Audi Q Experience | Preview Drive

20 February 2020 Redazione Experience, News, Stories, Tested

AUDI Q5/Q7/SQ8

The Q Hybrid Experience

Words and Photos by Alessandro Marrone

Did you know that a stone’s throw from Cagliari’s airport there’s an insane amount of flamingos? While the driver who is bringing me to the meeting and press conference location of this special test at the top of the Audi SUV range, I keep wriggling towards the windows that give me a view of the fabulous and rugged south coast of Sardinia. We are heading towards the 2,700 hectares of the Conti Vecchi salt pans, the longest serving in the region and among the largest you can find. The charm of this place, still kept in its offices, laboratories and rooms still furnished as decades ago, introduces what will be two days of driving compressed and focused in simulating the most varied uses that an owner of a high-end Audi SUV could face once collected his new purchase.

The line-up at our disposal therefore takes the shape of the best-selling Q model in the world, the Q5, which recently embraced the hybrid route, presenting a plug-in variant useful for offering distinctly sporty performance, while maintaining its look towards a reduced fuel consumption and emissions suitable for the model which more than any other represents the ultimate meeting point of a three hundred and sixty degrees car. The top step is represented by the Q7, here in the 50 TDI version – mild hybrid – just like the first lady of the Sardinian experience, the phenomenal SQ8, the most powerful diesel SUV in Europe. As in all these cases there is much to say and a handful of magazines entirely dedicated to the subject would not be enough (individual tests on each model will arrive during the year, ed), but given that space is limited and that Hybrids are no longer seen as UFO stuff, but as a solid alternative perfectly exploitable in the real world, it is time to get on the first car and start grinding the first kilometers, the ones that will see me grappling with the Q5 55 TFSI e (where the “e” means electric or rather hybrid), obviously equipped with Quattro all-wheel drive and a 7-speed S tronic gearbox.

Introduced – as well as the other two models here – in the last quarter of 2019, the Q5 maintains a sober look, made sharper by the front grill and by the character given to it by the S-line package, a pretty compulsory box to tick during the configuration phase, especially with regards to the exterior. Everything is exactly where it should be, but where the new plug-in hybrids really manage to amaze lies in the result of the combination of the 2-liter 4-cylinder TFSI thermal engine with the electric engine integrated in the gearbox, for a total power of 299 hp (for the 50 TFSI) and 367 hp (for our 55 TFSI), which inevitably bring with it all the advantages of every hybrid car and therefore taxes only calculated on the power delivered by the combustion engine, government incentives, etc. Boring things right? I assume those who don’t care about the load compartment will be screaming this, and since we’re on the argument be aware that despite guesting the battery pack, the trunk has not lost its innate abilities to make you bring on vacation the necessary, the superfluous and even the useless. In fact, whether you are driving in Comfort or in Dynamic mode, the Q5 55 TFSI e behaves like a moody mother-in-law to whom you said that her spaghetti served at dinner weren’t anything special. Just press firmly on the throttle and the instantaneous thrust of the electric motor comes into play, making it not only the most practical SUV in the range, but also one of the most performing, with a maximum torque of no less than 500 Nm (450 Nm for the more modest 50).

With an almost instantaneous and constant delivery and a car body with dimensions and weight that are still contained, you start driving like a madman, taking advantage of the fantastic all-wheel drive and its traction control that intervenes by anticipating loss of grip thus eliminating understeer even on the most slippery surfaces. Taking advantage of the fact of following a narrower dirt path, I have the possibility to notice the excellent soundproofing of the passenger compartment and the softness of the structure equipped with adaptive pneumatic suspensions, without forgetting of course the fact of being able to drive in full electric mode for a maximum of 45 km. Exactly, we are still talking about a hybrid vehicle, I almost forgot it. It is indeed surprising how Audi manages to bring the two engines together and make them talk in unison without the driver realizing it. Where during braking, the 14.1 kWh lithium battery is recharged and will therefore allow it to be used in favor of performance or fuel economy, the advantage of having a plug-in model is being able to have a car electrically charged in the morning, because you can of course plug it to your living room socket, as you do with your smartphone. You just can’t put it in your pocket once you get to the office.

It matters little, exactly like the fact that the big boys who are waiting to stretch their wheels are ready to wait for the second half of this two days test drive on the sunny and semi-desert roads of Sardinia. The SQ8, as well as the Q7 50 TDI are hybrids of a completely different nature. Being mild-hybrid means representing an intelligent choice that meets the end user not only on an engineering-mechanical level, but also for tax and emission-related reasons. Their goal is not so much to reduce fuel consumption, but to impersonate a valid alternative to powerful petrol engines. They do it to the sound of horsepower, aggressive looks, but perfectly suitable even for those who don’t intend to scream aim fire coming out of the neighborhood. The SQ8 is what you will inevitably end up looking with more desire, with that big coupe line, huge wheels that envelop a car body ready to leap forward thanks to a 4-liter V8 grounding 435 horsepower and 900 Nm of torque. Numerically, it takes just 4.8 seconds to shoot from 0 to 100 kph, but physically it is like observing the road through a viewfinder – the moment before you are here, the one after you have already passed it. And when you get into corners, you can still allow yourself to go down heavy, not only for the Quattro traction and for the adaptive suspension, but for the integral steering that allows the rear wheels to facilitate the behavior of an almost 2 and a half tons giant, as in the most panoramic stretch separating Teulada to the Capo Spartivento lighthouse.

With the same hybrid technology, which consists of an electrically operated compressor that acts on the two turbos at low rpm, the Q7 50 TDI is a tank as well. With 286 horsepower and 600 Nm, the maximum torque curve is reached between 3,500 and 4,000 rpm, while the SQ8 V8 manages to ground all its violence at just 1,250 rpm. The Q7 weighs a few pounds less, but the car body and the reduced engine volume lead you to prefer a more relaxed driving, appreciating the on-board technology package that Audi offers, such as the inevitable virtual cockpit, or the dual touch screen from which you can manage climate controls and sat navigator separately. At the wheel of the Q7 you also feel less guilty in tackling more insidious dirt roads, but for each of the three models under test it is still a complete use and therefore both on the road, off-road, and obviously in urban or motorway context. In 2020, with hybrid technology increasingly within everyone’s reach and in constant development, diesel engines of this kind (which are still hybrid in these two last cases) really make sense. The Q5 TFSI e starts at around € 57,500, the Q7 starts at € 71,300 and the SQ8 requires at least € 111,000. Three steps that positively tick each box you could want from a high-end SUV capable of doing everything well, even to amuse those who have heavy feet but want to feel partially at peace with the polar bear.