The Audi Q3 has been confirmed for quite some time now and even shown in concept form as the Cross Coupe Concept , but a production equivalent has been a long time in coming. However, as production of the small crossover nears it was only a matter of time before spy photogs began to catch the car in testing and today we've found the first instance we know of where this has happened. The Australian website CarAdvice has run a set of shots that appear very much to be the upcoming Q3. Though some elemtns in the foreground (license plates) and background (signs on buildings to disguise the location) the car is quite obviously an Audi and not far in appearance from the Cross Coupe.

Some publications have stated the car will be an Audi version of the Volkswagen Tiguan though we suspect it's not that simple. The current Tiguan makes use of the Volkswagen Group's current transverse architecture. Given the Q3's timeframe, we suspect the car will be one of the earliest offerings to make use of the group's upcoming MQB modular transverse architecture. If that is correct then the Q3 will share more with the next-generation Tiguan but also benefit from much more scalability in size and flexibility in shared components as has been seen with the MLB modular longitudinal component set already in use on the A4, A5, A7, A8 as well as the upcoming A6.

See more shots of the Q3 after the jump.

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