2012 Audi Q3 revealed before Shanghai

2012 Audi A3 Sketches released

The Audi Q3 – Audi’s compact SUV – will finally debut at the Shanghai Motor Show this month before going on sale

Apart from the location – the Shanghai Motor Show – we ran pretty much the same headline seven months ago, when we confidently predicted the arrival of the Audi Q3 at the Paris Motor Show. And we were completely wrong.

This time we’re certain we’re right (just like last time) and the latest piece in Audi’s niche-filling campaign will actually turn up at Shanghai in production-ready form and go on sale this year.

To be entirely fair to us, we did report two years ago that the Audi Q3 would arrive in 2011, so perhaps we ought to be a little more trusting in our own reporting.

Still, we may have been a few months out with a Q3 prediction for Paris, but a Q3 debut at Shanghai is now a cert after Auid sent us some teaser sketches of their new mini SUV.

Under the skin the Q3 is very close to the Tiguan and, like the Tiguan, has front wheel drive as a default, even though the Q3 will also come with 4WD as an option.

Engine options are likely to focus on the 2.0 litre and 3.0 litre diesels – certainly in the UK – although other markets may see petrols and perhaps even a performance model. Sadly it seems likely Audi will follow the BMW X3 route and only offer us the diesels.

Styling, as you would expect, is another boil wash job; the Q5 being the boil-wash Q7, the Q3 the boil wash Q5. But the Q3 is none the worse for that. There’s A6 cues on the front and a strong resemblance to the Audi’s Cross Coupe Concept from 2007. But all very ‘Audi’.

As far as we know, production on the Audi Q3 is already underway at the SEAT plant in Martorell in Spain, so the Q3 will be with us for real in the next few months.

Look out Kuga, Tiguan, X1, iX35 et al.