Audi Planning New Design Language With More Variety: Report

If you find it tricky to tell one Audi from the other on looks alone, things could soon start looking up. The German prestige brand has reportedly kicked off a project that will see greater variety injected into its future styling language.

The program has been dubbed AQR - that's A for Audi's sedans and hatches, Q for its Quattro SUVs and R for sports cars. Audi design boss Stefan Sielaff has directed his team to split the three into separate styling groups.

Among the changes will be new the angle of the familiar Audi grille, although the shape and design is unlikely to differ greatly. 

“We know that some people think our saloons look too alike and are well into a project to change that. We will mainly do that with the proportions of those cars," Sielaff told Britain's Autocar.

"It will mean differences, say in the way the headlights meet up with the grille. The design details will be different,” he added.

How soon these changes will come into play is unclear, although the brand's recent motor-show concepts are likely to offer a hint of what's to come. 

The next-generation A3 range is already on the way, with recent spy photos and March's A3 Sedan Concept suggesting the the 'A' portion of the AQR design project will focus more on evolution than revolution.

The all-new Q3 SUV has also been revealed already, revealing an updated headlight and grille design separate from the larger Q7 and Q5 models - possibly previewing the next-generation styling of both.