Audi Allroad Shooting Brake concept revealed

The wraps will officially come off the Audi Allroad concept on the Detroit show floor tomorrow, but the German carmaker has revealed it ahead of the show, giving us a look at styling amd tech it says will be used on its coming sports cars, including the next TT coupe.

You can also expect some of the concept's features to spread to the rest of the Audi range, including the planned Q1 crossover, but the swelling wheelarches and strong character line along the sides of the concept are clearly TT cues.

However the Allroad is showing a fresher family face than found on the current TT, and it will be interesting to see how the sharper angles of the hexagonal grille translate onto the usually rounded lines of the sports car.

The uncluttered interior with its new iPad-sized colour screen, redesigned control panel interface and e-S tronic (shift-by-wire) gear selector, was previewed at last week's Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, and will not only adapt into the TT but also likely appear in other future models. The technology includes a system that moves the centre console as you make adjustments to the driver's seat, keeping all the controls close to hand.

It's not mentioned whether you can over-ride or individually change the console setting, but if so this has potential to give another adjustment to help those who can never find just the right combination of seat and shifter positions.

The Allroad concept's light aluminium and carbon-fibre reinforced polymer body panels and wheels could trim up to 100kg from the TT, which currently tips the scales between 1395kg to 1550kg, depending on variant.

The concept's plug-in hybrid drivetrain -- a 215kW 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine and 40kW electric motor that combine to deliver 300kW of power and 650Nm of torque, and a second electric motor on the rear axle -- might herald a similar 'e-tron' approach in the future TT.

In the Allroad, with its switchable driving modes, Audi says you can get 50km of all-electric range and a total range of 820km. The carmaker claims a 0-100km/h time of 4.6 seconds -- just 0.5 seconds behind the fastest TT.

However we'll also see the sports car continue with more conventional engines, although with Europe's continually tighter emissions regulations, some of the TT mills are possibly going to be downsized (and perhaps uprated) from the current 118kW/250Nm 1.8-litre and 155kW/350Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinders and 265kW/465Nm 2.5-litre five-cylinder.

The show car uses a six-speed dual-clutch transmission to drive the front wheels, however the TT also already offers a seven-speed DSG and quattro all-wheel drive.

How much of that design and tech appears on the Q1 being unveiled in Detroit, we're still waiting to see.