Audi Grand Sphere Concept to Debut at Munich Motor Show in September

Audi’s Sky Sphere reveal came with far more positive praise than I initially thought it would. Not only was it stunningly beautiful but it brought with it a few very interesting ideas for the future of the automobile, ideas we hope Audi actually implements in the future. The Sky Sphere’s variable wheelbase was certainly its most exciting feature. Now, though, Audi is ready to debut yet another concept car, this time at the upcoming Munich Motor Show — the Audi Grand Sphere Concept.

While the Sky Sphere was a concept for a future grand touring car with Level 4 autonomous technology, the Audi Grand Sphere is going to be a glimpse at the upcoming Project Artemis, which is going to become Audi’s flagship luxury car.

Audi design boss Marc Lichte told Autocar that the Grand Sphere is going to be “a very concrete teaser of the Artemis project”, which itself is a vision for the future. According to Lichte, the Artemis is an entirely new way of thinking for Audi luxury cars and won’t be just another Audi A8.

“I asked our design teams not for their vision of an A8 successor but for something completely new.” he said. Lichte noted that traditional three-box luxury sedans are become less and less en vogue. He also admitted that the Mercedes-Benz S-Class has been dominating the Audi A8 for decades, so a new approach is necessary.

The upcoming Project Artemis will be a showcase for future technology and the production car that will come from it will be the first car to be built on the VW Group’s upcoming SSP architecture; an all-electric architecture with elements from both the current MEB (Audi Q4 e-tron) and PPE (Audi A6 e-tron) architectures.

However, the Audi Grand Sphere Concept will be the precursor to all of this. It will be a highly futuristic design concept, similar to the Sky Sphere, that will tease long-distance grand touring with Level 4 autonomy, and an emphasis on interior and passenger space. We’ll see the Audi Grand Sphere on September 2, during the Munich Motor Show.

[Source: Autocar]