This Tiny Audi Frunk Is Hilarious But I Salute It Proudly

I think I’ve made my position on front trunks (often referred to with the vulgarism “frunks”) quite clear here on the electromagnetic pages of The Autopian, but in case you’re unaware, my policy is vehemently pro-frunk. I’ve been driving cars with enclosed cargo storage at the front since my very first car, and let me tell you, the sensation of driving with your bags of stuff leading the way, crammed into the nose of your car is, dare I say, numinous. We’re currently in a new Golden Age of Frunks, largely thanks to the rise of electric cars, and for that I couldn’t be happier. This means that I respect any and all efforts to provide car owners with frunks, even if the results appear a little absurd.

Yes, maybe I’m referring to that picture up there of that tiny Audi frunk. But I want to be clear that while I acknowledge that that image looks a bit ridiculous, I nevertheless respect the hell out of what is going on there. You see, I have chastised carmakers, especially German ones, for being lazy about frunks, and not providing some sort of usable volume of space under the front hood when they clearly could have.

It looks like someone at Audi must agree with me:

The #AUDI E5 Sportback's front trunk…????

What can you do with this amount of volume? pic.twitter.com/FpBUvobk0V

— ChinaEV Home (@CNEVhome) May 7, 2025

I should be clear, this particular Audi is a bit different than the Audi-Audi we know here and that sports the old Auto-Union four-rings logo, symbolizing the four carmakers that started the Auto-Union, DKW, Horch, Wanderer, and, yes, Audi. The Audi shown here is a China-only marque, a joint venture between VW/Audi and China’s SAIC, and it’s the company’s all-EV sub-brand, and I just remembered that it’s supposed to be in all-caps. AUDI. I don’t feel like going back and changing all the other references to all-caps, though, sorry AUDI branding people. Just be happy I started doing it now.

Okay, back to the AUDI E5 Sportback’s frunk. The E5 is quite a striking-looking car, by the way, if you haven’t seen it:

Damn, that thing makes 764 horsepower from its two electric motors, and it has a three-scent fragrance diffuser! I wonder how much of that potential frunk volume is being taken up with reservoirs for the various stench-juices for that system?

As you can see, the E5 Sportback does have a lot of cargo room there in that, um, sportback. It’s a pretty big hatch area, but that doesn’t get a carmaker off the hook for a front trunk; consider the old ’60s NSU-Fiat Panorama, based on the rear-engined Fiat 500. This was a little wagon, similar to the Fiat 500 Giardiniera, with its little inline-twin laid flat under the rear floor to allow for both a rear cargo area, and, yes, a small but usable front trunk:

The designers and engineers had to fight for that bit of under-hood storage space, shoving that fuel tank over to the side, jamming the spare wheel into the nose, tucking brake and washer fluid bottles and fillers into whatever corners they could find, but, dammit, they did it. They fought for that space, and they clawed it back from the harsh realities of space-greedy automotive equipment, and gave it unto you, the owner.

That seems like exactly what AUDI’s designers and engineers did here; they hacked out whatever volume of space they could find under that hood, wrapped it in molded plastic, and gave it to you, the buyer or user or whatever of the car. Because that is what they should do. That volume of space is yours when you buy (or lease, steal, whatever) this car, and if you can’t use a volume of space in the car, that’s tantamount to theft! Why should you haul around some unneeded pocket of atmosphere you can’t utilize? What are, we, animals?

Besides, while that frunk volume looks pretty tiny, I bet it can still be used for something. There already looks like some sort of charging pouch in there in that picture, I think? It seems at least, what, six or so inches deep? Maybe deeper? I bet you could fill that with, like 25 tacos, easy. Maybe more!

Other carmakers offer similarly diminutive frunks; have you seen the frunk in the Dodge Challenger Daytona?

That’s not much bigger, and that one is optional, too! It only comes as part of a $5,000 package! But you can definitely shove some charging cables in there and maybe a hoagie and a big loofa and a Rubik’s Cube or other essentials like that.

The point is, AUDI did the right thing here! I know this, because if they had left any unused volume of space, people would have done what they could to reclaim it. I say this because people are already doing just that, for many EVs where under-hood space was denied them, cruelly. Look at this video showing the installation of a kit to give a Fiat 500EV a frunk:

People want their storage, and they have a right to it. So, when I see this modest but proud AUDI frunk, what I feel is respect and satisfaction. The very existence of this small, usable volume of space means that at some point in this car’s design and production, someone was looking out for the needs and wants of the people. And I don’t care how many smug people may choose to roll their eyes at these little frunks, because they just don’t get it. Space is space, and space in your car is yours to do with as you please, and this is a fundamental right of being a human, as much as the right to pick one’s nose or the right to smell one’s own crevasses.

Good work, all-caps AUDI. I appreciate the effort.