Audi are flagging up a problem they’re encountering when looking at their next wave of electric vehicles. Customers expect a range of 300 miles at least between charges. But to achieve that you need to have the very latest battery technology yet you still need to use some seriously lightweight components. And squaring the circle of achieving all that with a price the customer will find acceptable is proving a difficult task.

The issue is still that you need a big battery pack as a starting point, so it follows that you end up putting that in a big vehicle. Then there’s the problem of lightweight materials, like composites used for panels, that then have to undergo treatments like paint and anti-corrosion which add heat to that complex material. There are new skills and techniques being developed all the time.

So it’s not a surprise that Audi are focusing first on a big electric vehicle. The e-tron quattro SUV will be the first because it’s a large vehicle and owners will be prepared to pay the premium required. There just isn’t the maths to make this viable for small vehicles yet, according to Audi.