Monday, March 24, 2014
Next Audi A4 and Q7 Sent Back to the Design Table
Ever since the upper-management shakeup at Audi last year, details have been murky on when the new A4 sedan and Q7 SUV would make their debuts. Well, as Car & Driver reports, the two popular vehicles have been redirected back into development.
The A4 was originally on track for a debut later this year with its menacing new look, but Audi?s head of R&D, Wolfgang D�rheimer, was unexpectedly ?moved to another position within the Volkswagen Group? for apparently ruffling too many feathers in the short 10 months he occupied the position. Now Ulrich Hackenberg, Volkswagen?s R&D former front man, fills the role. Hackenberg made the call to postpone the A4?s launch in order to rework its styling and fine tune its suspension and assistance systems to ensure everything meets Audi?s ever-increasing expectations. It appears the A4 is rescheduled for the summer of 2015 with a hybrid version coming as well.
An oddly similar story surrounds the Q7. Another Audi executive named Wolfgang — this time Wolfgang Egger, Audi?s chief designer — was canned and replaced by yet another Volkswagen employee, Marc Lichte. Now both new in their positions, Hackenberg and Lichte are reworking the Q7 at the design level. Car & Driver?s insider reports the new design will be softer and less aggressive than Egger?s original plans. This is the Q7?s second delay attributed to its exterior design. There?s no real word on when the Q7 will eventually see production, but at this rate, we?re expecting it to fly and cure cancer.
Click past the jump to read more about the next Audi A4 and Audi Q7.
Next Audi A4 and Q7 Sent Back to the Design Table originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 27 February 2014 17:00 EST.
Hans Joachim Stuck Otto Stuppacher Danny Sullivan Marc Surer John Surtees
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