Here’s what you get when you take the best bits of a luxurious coupe and a rugged pick-up and mash them together - the new Audi Activesphere.
It’s an all-electric, all-wheel drive concept car that sits on Audi’s versatile new ‘Premium Platform Electric’, or ‘PPE’, which is going to be the base for lots of vehicles going forward.
And what grabs you about the ‘quattro’ Activesphere isn’t the high-riding, SUV-coupe profile, it’s the fact that the panoramic glass ‘Sportback’ rear slides upwards to nestle on the roof and reveal a pick-up load bed at the back.
It’s big enough to accommodate two e-bikes, says Audi, and there’s also an integrated ski rack on the roof.
An Audi spokesperson enthuses:
“As a perfect all-rounder, the Audi activesphere concept is ideally suited for the high demands of a future-oriented generation of Audi customers – people for whom individual mobility and sustainability are not mutually exclusive.
“Also, owners expect their vehicle to deliver the brand’s typical aesthetics and dynamism to the highest degree, combined with future-oriented technology. For these customers, the Audi activesphere concept acts as a fascinating vision of crossing the boundaries between these dimensions.”
The Activesphere is powered by a 100 kWh battery that results in power of 436 hp and 720 Nm or torque, which should be more than enough to get you up those Swiss mountain passes.
Acceleration from 0-62 mph goes by in just 4.9 seconds.
It’ll also have a range of up to 372 miles between charges while also boasting super-rapid 270 kW fast-charging capabilities, which is enough to put 186 miles worth of charge in the battery in just 10 minutes. Need your EV to go the distance? Take a look through our guide on official v. real-world battery range.
Audi also reckons the Activesphere could be pick up from where its recently-departed ‘allroad’ models - the A4 allroadand A6 allroad - left off. Those allroad models were, of course, more practical, SUV-like in quality than the regular A4 and A6 and had a slightly higher ground clearance and protective plastic cladding on the exterior.
An Audi spokesperson adds:
“The activesphere marks the first time that a car with a Sportback hatchback incorporates the design elements and technical equipment of an allroad.
“For this reason, Audi calls the new body variant ‘active Sportback’ in contrast to the allroad.
“Another new variation of the allroad theme – the Audi activesphere concept features dark, high-gloss paint finishes in Arctic Teal on the front and rear as well as underneath the doors in the side area, plus matte surfaces that visually juxtapose the floor assembly and cabin.”
Audi hopes that by 2025 it will offer more than 20 models with an all-electric powertrain - let’s see if the Activesphere is one of them.
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