Quattro on 2040-cars

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Audi design chief Egger leaving for Italdesign Giugiaro

Wolfgang Egger, Audi's chief designer, is leaving the company according to a Automotive News Europe, which cites a report from Germany's Automobilwoche. Egger won't be going far, though, remaining within the Volkswagen family and taking up head design position Italdesign Giugiaro, a VW subsidiary as of 2010.
Egger took over the position at Audi from Walter de Silva, and has been responsible most recently for the Audi A6 and A3, as well as the 2010 Quattro Concept and the E-Tron Concept. He previously was head of design at Lancia and then at Alfa Romeo, where he was responsible for the achingly gorgeous 8C Competizione.
If Egger does move to Italdesign, his successor is likely to be Marc Lichte, the Volkswagen designer behind the current Golf. Of course, these personnel changes haven't been officially confirmed, and Audi is thus far refusing to comment on either Egger or Lichte's possible career shifts. We'll stay with this one, so sit tight.

Audi moving ahead with Q1 crossover

Audi crossovers have been getting smaller with each passing year. What started with the Q7 has since downsized to the Q5, then to the Q3, and now reports coming in from Germany reaffirm speculation that Ingolstadt is preparing to go one more size down with a Q1.
The new pint-sized premium crossover would likely share the platform that underpins the Volkswagen Polo and Audi's own A1. Although the architecture has already been modified to accommodate all-wheel drive, Autobild suggests that the Q1 would be a front-drive-only affair, which might limit its appeal somewhat, but then most buyers probably wouldn't opt for all-wheel drive anyway.

Despite premium carmakers going downmarket, luxury auto sales stick at 10-11%

According to research conducted by global information company IHS Automotive, the leporine birthing of new models by luxury manufacturers over the past six years hasn't increased their market share in the US. Even as car sales reached 15.6 million units, IHS says what's happened instead is that luxury buyers are merely moving from one brand to another, moving from larger luxury vehicles into hot segments like compact luxury crossovers or leaving the market at the same rate as other buyers enter.
Whether broken out by makes or by segment, market share has rollercoastered inside a narrow band from 10.5 to 11.5 percent since "at least" 2008. Closer investigation reveals the shifting boundaries in the aspirational pond, with brands like Mercedes-Benz and Audi gaining territory as Lexus and Lincoln lost it, and Saab and Hummer were buried, dead, under it. One neat note is that Tesla has gone from a share of zip to .12 percent.
The subcompact and compact crossover segments show growth, with those little high-riders jumping from .3 percent to 1.16 percent of overall industry sales. Their rise, though, is concomitant with the decline of four other segments: compact and midsize cars and fullsize cars and SUVs. We think the next few years that will tell if the small-car expansion can overcome the large-car retraction, with a phalanx of smaller offerings like the CLA only recently hitting the market and others like the GLA, Macan and Q1 doing so in the near future.