We’re only a little more than a week away when the doors of the 2016 Paris Motor Show swing open and Audi has deemed this moment as opportune to tease its all-new Q5 which will be premiering in the French capital.
The teaser doesn’t reveal all that much but we’re confident that Audi has much to show off given how the first-generation model is now nearly a decade old. Sure, there was the facelifted version in 2013, but an all-new Q5 will truly bring the compact SUV up to par with the rest of marque’s newer and more sophisticated cars.
Sophistication, at least in terms of technology, is likely something that Audi wishes to be a major talking point with the next Q5 as the teaser emphasised the car’s LED head and tail lamps while also hinting at a possible integration with more capable self-driving systems.
No doubt the car will come with an evolution of Audi’s Matrix LED illumination that first appeared in their A8 flagship sedan, though its fitment will likely be an option on lower tier variants. Same goes for the increasingly prevalent Virtual Cockpit digital instrument cluster.
It’s much too early to speculate on the design of the all-new Q5 especially given the scant glimpses of the car’s shape and design cues, but given that Audi’s most recent cars have only taken a technically significant but visually iterative approach, we’re not expecting any big departures from the visual style we’ve come to associate with Audi or even the first-gem Q5 for that matter.
Just as the original Q5 looked like a more compact version of the larger Q7, the resemblance of the next Q5 to the second-generation Q7 is a near inevitability. However, much like Audi’s now-current crop of cars, new use of multi material construction and vehicle platform (MLB) should make the new car considerably lighter and more rigid.
Audi’s continued use of their turbocharged petrol (TFSI) and diesel (TDI) engines are also expected to continue with the all-new Q5 with the possibility plug-in hybrid model being strong. Later variants could also include a widely available full EV and a performance SQ5 version.
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