SPY PICS: Audi's next Q5
With a withering line-up of technology, Audi’s next-generation Q5 is shaping up to be a lot more than merely a new modelSpy photos of the next-generation Audi Q5 have been seen before, but where previous pics have shown the big-selling mid-size luxury SUV in more clement circumstances, this time we see a very similarly-clad test mule on test in a wonderfully wintry playground.
The pics of the upcoming new iteration of Audi’s good-looking AWD wagon don’t reveal anything we didn’t already know in a visual sense. But we are learning more about the car that will be based on the same lightweight (by around 100kg) MLB Evo platform as the Audi A4 to compete effectively with the likes of BMW’s X3 and the recently-launched Mercedes-Benz GLC.
For example it is understood the Q5 will be made not in Germany, but at a more cost benefit analysis-friendly plant in Mexico where it should be built alongside the more athletic, coupe-like Q6 that is expected to follow shortly afterwards.
And rumours of sportier variants, including eight-speed auto SQ5 and 335kW Q5 RS variants, are firming too, while an e-quattro PHEV plug-in hybrid variant could accompany conventionally engineered petrol and diesel Q5 models at the European and US launch that is expected to happen around mid-2016.
The Q5 PHEV is expected to base itself on a 2.0-litre petrol four-cylinder supplemented by an electric motor giving a pure-electric driving range of around 50km.
Talk also abounds of LED or laser headlights, wheels measuring as much as 21 inches and an absolute techno-fest inside including an infotainment system devised with the help of Google. As already mentioned, future-oriented technology expected to appear in the Q5 includes autonomous acceleration, braking and steering, speed-limit recognition and self-parking.
The next-generation Audi Q5 is expected to make its Australian debut in late 2016, early 2017.
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