Stranger Things

Audi, like benz before it, chases an odd bmw.

- Alexander Stoklosa

WITH THE DEBUT OF THE Q8 CONCEPT, Audi becomes the second lemming to chase BMW’s ungainly X6 coupe/ SUV over the edge of vehicular reason. Mercedes recently took the same plunge with the GLE and GLC coupes, and we’ve scratched bald spots into our heads mulling the logic of bulky SUVs with a lot of the useful space hacked out of them. Yet more keep appearing. Maybe it’s because they’re not hard to make. To generate the Q8, Audi will simply scalp the mainstream Q7 down to its running gear. The stylists handle the rest.

EXTERIOR

Exterior designer Andreas Mindt describes the Q8 concept as four door handles and a rear window wiper away from the actual production Q8 headed to showrooms next year. Next to its steroidal, hunchbacked peers from BMW and Mercedes, the upright Audi looks a bit more dignified, deriving presence from its size more than anything. Mindt insists that was intentional, adding, “We have to go our own way.”