Not wanting to be upstaged by the locals at this week's Shanghai Auto Show, Audi and Volkswagen have both whipped the covers off their own respective electric crossover concept vehicles overnight — both packing a range of 500km to a charge, and fully autonomous capabilities.
Audi's svelte beasty is called the e-tron Sportback concept. But don't get used to that 'concept' tag, because a production version is reportedly coming in 2019.
Audi labels it a "design study and technology demonstrator", but the exterior at least already looks relatively in tune with some of their current vehicles. The Q2 probably being one of the better examples.
Under the skin it's propelled by three electric motors (one in the front and two in the rear) — all powered by a 95kWh battery. This all gives it 370kW and 800Nm when the boost is turned up, and a claimed 0–100 of 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 210km/h.
Inside it's a techno-buff's dream. Four screens (including the gauge cluster and a narrow data strip on the passenger side) and a distinct angular design are among the main talking points, but if this car's likely to get cuts somewhere prior to the reveal of its production cousin, it'll be in here.
It's certainly a wild contrast to what Volkswagen's machine looks like inside. Lashings of design and decoration is replaced with something far more minimalistic (and more conceptish). The lack of screens is countered by the presence of a screen that utilises augmented reality technology to reportedly project information into the driver's periphery. Similar technology to what we saw in Pokemon Go when it was released last year.
It's called the ID Crozz and, despite spawning from the same company as the Audi on the same day, there are a few differences there. The biggest of them is in the power department. The Volkswagen has less power, 225kW, and a lower top speed of 180km/h.
But then again power and speed aren't really the point of the vee dub. It's the third car the manufacturer have teased as part of their 'ID' range of concepts — following on from the ID hatch and the ID Buzz bus concepts.
Both machines look likely to challenge Jaguar's I-PACE, though this is only part of the big-picture story. More than any other group, the likes of Volkswagen and Audi have to press on with vehicles like the e-tron Sportback and ID Crozz because of the affects of 'dieselgate'.
With the boom in crossovers, and the expected boom in EVs, these two vehicles would probably sell in huge numbers. If they get made, that is.
