It’s one thing to attract some rivalries after you’ve been in this world for a few years, and completely another to have people get ready for your arrival even before you were born. If you’re worth so much attention, then it’s obvious there’s something special about you.
Unwillingly, Audi and BMW are doing the work of the PR and advertising agencies paid by Tesla by positioning their future electric SUVs and crossovers as “Tesla Model X rivals”.
First off, BMW is said to plan a battery powered SUV which will be built at its Spartanburg plant in the US where the rest of its X-family models are currently assembled – the X3, X4, X5 and X6. This should be the third model of the i range after the i3 city car and the i8 sports car which are built in Leipzig, Germany.
An all-electric SUV would make perfect sense as an expansion of the BMW i family, but expecting to see anything sooner than 2018 would be hasty. On the other hand, a BMW spokesperson said that the report is nothing more than “speculations”, which isn’t the same as saying it isn’t true.
There is currently no information available on how this hypothetical electric BMW SUV could look like, but if the two current i models are anything to go by, consider us extremely curious on how it will turn out.
Audi, meanwhile, is reportedly bringing a Q6 concept (the name has not yet been confirmed) at the Frankfurt Motor Show this autumn which, guess what, will be a Tesla Model X rival too. It will be completely electric and promises a range of at least 500 kilometers (310 miles) which, by today’s standards, is a lot.
It’s allegedly based on the MLB platform and the body will adopt a very extreme aerodynamic styling precedently unseen on any Audi models. But since Audi isn’t Tesla, this new electric Q6 should spawn a few other versions as well, like a plug in hybrid or a hydrogen powered model. Even though there’s no talk of a conventionally powered Q6, Audi would take a huge gamble not to offer one as well.
Mercedes-Benz has made no announcements in this regard, but since it already has a perfectly operational electric car in the form of the B-Class, it could jump on the wagon at any given time.
*Pictured is a low res teaser image of the Audi Q6 concept.
