Is This The 2018 Audi Q3 Prototype Dropping Its Heavy Camo?

We showed you the first spyshots of the Audi Q2's big brother back in May, but the prototype was covered in heavy camouflage, so we couldn't tell anything about its silhouette (here's the story, in case you missed it).

In fact, the cloth camo sitting on top of the phychedelic wrap convinced a part of our office that the second generation of the Q3 will come with a more swooping roofline.

Well, we are now back in the topic to show you a spy clip that sees the 2018 Q3 prototype ditching its cover. We can now see the silhouette of the car and it's pretty clear that this will stick to the conservative path.

Time for a little pause

Since we're navigating info-scarce spy waters here, the vehicle shown in the clip at the bottom of the page could always be the Borgward BX3, another prototype we didn't get to see naked so far. You know, Borgward, the pedigree-rich German brand recently resurrected with Chinese money - here are the company's BX7 and BX5.

Now back to the Ingolstadt tale

Even If this turns out to be the Audi Q3, don't make the mistake of expecting the same convervatory conclusion can be delivered when it comes to the design details of the crossover. As is the case with the new Q5, the 2018 Q3 will make a slight upmarket move. Firs of all, this will bring an increase in size.

Secondly, with Audi's new Design Director Marc Lichte, who took over the automaker's styling department in February 2014, promising a more emotional approach, the Q3 should become quite a charming high-riding model.

Yes, this is a compact machine, but it's enough to check out the current range-topper, namely the 367 PS (362 hp) RS Q3 performance, to understand how serious Ingolstadt is about this vehicle.

The rumor mill talks about the next Audi Q3 making its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2017. If this is true, we are now one year away from the unveiling, so there's plenty of time to get under the skin of the test vehicles.