This is how Russia-Ukraine war forcing Audi to make new cars less aggressive

Audi's next-generation cars will come with a softer design that will be less aggressive than the current models, claims the German luxury car brand's design boss Marc Lichte. He told Top Gear that Audi is working on softer and more friendly car designs that will be less aggressive. He also hinted that the recently unveiled Activesphere concept indicates what the future Audi cars would look like. Lichte also said that the company's upcoming next-generation flagship sedan Audi A8, which is slated to debut in 2024, will be spearheading the new design philosophy incorporated models.

While elaborating on the reason behind Audi's design philosophy transition, Lichte explained that one of the driving forces behind this thinking is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “One reason is there is a war not far away [Ukraine] from here, which has an impact on everybody. I don’t like this aggressive styling, honestly speaking. There are so many more opportunities. That’s why designers, in general, are not focusing on this aggressive design. That’s my interpretation," said the Audi design head.

Speaking about the Audi Activesphere concept, Lichte said that this concept is not aggressive but the opposite. "I think this car, I would say, is not aggressive, it's the opposite. It's very soft, very friendly, very… there's no edge on the exterior design," he said. The Audi design boss also said that the car brand is aiming to invert the design process by creating the interior first rather than the exterior, which is completely opposite approach to the current car design process.

It is a well-known fact that electric vehicle platforms allow car designers to experiment more than conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicle platforms. Audi's design chief said that switching to bespoke electric vehicle architectures gives his team more freedom by not having to consider a large space-crunching combustion engine and the other oily bits.

Interestingly, Audi is slated to launch its final new ICE-powered car in 2025, with every new model due from 2026 to come as purely electric-powered. By 2033, the production of petrol and diesel-powered Audi vehicles will come to an end globally, with a possible exception in China. That too, will depend on local demand, said Audi.