Audi Q3 (2011) first official sketches

Audi has released sketches of the upcoming Audi Q3, the Ingolstadt firm's new compact soft-roader due to arrive at the 2011 Shanghai motor show.

Not with the Audi Q3, sorry. As the most realistic sketch shows, the Q3 looks unsurprisingly very similar to Audi's 2007 Cross Coupe concept car, and there'll be no doubting the family resemblance when parked next to a Q5 and Q7 in an Audi showroom.

We've snapped a prototype Q3 out in the wild back in February 2011, and know that the new car shares VW group parts with soft-roader cousin the VW Tiguan. We expect 2.0-litre four-cylinder power for the Q3, in TFSI petrol or TDI diesel guises.

The Q3 will offer Quattro four-wheel-drive (of the transverse-engine, Haldex-clutch VW Group variety). But now that even 4x4 stalwarts Land Rover offer front-wheel drive variants of the Freelander and Evoque, we wouldn't be surprised to see Audi offer a front-drive Q3 arrive at some point.

Some enthusiasts may well grumble at the uniformity of Audi styling. But Audi sales keep increasing, so we can't see them shifting from a formula that appears to be working for them any time soon.

The Audi Q3 will be shown publicly on 20 April at the 2011 Shanghai motor show, with sales commencing this summer.
 

By Mark Hamilton