Audi unveils facelifted Q5: New styling, more technology and fancier lights

The Audi Q5 has been a popular choice among buyers looking for a luxurious mid-sized SUV, offering a good amount of space and features. However, it was discontinued in India recently, owing to Audi’s departure from using diesel engines. Now though there is a new Q5, with a bolder front-end, a refreshed rear-end with customisable OLED headlights and updated technology. Judging by Audi’s commitment to India and the SUV’s popularity before it was discontinued, it should be making its way to our shores very soon.

Exterior

The 2021 Audi Q5 is slightly longer than its predecessor, but the company says that's largely due to the bigger bumpers, so don’t expect a roomier cabin. The new Q5 looks more aggressive, especially in the S-Line trim pictured here, thanks to the wider ‘Singleframe’ grille, new LED headlights (Matrix LEDs optional) and larger air intakes. At the rear are a pair of new OLED taillights that are offered with three different signatures buyers can choose at the time of purchase. Moreover, the taillights can react to various situations — all OLED sections light up if another car comes within two metres of the rear, the ‘Dynamic’ drive mode gets its own light signature and each of the light designs mentioned above get their own lock and unlock signatures. The rear-end also gets a strip in between the taillights and a redesigned bumper. The side sills have also been reworked to offer more ground clearance.

Interior

The inside of the new Q5 is largely unchanged but it does get Audi’s latest MIB 3 infotainment system. There is a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 10.1-inch touchscreen central infotainment display. The touchscreen means that Audi has done away with the rotary controller, freeing up some space in the central tunnel. Users can store up to six profiles for the car, allowing personalised settings for air conditioning, seating position and navigation settings. These profiles are stored on the cloud, allowing users to download them to any Audi they drive which runs on the MIB 3 system.

Powertrains

The new Q5 gets a range of engine options internationally, and comes as standard with mild-hybrid technology. At the moment, there is only a 2-litre four-cylinder diesel engine for sale internationally but that will be followed by a V6 TDI and two 2-litre four cylinder TFSI engines. The India-spec Q5 is likely to get the 2-litre TFSI engine, probably with the same output of 241bhp and 370Nm as the A6. However, we expect the Q5 to come standard with the quattro all-wheel-drive system, unlike its front-wheel-drive sedan sibling.

The new Q5 will take on SUVs like the BMW X3 and the Mercedes-Benz GLC when it comes to India. It will go on sale internationally later this year, but we expect the new Q5 to hit our roads sometime next year. Expect there to be a hike in price over its predecessor, but if the A6’s pricing is anything to go by, it should be priced rather aggressively.