DETROIT MOTOR SHOW: New Audi Q7

Audi's second-generation Q7 will make its world debut in full production trim at the Detroit motor show in January, before going on sale in Australia later next year.

When it does, it will mark the next big growth spurt for the ambitious German brand here, where it expects to surpass BMW as the nation's second biggest luxury marque behind Mercedes-Benz in 2016.

By then the new Q7 should be available here with Audi's first diesel-electric hybrid system and Audi's first six-cylinder plug-in 'e-tron' powertrain, following the local launch of the petrol-electric A3 Sportback e-tron – Audi Australia's first plug-in model – in March.

Audi's first TDI e-tron model will brandish benchmark-setting large SUV efficiency figures, including average fuel consumption of less than 4.0L/100km and a pure-electric driving range of over 50km.

Naturally enough, Audi is expecting big things from the replacement for its original seven-seat SUV, which was the Ingolstadt car-maker's top-selling SUV here until the mid-size Q5 arrived in 2009.

While sales of the full-size Q7, which dates back to 2006, have waned in recent years, supply continues to remain a problem in Australia, where sales remain steady at more than 1000 so far this year.

But given Australia's top-selling luxury SUV is BMW's large X5 with more than 3000 sales year-to-date (almost double that of the X3 and triple the X1 — just as Q5 outsells Q3 and Merc's M-Class is more popular than the small GLA), the new Q7's sales potential in SUV-mad Australia is clear.

SUV sales continue to grow while sales of all other vehicle types have slowed this year in Australia, where SUVs now account for almost a third of the total new-vehicle market.

Audi has made no secret of its intention to fill every SUV model niche between Q1 and Q9, and to become Australia's and the world's most popular luxury vehicle brand.

Audi Australia says it will sell a record 19,000 vehicles in 2014, but concedes it won't surpass BMW this year or perhaps even next. But beyond that its intentions are clear.

"We don't intend to be in third position for long," Audi Australia's corporate communications chief Anna Burgdorf told motoring.com.au. "Our intention is to be number one not just in terms of sales but customer satisfaction."

In the first three quarters of this year Audi has sold 14,401 vehicles — up almost 20 per cent on the same period in 2013 – while BMW has sold 16,894 (up nearly 10 per cent) and Mercedes remains well clear with 22,687 – up almost 12 per cent.

Apart from being smaller on the outside and bigger on the inside, where it will also offer more technology and easier access to its third-row seats, Audi has said its second-generation Q7 will be up to 300kg lighter than the nine-year-old SUV it replaces.

The current Q7 range weighs between 2375 and 2515kg, and measures some 5063mm long, so its successor should be closer to two tonnes in weight and five metres in length.

Combined with more efficient six- and eight-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, all new variants of the new Q7s will therefore be more efficient, but the TDI e-tron will extract maximum efficiency from the combination of a new 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 and a powerful electric motor that will deliver total outputs of around 275kW and 700Nm.

The same diesel-electric drivetrain will eventually be rolled out across other new-generation vehicles based on the new Audi-developed modular longitudinal platform (MLB), including the A4, A6 and A8.

Audi Australia has previously planned to release petrol-electric versions of the A6 and A8 sedans, but will now wait for plug-in diesel-electric (TDI e-tron) versions of both models, which are due before 2017.

BMW will also join the large plug-in SUV fray next year with a production version of its X5 eDrive, which combines a 180kW turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine with a 70kW electric motor to consume just 3.8L/100km and a 30km electric-only driving range.

Audi Australia has made no secret of its desire to sell the diesel-electric Q7 TDI e-tron alongside conventional versions of the new Q7, both of which have been spied in testing previously.

"It's certainly something that we think will be well accepted in Australia," Ms Burgdorf told motoring.com.au last month. "The A3 e-tron will blaze that trail, but it's highly likely the Q7 e-tron will follow."

While the MkII Q7 will be a volume-selling model for Audi in Australia, the second-generation R8 supercar will be Audi's other all-new model launched in 2015 and, while a new-generation A4 is due to appear next year, it won't arrive here until 2016.

Next year will also see Audi release its limited-edition R8 LMX (January), new TT coupe (February), facelifted A6/S6 (April), facelifted A7/S7 (May), facelifted RS 6/RS7 (mid-year), TT Roadster (mid-year) and new TTS Roadster and coupe (Q3).