Charging premium prices for great products people didn’t know they wanted is a good way to become a successful business. The Volkswagen Group seems to understand this, or at least it has learned to, all over again. And even though litigation from the TDI emissions scandal continues, diesel engines are very much still a revenue stream for the European number one.
Ditzy digits ditched
Audi just let me loose in the new shape Q5, a 4,717 mm long recent arrival, trying it in high-priced ‘2.0 TDI quattro 204 PS Launch Edition S tronic’ form. If you’re not fluent in the brand’s transmission branding, this one is a DSG and, like all variants, it has seven ratios. That gearbox is not the only thing which has been improved.
Having just seen the official naming for the newly-revealed ‘Q3 SUV’, Audi is also getting better at name logic. The two digit suffix system to denote relative power is missing from the official advance media information, a most welcome metric output instead being listed for each variant: e.g. Q3 SUV TFSI quattro 195 (kilowatts). Plus the official appearance of the S, U and V means there will be a fresh Q3 Sportback to come.
SUV and Sportback, three engines at launch
Big brother Q5 is also available as a Sportback but it’s the SUV which I tested. One of the most impressive things – and there are many – is the range. This is one of those rare cars which just goes on and on and on, the remaining fuel read-out indicating as many as 700 miles might be possible from replete to dry.
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By GlobalDataThe launch line-up consists of three 48-volt mild hybrids and each is available in the UK. The LFP battery has a capacity of 1.7 kWh while the Powertrain Generator (PTG) can add up to 18 kW/24 PS plus 230 Nm during short bursts of extra oomph. It really is something of a mash-up of a normal MHEV and an HEV, with the motor integrated into the DSG, supplementing not only the engine but the starter-generator.
The base petrol engine is a 150 kW (204 PS) and 340 Nm four-cylinder turbo. This, the 2.0 TFSI, is front-wheel drive with quattro an option. Then comes the 2.0 TDI powered by the EA288 evo series engine, code for the Group’s latest four-cylinder diesel. Power is identical to that of the 2.0 TFSI but there is an extra 60 Newton metres of torque. As such, four-wheel drive is standard.
A V6 and two future PHEVs
Powertrain number three is for the SQ5. A petrol V6, this, the 3.0 TFSI, produces 270 kW and 550 Nm. And now we have learned certain details of the fourth alternative, the PHEV. In fact there will be two versions of the e-hybrid, these being 220 kW and 270 kW. Each has a 20.7/25.9 (net/gross) battery. Depending on the country, the plug-in hybrids will arrive in the third or fourth quarter.
As was the case with the previous Q5 SUV and Q5 Sportback, cars for Europe and the Americas are built in Mexico. There was quite a large investment placed into Audi’s factory ahead of the model changeover, the architecture also being new. Debuting with the A5, PPC, or Premium Platform Combustion, is an adaptation of MLB Evo.
Not an EV yet feels and sounds like one
Despite not being an EV, the Q5 behaves just like one a lot of the time, defaulting to running on the energy stored in its battery. At least at low speeds, while those rare, earlier diesel-hybrids such as Mercedes sedans, estates and SUVs, were far more audible. Yes, there is some noise upon automatic activation but it’s faint. And in any case, what you hear is quite pleasant.
Audi has placed the hybrid battery and associated gear below the boot’s artificial floor. It’s a pity there’s no room for even a space saver spare tyre but as I mentioned in the recent BMW iX review, this issue has finally been resolved. Let us hope that Audi is the next company to specify either Active Tools GmbH’s active Seal or a rival product. Having seen it demonstrated, all cars should have it.
To expand upon the issue of the TDI’s extraordinary range, some of that is down to a 65-litre fuel tank, though economy is excellent too. Yet we’re talking of an ordinary-sounding 44.1 mpg Combined average. Depending on how you drive though, that can be greatly improved. To the 58 mpg of my own average for example. C02 varies between 158 and 167 g/km.
A fetish for reinvention
If you’ve seen the new A6 or A5, the Q5’s interior won’t contain too many surprises. There’s a wrap-around digital dashboard in the style of so very many new cars, and no physical HVAC controls. Nonetheless, most functions are fairly easy to locate in a hurry. Yes I did say most.
As is well known, many of Volkswagen AG’s divisions have an ongoing fetish for the reinvention of things which formerly worked beautifully. Often the new thing is a cheap-feeling, inferior alternative. So it is that the Q5 SUV’s front and rear light controls are on the driver’s door. Where? Quite. And they are as irritating as the mirror adjuster buttons: those too have been redesigned. Formerly perfect, now awful.
Thank goodness the window switches are tactile and with a matte finish rather than glossy, slippery, vague-when-pressed black. At least the steering wheel buttons work fairly well, as does the little switch for R, N and D. P is separate but is applied automatically when the ignition is extinguished. Oh, and screen clarity is excellent: maps look amazing.
Almost 1,500 l of boot volume
Boot volume in the diesel MHEV is 520 litres, expanding to 1,483, and the rear bench can be slid for those with long legs. Strangely, there is a very high mound in the car’s floor but this doesn’t intrude on space for feet. Anyone sitting in the middle will need to ask passengers either side of them to shuffle their shoes a little to make room.
All that torque plus four-wheel drive makes for superb traction and effortless performance. And with the longitudinally mounted engine positioned closer to the firewall than I had been expecting, weight distribution is also good. Suspension is steel with a pneumatic alternative optional for the as-tested Edition 1 as well as for the S Line model grade.
One big backward step
About the only real backward step – and it’s big one, alas – is the functionality of the dashboard, steering wheel and door-top controls. More tactility please Audi, and less of the plastics which reflect dust and fingerprints.
If you want to see how it should be done, take a close look at – the irony – almost any older Audi. Just sit in an R8, a TT or the previous Q5 to see the proof. Or any current Škoda. More on this last point in my next review (the Superb estate) and the reasons why the Czech make surged to become the European region’s number two in May. Ever more people seem to be discovering the tactility of touch-points in older and/or non-electric Škodas.
Conclusion
Back with the new Q5 SUV, it is an easy car to like, even with the changes which have seen all the lovely clicks and satisfying presses banished to the bin. Lane centring and speed warnings are also a nuisance to turn off. Sorry to say it again but a certain other VW Group division does it way better via physical switches. Still, the Audi pulls back many points for the way it looks and the way it drives with that 2.0-litre diesel reason alone to buy it.
Pricing for the new Audi Q5 SUV starts at GBP51,410, while the as-tested Edition 1 TDI quattro 204 PS S tronic costs from GBP59,860 before options.
