Audi unveils futuristic Urbansphere concept

Developed between Audi’s design studio in Beijing and the company’s headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, it’s said to be a “lounge on wheels and a mobile office,” with an interior offering a “comprehensive digital ecosystem”. With Level 4 autonomy tech, there’s a steering wheel and pedals but they hide away when the car takes over.

The Urbansphere measures 5,510mm long, 2,010mm wide and 1,780mm tall. Audi says these dimensions put the car in the “upper echelons of the automotive world,” but really that’s marketing guff. What matters are its dimensions relative to other vehicles on the road, and to that end it’s longer but a tad shorter and thinner than the new Range Rover. The wheelbase though is more than 400mm longer – in fact it’s more than 200mm longer than the wheelbase of the long wheelbase Rangie. Impressive.

The name ‘sphere’, Audi says, implies that this car is all about its interior. You can forget driving dynamics or the powertrain, this is all about the cabin. To make getting in and out easier, there’s no b-pillar and the front and rear doors open in the opposite direction to one another. The seats swivel outwards, making getting in that little bit easier, while a “red carpet of light” guides you to your seat, transforming “the simple act of entering a car into an experience of comfort”.

There are four individual seats, two up front and two behind, the rear seats able to recline at up to 60 degrees with supporting leg and arm rests for maximum comfort. If you want to chat to the person next to you, you can swivel the seat toward them. If you need privacy, or if you really don’t like the person next to you because they’ve said the RS6 is much more interesting, Audi says you can conceal your “head area” from the person next to you “using a privacy screen mounted behind the headrest”. Shut that conversation down.

If you haven’t had an argument with your co-passenger, however, you can enjoy a “transparent OLED screen” that pivots down from the roof into the space between the two rows of seats. And because it’s transparent, you can leave it down and still see those in front, or, when folded up in the ceiling, you can still see up and out through the glass roof.

The car “qualifies as a wellness zone,” says Audi, thanks to a system that scans your face and listens to your voice to detect how stressed you are, for example, and can then serve up a meditation app through the infotainment system and the sound system in your headrest.

Audi has chosen to drench the interior in wood, wool and synthetic textiles, “all of which have a high-quality feel and are pleasant to the touch”. The displays, meanwhile, come as a “surprise” to the driver, as those in the front, for example, are actually projections onto the wooden dash, with a touch sensitive bar below.

As for power, there’s a 120kWh battery located in the floor between the two axles. There’s one electric motor at the front and another at the rear, making the car all-wheel-drive, and between them there’s 401PS (295kW) and 690Nm (510lb ft) of torque. Audi hasn’t provided any performance numbers to digest, but it has said the software has been developed with a focus on economy and range. Interesting, then, the concept is carrying around huge 24-inch wheels. Thanks to an 800-Volt charging architecture, though, it can be charged from five to 80 per cent in 25 minutes. All told the total range stands at 466 miles.

Will the Urbansphere ever be built? As is, no, it probably won’t, but no doubt some of the ideas and technology featured on the concept will eventually filter down onto something we can actually drive, or be driven in. Would it make it into our list of the best Audi concept cars? Of that we’re not so sure…

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