Audi A9 coming?

Audi A9 Render by Auto Zeitung

It’s being reported that Audi are working on a range-topping car – the Audi A9 – using the Porsche Panamera platform.

We know that Audi is on a mission to fill every conceivable motoring niche; to produce a car that fits every need of every possible consumer. Their current range extends from the city car A1 to the luxo-barge A8 by way of the supercar R8.

But there’s always room for more in Audi’s plan to be the biggest – and most successful – premium car maker on the planet. There are doubtless variations on every theme of every model in the current Audi range floating around virtual drawing boards in Ingolstadt, and Audi are no doubt wondering what extra they can plunder from the goodie-box that is the VW group to expand their offerings.

We’ve had on the cards for a while an Audi version of the VW BlueSport, which we expect to see the light of day in 2011 as the Audi R4. But what we hadn’t really considered is something above the current A8. But that’s exactly what’s being planned, according to Auto Zeitung in Germany.

They reckon that Audi are working on a range-topping Audi A9, which will be plundered from the Porsche Panamera. Expected to come with Audi’s quattro drivetrain and feature around 500bhp, the Audi A9 would also be offered as a petrol-electric hybrid and come in at something upwards of €100,000.

And we have to admit that there is logic to this. The Panamera is doing well and the platform could do with being utilised across other parts of the VW Group. It’s a niche that Audi doesn’t currently compete in and Audi using the Panamera platform would probably not cross over with Porsche’s sales.

But the story sounds more like guesswork than sources. But guesswork we think has every chance of seeing daylight.