Berlin – Audi will launch its compact soft-roader - previously known as the Q1 - with a Q2 badge after securing rights to both the Q2 and Q4 names from Fiat-owned Alfa Romeo, the Auto Motor und Sport motoring journal in Germany reports.
Audi is pitching the model as an upmarket crossover SUV and leaving the Q1 slot unoccupied in case it decides to introduce a smaller compact. The Q4 is still shrouded in secrecy. Audi currently sells Q3, Q5 and Q7 models.
Spy photos have surfaced showing the Q2 on test runs prior to its planned launch at next year’s Geneva show in March. Through spotted in heavy camouflage, the trademark Audi angular headlights and hexagonal grille can be clearly made out.
The Q2 notches in just below the Q3 and shares its modular MQB platform with the A3, the European version of the Volkswagen Passat and the seventh-generation Golf.
The engines on offer will be VW-derived petrol and diesel-fuelled turbocharged engines with three and four cylinders. Front-wheel drive is likely to be standard, with Audi’s Quattro all-wheel drive system as a possible bolt-on extra for some versions.
Transmissions should include a standard six-speed box, with VW’s DSG automatic on the spec sheet as an option.
The name deal follows Fiat Chrysler’s initial unwillingness to relinquish the nomenclature. Alfa patented the Q2 and Q4 monikers years ago to denote front-wheel and four-wheel drive variants, but the badges were then never used.