Outgoing Audi Sport boss Stephan Winkelmann has confirmed that Audi’s performance arm will introduce electrified vehicles from 2020 and would produce faster models based on SUVs.
Winkelmann, who will become president of Bugatti from January 2018, spoke at the RS4 launch and said that Audi Sport “will be less evolutionary and more into revolution”.
Audi Sport – rebranded from Quattro, last year – will see “the start of the introduction of battery electric vehicles from 2020 onwards”, said Winkelmann. “This will start by the end of 2020, with the first car of Audi Sport, and then there will be more coming, in the third decade of this millennium."
“We are also looking into cars which are – let's say – in a growing segment or a body segment, which is growing. These are the Qs. We will get more of them and we think that this is going to help us because every car we are building, and every car we are investing in, should have global visibility – not just in Europe but in Asia and the Americas.”
Such models wouldn’t replace Audi Sport’s traditional line-up, though, Winkelmann added: “In 2018, 2019 and 2020, we will have a lot of turbo engines with new models. We are not forgetting our icons, so we will continue to build them. Even if we keep in mind that electrification is important for us; legislators permitting, our turbo engines will stay because we are very proud of these.”