Audi Sets Production Plans for Q4, Q8 Crossovers

Audi AG says it will begin building two new SUV/crossover models over the next two years to meet demand in “an extremely important” market segment.

The company’s all-new flagship SUV, the Q8 (pictured), will go into production next year in Bratislava, Slovakia. That plant already builds Audi’s Q7 crossover and its plug-in hybrid and sporty S-type variants, along with the Bentley Bentayga, Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg SUVs. All four models share the same platform.

The fullsize Q8 will be joined in 2019 by the coupelike Q4 crossover, when the smaller model goes into production in Gyor, Hungary. Audi says the facility also will add output of the compact Q3 crossover, which currently is being manufactured in Martorell, Spain, in 2019.

By 2019 Audi’s lineup will include seven SUV/crossovers, up from four models today. The company has forecast that SUVs will generate about half its total sales by the end of the decade.