Think of a large fastback similar to the brand’s A7 … but on a bigger scale and with more tech. It’s electric, of course.

CALLED the ‘Grand Sphere’, the latest semi-revealed Audi concept can nonetheless legitimately be considered a new design angle out of Ingolstadt.

What you’re looking at is the first of three new advanced studies Audi will unveil over the next 12 months, all giving an idea of the brand’s design direction for the next decade and beyond and all connected by a ‘sphere’ metaphor in their respective model names.

The Grand previews a high-tech flagship model – basically, an A8 for tomorrow’s world – though that’s not long in coming.

They’re talking about a production equivalent coming along in 2025 and, as outrageous as the concept seems, the eventual showroom model might not be much less outrageous.

Says Norbert Weber, Audi head of interior design: “Around the year 2025, we want to have a new offering in the upper luxury segment – and the Grand Sphere is definitely an outlook on that.

“Especially when you talk about design language, both interior and exterior, of course we want to bring as many elements of series production as possible.”

Head of exterior design Philipp Romers, has echoed those comments.

 “We have plans for electric cars in the D-segment in the coming years, so it may very well be that more than just a few details and lines will be reflected in the series production model. Audi does not just develop isolated show cars that have nothing to do with series production.”

The ‘Grand’ part of the name speaks to plushness and scale. It’s thought to be more affluent and bigger than the Sky Sphere and Urban Sphere which have yet to be revealed to the public.

As the quality of the images shows, even the Grand Sphere hasn’t been fully unwrapped. The big moment is being reserved for the 2021 Munich motor show, in September.

Not a lot has been said about the drivetrain, save for confirmation that it’s electric. The platform is the PPE – for ‘premium platform electric’ - underpinning VW Group has created for Audi and Porsche. The first PPE cars are expected to be electric editions of the Audi Q5 and Porsche Macan medium sports utilities, out in 2022.

In media material, Audi’s designers enforce how the Grand Sphere represents a shift in automotive design, moving from the relatively small cabin space and large overhangs of a traditional car to a much more spacious interior thanks to shorter overhangs, made possible by the new electric underpinnings.

Audi’s vision for its future car interiors is for them to become an extra “living space” complementing the buyer’s home – and that attitude is evident in the cabin. 

The seats are loungers while the dashboard is far more minimalist than any of Audi’s current production vehicles. The centre console also features a “refreshment area,” rather than the usual infotainment system controls or drive mode switches.

Romers made some key comparisons between the Grand Sphere and Audi’s Aicon concept from the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show.

“The concepts of the cars are different worlds. But looking at the similarities, both are luxury class vehicles with a footprint of a long wheelbase A8, roughly, which means they’re both at home in the D-segment.

“The differences are that the Aicon was really geared towards autonomous driving on Level 5. The Grand Sphere will be Level 4 of automated driving, meaning the driver still has the possibility to actually drive the car himself – and this is something that we want to find evident in the exterior design.”