Audi Q6 electric SUV goes in to production in 2018: OFFICIAL

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The Audi Q6 – an electric SUV previewed by the e-tron quattro concept – will go in  to production in 2018, Audi has revealed.

Audi has been playing with electric e-tron concepts for years, but until now there’s appeared little intent to make the endless concepts much more than interesting diversions. But the VW dieselgate crisis seems to have changed all that.

Audi now seem intent on diving headlong in to the electric car market as it seeks to distance itself from dieselgate and position itself as a maker of properly ‘green’ cars. Step forward the Audi Q6 EV.

Previewed by the e-tron quattro concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show last Autumn, the Audi Q6 (which will almost certainly be the badge it wears as Audi admit it will fit between the Q5 and Q7) seems unlikely to change much when it goes in to production.

That means a coupe SUV design – looking like something between an Audi SUV and an Allroad – with a trio of electric motors – two at the back and one at the front – delivering 496bhp and 590lb/ft of torque, and promising an EV range of up to 311 miles and 249 miles from a 30 minute supercharge.

Now we know, thanks to Audi revealing its future production plans, that the Q6 will go in to production in Belgium in 2018 – where its batteries will also be produced – as Audi shuffles production round to foucs on EV production.

The production of the Audi Q6 in Belgium will mean Audi A1 production going off to SEAT’s plant in Martorell and the Q3 shifting from Martorell to Gyor in Hungary.

But if Audi get its EVs right, it seems likely electric Audi production will end up in Germany, especially with Peter Mosch, Audi Union boss and board member, objecting to EV production being centred in Belgium.