









After single-handedly tarnishing the diesel engines it had spent so long championing, Volkswagen Group's corporate redemption strategy involves a commitment to building a lot more electric vehicles. There's an all-new modular architecture for EVs—called MEB—that will be the basis for new models throughout the brands in VW's portfolio, but that won't be ready until 2020. In the meantime, Porsche and Audi have been working on long-range battery EVs that should start appearing next year. And at the Shanghai Auto Show on Friday, Audi announced a second long-range EV will go on sale in 2019: the e-tron Sportback.

The e-tron Sportback is built around the vehicle's 95kWh battery pack, giving it a range of 310 miles (500km). The battery pack is bookended by a pair of electric motors that provide a total of 430hp (320kW), although with a boost function that gives up to 500hp (370kW) for short periods. Atop this skateboard chassis is a sleeker body than the more upright e-tron SUV first seen in 2015. But as BMW's X6 has ably proved, the "four door coupé" effect is rather undermined by the huge wheels and lofty ride height.

The e-tron Sportback concept is also festooned with hundreds of LEDs, which Audi says can allow for "a large number of animated movements and signatures." While we doubt such technology will make it onto the production car in a couple of years' time, we're starting to get worried. I've lost count of how many recent concepts have involved some kind of active LED technology to signal a car (or driver)'s emotions to passers-by, something that's increasingly looking like it'll be a trend.