Audi Landjet with advanced electric and autonomous tech arriving in 2024

KUALA LUMPUR: Earlier this year, Audi rolled out its plans about Project Artemis aimed at developing new technologies for electric, and highly automated vehicles. As a part of the project, the carmaker is currently engaged in creating a super-luxurious electric vehicle that will be positioned above the A8 in the marque’s lineup. Although Audi is leading the whole project, the sister companies - Porsche and Bentley will also get their own version of the model, according to a German media outlet. 

Expected to be unveiled in 2024, the concept is internally codenamed as the Landjet, however, the production-spec version will likely be called the A9. It is an extension of the Audi Aicon concept project revealed at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show.

Recently, the US publication Car and Driver had a word with Marc Lichte, the man-in-charge of the high-tech project to get more insights. “The upcoming car "will be a revolution," Lichte said. "We will come up with a radically new concept. This car looks completely different," he added. 

The upcoming car will be an autonomous vehicle based on the modular PPE EV architecture developed by Audi that would remove any need for controls. It is being developed to cover distances without the need for human inputs, thus we can assume it to have a large battery set-up and a super-advanced autonomous driving system. As a competitor to Tesla’s Autopilot, the Landjet would take on the American automaker’s market dominance in the zero-emission industry.

Some of the market rumors suggest that the upcoming vehicle will have three rows, which means we can expect an SUV body style or a minivan. In contrast, other sources cited it as a sedan, much like the Tesla Model S. Whatever be the case, it would be spacious inside as in usual cases the EVs come with better cabin spaces as compared to the similarly-sized vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines.

The working of the Audi Landjet is currently in progress at Lichte's design studio, to have a completely new interior as well as exterior layout in comparison to the Audi designs currently in existence.

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