Damien Reid finds out why Audi’s latest launch could be one of the year’s most significant.
Despite the well-publicised budget cuts at Volkswagen, it seems there’s still enough in the kitty for big car launches if the reveal of the all-new Audi Q5 is anything to go by.
The Q5 is the most important model in Audi’s portfolio and could even be the most significant launch within the VW empire in 2017. The outgoing version sold more than 1.6 million units globally over its eight-year reign making it not only Audi’s best selling SUV but also surpassing the A4 as its best-selling car.
Set on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico not far from where it will be manufactured at a new state-of-the-art plant, the launch needed 25 cars to accommodate 50 journalists in our wave alone and as one slightly tired-looking Audi engineer confessed, our day was just one crammed into two and half solid weeks of media mingling.
The Q5 is new from the ground up and uses a shortened version of the latest, modular MLB2 platform it shares with the Audi Q7, A4, A8, VW Touareg and Bentley Bentayga.
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