Los Angeles motor show - Audi Cross Cabriolet Quattro Concept

The Audi Cross Cabriolet Quattro Concept is more than just a soft-top teaser leading towards the Q5 compact 4x4 that will come to the UK next September - the showroom-ready convertible show car will probably go into production as well.

With Audi committed to pushing into new niches to expand its product portfolio, the cabriolet seems a dead cert for production within two to three years.

'It's not as if we don't have this roof mechanism in other cars, and Audi is not in the habit of showing things we have no intention of making,' said a company insider. 'With our investment in new product development, don't be surprised to see it in production.'

The four-seater concept is virtually a roofless version of the five-seat Q5 that will be rolled out at next spring's Geneva Motor Show, though its wheelarches are a little more exaggerated.

The Q5 will be the third car to be created from the architecture that has also spawned the A5 coupe and new A4 saloon, and will be the first Audi with a longitudinally mounted engine mated to an S-tronic double-clutch semi-auto gearbox, a feature that will filter down into the A4 and A5.

It will also be offered with the latest 240bhp version of Audi's 3.0-litre V6 TDI turbodiesel engine, which already exceeds proposed Euro 6 emissions regulations that are not due to come into force until 2014.

The show car is painted in a virulent metallic orange named 'Copper sunset' in honour of LA's famous Sunset Boulevard.

Novelties include a Google Earth sat-nav system that guides you via photographs rather than maps - still under development for production - and an intercom system that amplifies speech through the Bang and Olufsen hi-fi so that rear passengers can hear what people in front are saying even when travelling at speed with the top down.