Developing the Audi Q7

Press Release

Page 1: Developing the concept
Page 2: Design
Page 3: Simulation and computing
Page 4: The "Strake"; Wind tunnel
Page 5: Electronics
Page 6: Test-driving; suspension
Page 7: A car for the senses
Page 8: Quality assurance

Design

One of the most important reasons for buying a car has always been its appearance – in other words, its design. The designers are the first people to concern themselves with a new vehicle project: they give the idea its actual shape. Even for the Audi Q7, the process starts in a ‘classic’ way, with pencil and sketch pad. Audi Q7 design project manager is Canadian Dany Garand, who recalls: “The Audi Q7 design process was a special challenge for our team. We had to create a product that was totally new for Audi, and bring the normally rather crude design of an SUV into harmony with Audi’s formal idiom. The kind of SUV on the market today would not have suited us.�

The varied demands that this vehicle segment has to satisfy in the European, American and Asian markets also had to be taken into account. Garand comments: “Consumer profiles in Europe and overseas are distinctly different, and during the design process we had to bear these regional patterns of life in mind. This included the Audi Q7’s overall size, its maximum capacity of seven seats, specific storage facilities and even new colour concepts both inside and out.�

Audi’s large SUV project acquired concrete form midway through 2002. Garand explains: “After the concept had been largely finalised, we succeeded in developing and building the fully functional Audi Pikes Peak quattro show car in only six months, so that it could be shown to an international public at the Detroit Motor Show. We wanted to establish how the public would react to our vision for this vehicle segment.�

The response was overwhelmingly positive – an ideal brief for the designers, who were then able to base their styling work on the “Pikes Peak� rather than having to start again from scratch. Garand: “We saved a considerable amount of time when it became clear that many of the show car’s basic features could be adopted on the production model.�

Some 150 members of Audi Design at the Group’s head offices in Ingolstadt, led by Gerhard Pfefferle, then began intensive creative work on the Audi Q7’s interior, exterior, colour schemes, equipment and trim. The aim, in Garand’s words, was to “unite the best of four worlds� in the new SUV: the dynamic, sporty lines and road behaviour of a sports coupe, the comfort of a luxury saloon, the technology and strength of an off-roader and the space and versatility of a van. The designers produced three different concepts, one of which was chosen for further work.

Body designer Satoshi Wada explains the exterior features of the chosen concept in the following terms: “The Audi Q7 is homogeneous in the ratio of overall height, length and width, with a short front overhang and a rather longer one at the rear. Like the A6, the body tapers considerably in plan view, and divides visually into volumes above and below the dynamic boundary line. The Audi Q7 therefore looks sporty and elegant above this line, but sporty and robust below it.� For its Japanese designer, the Audi Q7’s outward values are emphasised by its coupe-style roof line, the close-to-vertical angle of the

Audi single-frame grille, the innovative rear-end styling with single-unit rear lights and the boldly flared wheel arches and large wheels.

Inside this SUV, the creative minds have adopted an “island design� principle. Interior designer Uli Beierlein and his Dutch colleague Mattijs van Tuijl describe this as “closed, single-colour surfaces, entirely made from one material, interrupted by islands containing the functional units.�

Beierlein: “The three easily identifiable islands are the door island (the inside door trim), the seat island (the seat locations) and the driving-area island (the cockpit and centre console unit). These islands are distinguished by their functions and differ both visually and in terms of touch from all the other surfaces.�

Van Tuijl adds: “The interior makes a lasting impression because of its clear architecture, perfect ergonomics and top-quality materials and craftsmanship.�

This is the point at which colour and trim designer Ute Grönheim took over. Together with her colleagues, she selected suitable fabrics, materials and paint finishes for the Audi Q7. She comments: “Colour and the nature of the materials tell us a lot about a car and its owner. The colour of a car is the first thing you notice about it, and is therefore an excellent way of stimulating the emotions.�

To create this initial emotive response, eleven standard paint finishes are available, some in metallic and others in pearl effect, from Calla White to Garnet Red and from Condor Grey to Phantom Black. Customers can also have the sill areas of the Audi Q7 finished in Silver or Grey as a contrasting colour. New colours with a specific SUV affinity are Sycamore Green and Bahia Beige, metallic. Ute Grönheim explains that each colour is applied to an actual vehicle before being approved: “They simply can’t be shown realistically enough as a virtual display.�

The forceful but at the same time luxurious feeling that prevails inside the Audi SUV is emphasised by various high-grade materials and fabrics. The designers created fine (“Verano�) and coarser-grained (“Cricket�) leather upholstery and trim, and developed a new type of carpet known as “Fresco� and the “Cosmo� seat upholstery fabric. Three kinds of wood inlays from three different continents are available: American burr walnut, European burr olive ash and Tamo, from a tree that grows in Japan.

Ute Grönheim illustrates the difficult task that the designer has to perform when identifying trends: “Our own tastes have to take second place when choosing materials and colours. On the contrary, we have to work out what will appeal as strongly as possible to customers in various markets in a few years’ time.�

A car is a long-lasting product, but can be confronted with fashionable preferences and trends in taste that prove to be relatively short-lived.�