The Audi Q9 is much more than the brand’s latest supercar. It is America’s search for a glorious past

Five years have passed but the market has changed at a devilish speed. Like the rubber band of a slingshot, the automobile industry has tightened to the point of shooting in all directions with a lack of control like we have never experienced before.

In 2021, Audi announced that it was abandoning the development of gasoline and diesel engines. The reason was very simple: fines. According to their calculations, the limits expected with Euro 7 and the restrictions regarding emissions planned by 2025 they were so strict that it was not worth continuing to invest money in combustion engines.

Those days, brands were in a race to get on the electric car bandwagon. With Tesla starting to gain traction and the European Union placing more and more obstacles on gasoline and diesel cars, electric seemed like the future. But everything has blown up. In Europe, the embrace of the electric car has been delayed more than expected and in China, once loyal buyers of Western cars, have embraced the local product.

That clamp has caused Audi to be left in no man’s land. Now they are determined to regain ground and the Audi Q9 is the latest example of this.

Audi Q9 technical sheet

Looking across the Atlantic

In this commitment to the electric car, the Volkswagen Group immersed itself in practically complete electrification, but the rush led them to a complex space. The MEB platforms arrived first but, at the same time, they developed a second platform called PEE that came to give rise to the new Audi Q6 e-tron and the Porsche Macantwo electric cars with which they hoped to gain market share.

The most curious thing about the project is that this platform had only been developed for two cars, an extraordinary investment that would not have continuity because the objective was to unite all the group’s cars in the future SSP. That hodgepodge of platforms It caused constant delays at Cariad, his company dedicated to software development, which in turn ended up delaying the Porsche and Audi SUVs.

At the same time, the Chinese market was being completely transformed. What was an almost infinite fishing ground for potential clients has become little less than a desert for Western firms. At least for those that offer the same products as in the West. The reasons are very simple: very expensive prices and a technological proposal from the past. That’s why Audi is selling cars in China that, in reality, are not Audi. Even though we read Audi on the front.

The German company’s rivals took two paths. Mercedes clearly opted for the electric car. Like Audi’s e-tron, the EQs were part of a family of their own. And in both cases the result in sales has been discreet. Instead, BMW seems to have hit the mark. While reserving 10,000 million euros (10,000 million euros!) to develop a new generation of electric cars, they were clear that combustion engines were going to continue to have life. Target: people with a lot of money.

Over the years, Audi and Mercedes have had to reverse. Both companies have seen their sales in China plummet. That, which is already a problem in itself, has not been accompanied by the expected increase in electric sales in Europe. If we add to that that the United States is clearly betting on the combustion market and that there is no change in sight in the short term, both companies have put on the handbrake and have recalculated their strategy.

In the case of Audi, it is clearly going through repositioning the brand. It is not only about selling combustion engines over electric cars, it is about giving back to the company part of a prestige that has been damaged. The company, for example, has lost its Audi A8 with which to compete against the Mercedes S-Class and the BMW 7 Series. And the worst of all is that he left without making a sound..

Having recalculated the strategy with electric vehicles, the Volkswagen Group seems to be clear that it has to raise the level of the company. The first and clearest example was the Audi Concept C. Last year they presented a coupe that played with the school’s own lines Bauhaus. German sentiment that looked to the past to lay the foundations for the future. Aluminum and simple shapes to recover the two-seater sports car. It will be electric, yes, but also It is the resurrection of a formula that seemed lost. A halo car to attract the customer that should share a platform with the successor to the Porsche Cayman and that, above all, tastes like Audi TT.

with that same design languageAudi recently presented the Audi Nuvolaria plug-in hybrid supercar that will be limited to 499 units based on the Lamborghini Temerario. The movement, again, is that of a clear commitment to greening the past and remember that one day There was an Audi R8 that left us speechless for years.

Now, it is the Audi Q9 that comes to write a new chapter in the company’s history. Until now, the Audi Q7 was the Germans’ most ambitious SUV when it came to traveling fast and comfortably. The Audi Q8, cousin of the Lamborghini Urus, had a different, sportier and more aggressive approach. But the company has been missing a type of private jet for years to compete with the bmw x7 either Mercedes GLS.

Without the representative sedan that is the Audi A8, the Audi Q9 is a clear commitment to attract the public in the United States and the Middle East. With its 5.31 meters long and 2.21 meters wide, we are talking about a gigantic car that has problems moving through European cities. It is very likely that, on our continent, we see it as a representation vehicle but it is very limited to be used as a private car.

With a view to selling itself in these markets, Audi leaves electrification aside and bets on a 3.0 V6 diesel microhybrid engine that develops 299 HP and 630 Nm of torque. It tastes like the past, again. And that does not have to be bad, it simply throws the dart at a type of customer who clearly rejects the electric car and who has not yet embraced the proposals that have been presented in that sense such as the Mercedes EQS. There is, to begin with, not even a plug-in hybrid option.

In addition to this commitment to combustion, the car comes with proposals from the aforementioned markets. It comes with seven seats but also with the option of six seats with three rows with two huge seats in each one. That idea of ​​traveling like a private jet, lost with the release of the Audi A8, returns.

To dress up that experience, we have a loudspeaker system signed by Bang & Olufsen with 4D sound (it has two speakers in the front headrests with actuators to maximize the experience) that is powered by 22 speakers, an 11.9-inch instrument panel that accompanies the 14.5-inch central screen. The passenger also has its own screen, in this case 12.3 inches. All built on Android Automotive. On the roof is the largest sunroof that Audi has ever manufactured, with technology to opaque it and filter, they say, 99.5% of UV radiation.

Another good example of where this car is headed is that the speed assist allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel up to a maximum of 130 km/h. This adaptive cruise control It also has a lane change assistant that works while the driver drives without hands. This feature is only available in Germany, the United States, and Canada. Of course, remember that “the driver remains responsible and must remain alert at all times.”

And finally, as pointed out in the podcast PowerArt You just need to look at how Audi has abandoned some classic design lines with the Audi Q7 to get closer to the American public. Nor does its starting price of 126,000 euros encourage us to think that we are looking at an SUV with Europe as its objective.

Photos | Audi

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