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FCA finally agrees to let Audi use its trademarked names opening the way for new Audi SUV and crossover models
Audi has swapped trademarks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to snare the rights to the Q4 and Q2 and badges for upcoming
crossover SUVs.
Audi CEO Rupert Stadler confirmed at the Detroit Motor Show that the brand had finally persuaded FCA to release the two names – allowing Audi to lock up the Q1 to Q9 badges for its growing SUV family.
Audi already plans to drop the Q2 name onto its MQB-based city crossover this year, while the Q4 badge will slot onto the rump of a “coupe” version of the next Q3.
• New Audi Q2 heads brand's SUV boom
It will also reserve the Q1 badge for a 2018 baby crossover, based around the architecture of the next A1 hatch, which will share a lot of its engineering with Volkswagen’s Polo-based soft-roader, dubbed T-Cross in concept form.
t has also pounced on the naming rights for SQ versions of all of its Q-cars, along with f-tron, possibly to complement e-tron and h-tron in their range of alternative powered vehicles.
Stadler insisted that no money had changed hands in order to pry the two badges off FCA, admitting that they had “each found something we needed.”
“We promised each other we wouldn’t disclose what it cost, but it was not something they were willing to sell,” Stadler insisted. “We tried to get it years ago and they said ‘No, never’, but there is never ‘never’ in business. This year I went back to them with a proposal and we talked and there were some negotiations and then we agreed to it.”
Audi has swapped trademarks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to snare the rights to the Q4 and Q2 and badges for upcoming
crossover SUVs.Audi CEO Rupert Stadler confirmed at the Detroit Motor Show that the brand had finally persuaded FCA to release the two names – allowing Audi to lock up the Q1 to Q9 badges for its growing SUV family.
Audi already plans to drop the Q2 name onto its MQB-based city crossover this year, while the Q4 badge will slot onto the rump of a “coupe” version of the next Q3.
• New Audi Q2 heads brand's SUV boom
It will also reserve the Q1 badge for a 2018 baby crossover, based around the architecture of the next A1 hatch, which will share a lot of its engineering with Volkswagen’s Polo-based soft-roader, dubbed T-Cross in concept form.
t has also pounced on the naming rights for SQ versions of all of its Q-cars, along with f-tron, possibly to complement e-tron and h-tron in their range of alternative powered vehicles.
Stadler insisted that no money had changed hands in order to pry the two badges off FCA, admitting that they had “each found something we needed.”
“We promised each other we wouldn’t disclose what it cost, but it was not something they were willing to sell,” Stadler insisted. “We tried to get it years ago and they said ‘No, never’, but there is never ‘never’ in business. This year I went back to them with a proposal and we talked and there were some negotiations and then we agreed to it.”
