Audi’s future is electric! At least if its latest concept vehicle at the Frankfurt Motor Show is any indication.
The company unveiled the teaser photo of its latest “concept study,” and the electric off-roader, dubbed he AI:Trail, is ready to jump into the fray with so many other off-road, battery electrics.
The new model completes a quartet of vehicles it began rolling out in early 2017 with the Audi AICON. All four concepts will be on display at the Audi booth during the show.
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The three others include the Aicon, a long-distance autonomous electric sedan with an 800-km (497-mile) range at the 2017 Frankfurt show. It was followed by the PB18 e-tron low-slung sports car at last year’s Paris show. At this year’s Shanghai auto show, Audi showed the AI:ME, an autonomous city car.
Each show car was developed for a single purpose or to test ways to meet future mobility needs, Audi design chief Marc Lichte told Automotive News Europe earlier this year
“I cannot remember a show car concept at Audi that was so radical and progressive in its design,” he said of the new AI:Trail.
“We believe that will change in the future with autonomous driving and gradually, not overnight, we will begin to see cars like these concepts,” Lichte said. “There will be new business models for Audi that we can’t even imagine at this point.”
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The concept comes as other automakers have developed less futuristic-looking EV off-roaders like Bollinger’s B1 SUV and Rivian’s R1S. Ford, Tesla and others also have battery-electric trucks in the works while Audi already has an electric SUV, the e-tron.
