Is Audi Really Making A Pickup Truck?
From the earliest days of the Type A to the e-tron modern marvels, Audi has been a brand known for its high-quality and progressive designs. Save for its race-ready performance models, the company has remained fairly focused on sleek, commercial-friendly sedans and spacious SUVs. It has yet to transfer that design philosophy into developing a powerful but luxurious pickup truck. In 2022, it seemed like that would change when then-CEO Markus Duesmann stated that Audi was "looking into" a potential pickup truck (via Autocar).
The comment was made during Audi's annual earnings report, during which Duesmann left media speculating. "Actually, we will present — not too far from now — maybe something," he stated, never really confirming nor denying the existence of a pickup concept. Of course, the years passed, and the truck never came to light. In fact, the newest production vehicles since then didn't pop up until 2024 when Audi revealed the Q6 e-tron SUV and the A6 e-tron sedan as part of the 2025 line.
You may be wondering, then, why your Google search for "Audi pickup" yields several YouTube videos confidently claiming one is on the horizon for 2025. To that, we can only assume it's misinformation for engagement farming or a misunderstanding based on Duesmann's statement from 2022. Regardless, those renderings you're drooling over are all fake and created by AI, and there currently is no Audio pickup planned.
How do we know those Audi pickup renderings are AI?
You may be wondering how we're so confident that AI generated the Audi pickup truck renderings. Even if we didn't take Audi's silence on a future pickup as the biggest clue, the renders tell all. Take the images in a video from MotorMingle touting "Must-See Features & Stunning Design!" as an example. Not only is the video labeled as using "significantly edited or digitally generated" content, but the above image has telltale signs of AI. The most glaring are the license plate, the right rear tail light, and the logo. They're smudgy — a common attribute to watch for when sussing out AI-generated content.
The image above comes from a video by the YouTube channel Car Reviewer about the alleged upcoming 2025 Audi pickup, but it's another example of AI. This one is easier to spot, as the logo and Audi's name are completely butchered. Even the door handle is wrong, having no actual depth. Another fault is in the grate beneath the pickup's cargo, which has broken lines that disrupt the honeycomb pattern. If you pay close attention to the details, AI is fairly easy to spot.
None of this is to say the luxury brand didn't tinker with the concept of a pickup. The Audi activesphere and its pick-up cargo bed concept just weren't what everyone was picturing, and it's not something you should ever expect to hit production.