The words to remember are “electric” and “utility”; there two simultaneous trends are bringing major changes to the automotive landscape. Consumers are flocking away from cars and to utility models, in a migration that shows no signs of abating. But electric mobility is just as significant a trend, especially since Tesla won on its gamble to bring a high-range electric luxury sedan to market.
Read between the lines, and you see an inevitable confluence of the trends, in the form of electric SUVs. Some are already offered on the market, for example the Outlander PHEV from Mitsubishi, the Kona electric from Hyundai and X5 xDrive40e from BMW. These models illustrate this unstoppable trend towards both electric and utility. Here is our Top 10 list of what’s coming down the pike.
Audi e-tron
Here's a first concrete example of what the German manufacturer has in store for us in terms of mid-size utility models powered on electricity. We’ve been seeing prototypes from Audi for a few years now, but the new e-tron is an actual, test-worthy vehicle. In fact, Audi has deployed 250 of these all-electric SUVs on roads around the world with the sole aim of fine-tuning the model. This future e-tron-branded product will be fully capable performance-wise thanks to the presence of three electric motors, while range should be sufficient for longer road trips.