Audi AG has given a go-ahead for development of a new compact SUV and an addition to the company’s Q model family. The carmaker has announced that the new model, which is based on Volkswagen Group's MQB platform, will roll off the assembly lines in Ingolstadt as of 2016.
“The Q1 is part of our broad-based SUV strategy. It is designed on the basis of the modular transverse engine concept and will round off our Q series at the bottom end,” said Rupert Stadler, chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG.
The Q1 will serve to strengthen Audi’s international competitiveness. By 2020, the automaker will expand its product range from the current 49 to more than 60 models. By then, Audi will reach total unit sales of more than two million automobiles each year.
The Q family currently comprises the Q3, RS Q3, Q5, SQ5 and Q7. The Q5 is the global market leader and this year, till end-October, Audi has already delivered 194,430 Q5s to customers, which is 17 percent more than in the prior-year period. Approximately 230,000 units of this model are planned to be built in 2013, which is more than half of the total Q volume. The proportion of the company’s total production volume accounted for by SUVs will be about 28 percent this year, and is planned to rise to more than 35 percent by 2020.
Overall, Audi has produced and delivered to customers more than 1.5 million automobiles of the Q family since the market launch of the first SUV in 2006.