Audi Prologue Avant concept car debuts at Geneva

The striking new Audi Prologue Avant concept has made its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show 2015.

While there’s a clear visual resemblance to Audi’s current A6 Avant from the rear, the low roof height and sweeping window line are all-new. The car is proof that Audi is exploring other ways of designing estate models and is considering building load-luggers that major more on style than space – an approach rival Mercedes has found so much success with through its CLA and CLS Shooting Brake models.

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The new estate concept follows the Audi Prologue Concept prototype first shown at last year’s LA Motor Show, highlighting the German firm’s future design direction.

From the front and waist down, the Prologue Avant clearly takes cues from the Prologue saloon concept. A new ‘singleframe’ grille that’s stretched across the width of the car features, as do slim LED laser headlights – the next generation in lighting technology from Audi. 

More importantly, though, the car not only previews a future shooting brake estate, but how all Audis penned by design chief Marc Lichte will look in the coming years.

At 5.1m long the Prologue Avant is roughly 15cm longer than Audi’s current A6 estate, although that swooping roofline makes the car look even longer. This means there should be plenty of room inside the four-seat cabin – expect this to grow to a full five-seater for any future production model that evolves from this concept stage.

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Featuring a hybrid drivetrain with a 3.0-litre TDI diesel engine under the bonnet, the Prologue Avant is loaded with Audi’s next-generation of powertrain technology, also giving an idea of where the company is heading for its future engines.

The diesel unit kicks out 358bhp, while the electric motor mounted inside the Prologue Avant’s eight-speed automatic gearbox adds another 134bhp. In total the concept estate can muster 461bhp, with a massive 750Nm of torque helping it accelerate from 0-62mph in 5.1 seconds. Top speed is limited to 155mph.

On top of this, Audi claims the Prologue Avant can return up to 176mpg combined, emitting an impressive 43g/km CO2. The rear-mounted lithium-ion battery pack also means the concept estate can travel up to 33 miles on electric power alone, which should come in useful in congested cities where air quality is poor.

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It’s not a far-fetched prototype either, as the technology that underpins the Prologue Avant will make its debut in the production-ready Audi Q7 e-tron SUV later this year.

So the driver can keep an eye on energy usage the car features a three-part display that Audi describes as ‘game-changing’. 

The whole of the dashboard has been designed as an information screen, with three touchscreen ‘zones’ – two displays left and right of the steering wheel give the driver vital information on assist and multimedia functions, while a third widescreen unit spans the width of the centre console.

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As the Prologue Avant concept only gives us a window on Audi’s future design direction there are no plans to put it into production just yet, but watch out for new tech and styling cues seen here filtering down to Audi’s model range soon.

Now read all about everything else on the show stands at this year's Geneva Motor Show.