scalable Systems Platform for all of its group EVs, the architecture Audis will be based on come the 2023 sunset for ICE sales. A preview of that future will show in 2026 when Audi debuts its Artemis technology initiative, a globally developed Level 4 autonomous entry that aims to "implement additional high-tech benchmarks" and "utilize new opportunities in the markets."

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