AUDI'S E-TRON GRAN TURISMO TO LEAD THEIR ELECTRIC CHARGE INTO THE 2020S

At their Annual Press Conference recently, Audi announced that it will build an electric four-door GT car called the e-tron Gran Turismo, bringing its electric portfolio to three confirmed models.

The Gran Turismo – referred to as the “sporty spearhead” – will join siblings, e-tron and e-tron Sportback, from the early 2020s.

So far we've only been given one lonely image to peruse from Audi but it's quite striking nonetheless. The design is almost an oxymoron of very sleek lines traversing it's rather brutish, four-door coupe style. It's massive wheels fill its arches while a small glasshouse sits quite far behind the front wheels, arching towards the tail lights at the back. Huge air intakes dominate the front end while the headlights appear as slivers of illumination between bumper and bonnet.

While we can't see inside, the interior will likely feature Audi’s world-class Virtual Cockpit display and the A8s dual-screen infotainment system too.

According to Audi, their “highly dynamic” four-door GT EV will be the first e-tron-badged Audi Sport model to use “purely electric drive”.

“We interpret sportiness very progressively with our fully electric e-tron GT. This is how we will take our high-performance brand Audi Sport into the future,” said Audi's Chairman of the Board, Rupert Stadler.

Audi's future is electrifying, excuse the pun, as they aim to have the e-tron GT lead their portfolio of more than 20 models by 2025. And, just like other manufacturers, Audi is hedging its bets on EV – their aim is to have one-third of all sales to be EV and PHEV models by the middle of the next decade.

The car will be built at Audi’s Bollinger Hofe site, just 240km from Ingolstadt – but it is unclear as to where the GT would be sold at the outset. Considering the current climate for electric vehicles, we reckon Audi will prioritise the larger markets of China and the US and slowly roll out to western Europe and the UK.