Audi revealed the interior of its next EV, the Q4 E-Tron, which mainly serves modern SUV vibrations and features some new technologies that come into Audi vehicles.
The centerpiece of what Audi debuted on Tuesday is a new augmented reality heads-up in front of the driver, which offers a wider field of view and more accurate and advanced animations. Some examples that Audi gave in use are:
- the AR system by placing a red line over a lane marker to warn the driver when he is moving too far to one side;
- an animation that tracks the car ahead when using adaptive cruise control;
- turn-by-turn navigation that places a bright blue arrow in the driver’s field of vision.
Audi says that this new AR system attracts more than 1,000 sensor “signals” across the Q4 E-Tron to find out exactly where to put these AR elements – and keep them in place, even if you’re driving on a hilly surface – the which is kind of reassuring. It is one thing when there is a heads-up display that is small and shows only relatively static information, such as the current speed of the car. As soon as the field of view is enlarged and you start to mess with the dynamic graphics, it becomes very important to make these elements appear to be adhering to the real world, or else things can get distracted – or worse, disoriented – very quickly. .
Exactly how Audi did it, however, is unclear. The company showed only a few simulated animations of the AR display in action. We will have to wait for the full reveal of the Q4 E-Tron in April, and really until people start driving the SUV, to get a sense of what it really looks like.
The Q4 E-Tron also features – as an option – the largest touchscreen that Audi has ever placed in one of its vehicles, which measures 11.6 inches diagonally. The standard touch screen is the most common 10.1-inch size found in recent Audi cars, and there is a 10.25-inch display for the driver behind the wheel as well.
The steering wheel of the Q4 E-Tron is also new, and Audi replaced the physical buttons with backlit touch-sensitive buttons. There is tactile feedback to simulate the feeling of pressing a button, and some of them can be slid to scroll through the lists on the driver’s display. Despite all this, however, the cockpit of the Q4 E-Tron is still adorned with physical buttons in a way that some EVs are not.
The German luxury car maker also displayed a camouflaged version of the exterior of the Q4 E-Tron, due to open in April, and released some other basic specifications on the SUV.
The Q4 E-Tron is the third in Audi’s new line of all-electric vehicles, but it will be the first to be powered by the Volkswagen controller modular “MEB” platform. This same platform is what sustains the VW ID line of electric vehicles, as well as the next Sportback version of the Q4 E-Tron SUV.
Audi shared on Tuesday that the Q4 E-Tron will be 4,590 mm (15.1 feet) long, 1,865 mm (6.1 feet) wide and 1,613 mm (5.3 feet) high, which company says put it in the “segment of larger compact SUVs. ”In more practical terms, it is only slightly smaller overall than the original E-Tron and Tesla Model Y and is a size very close to that of its cousin, the VW ID 4.
Although Audi has not released a range estimate since the Q4 E-Tron concept debuted in 2019, the smaller size and use of the MEB platform will likely mean that the SUV will not be as heavy as the original E-Tron, which weighed almost as much as a Tesla Model X. This should help the Q4 E-Tron to overcome its predecessor’s useful mile range. (Audi had originally promised that the Q4 E-Tron would travel 280 miles on a full charge, although we will see where the final estimate will end later this year.)
Despite its stature, Audi says the Q4 E-Tron has a wheelbase that is more comparable to medium-sized SUVs and interior space that is more in line with a full-size SUV – which is achieved by moving a lot of technology to the MEB platform that makes up the floor of the SUV.
All of this should prepare Audi for a relative success with the Q4 E-Tron. It is a more affordable size and is built on what looks more and more like a solid Volkswagen platform, although the SUV will still feature a lot of Audi style and its own technology. (This is a good thing when considering the problem that VW had with its own software in ID 4 and the smallest ID 3 in Europe.) Audi sold about 47,000 electric cars in 2020 with the E-Tron SUV and the E -Tron Sportback, accounting for almost 3 percent of all company sales. The Q4 E-Tron will undoubtedly continue to push those numbers upwards, although it is still just one of a series of electric vehicles that will enter the German brand line in the coming years.