ADRIAN PADEANU wrote:Audi took the wraps off the first Q8 concept in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit as a way to tell the whole world it’s cooking up a new flagship SUV. For the ongoing Geneva event, the luxoborage is being presented in a sporty guise to preview what will likely be an SQ8 of some sort, unless the folks from Ingolstadt will want to go all out with an RS Q8.
Eschewing the Bombay blue paint of the original concept for a striking Krypton orange shade, the Q8’s alter ego adopts a slightly more aggressive design as one would expect from a performance model. The gargantuan grille is still there, but this time around it has a honeycomb structure also used for the huge air vents flanking it. The high-tech laser headlights have been carried over from the first concept, but in this new application feature a black tint to enable a more aggressive look.
Audi points out the wheel housings have been widened by 12 millimeters (half an inch) and at the back there are oval exhaust tips typically reserved for the RS-badged models. To further set it apart from the other concept, numerous black accents have been applied and can be noticed on the mirror caps and side sills, for example.
While the design hasn’t changed that much, the hardware that lies within the familiar skin is different. The Q8 Sport Concept represents Audi’s first stab at giving the 3.0 TFSI six-cylinder engine a mild hybrid setup and an electric powered compressor. With 476 horsepower (350 kilowatts) and 516 pound-feet (700 Newton-meters) of torque at its disposal, the go-faster SUV runs to 62 mph (100 kph) in only 4.7 seconds and will top out at 171 mph (275 kph).
Besides being really fast, the Q8 Sport Concept is also quite frugal thanks to it electrified powertrain with a 0.9-kWh lithium-ion battery mounted underneath the trunk. Making use of energy recuperation, the high-riding vehicle manages to consume about one less liter of gasoline per 100 km than an equivalent car without the mild hybrid tech. It’s a great SUV for long journeys as Audi says it will cover more than 745.6 miles (1,200 kilometers) on a single tank of gas.
Considering the regular Q8 will be out at some point in 2018, the performance version being previewed here is probably due around 2019.
