General Director Audi Australia Jeff Mannering recently said that the flagship off-roader Audi Q9 could appear by 2026, and now it was spotted on tests.
The Audi has almost all the base off-road vehicles except one. Its model range is completed by the Q7, a three-row family off-roader that competes with the BMW X5 and Mercedes GLE. Now the manufacturer tests Audi Q9 to compete with BMW X7 and Mercedes GL/GLS.
Compared to the Q7, the Q9 offers more space and a greater focus on luxury, while the price could be around $100 thousand. After 2026, all new Audi models will be electric vehicles, so the novelty should appear by the end of 2025, according to Carscoops. In principle, the fact of testing the car in early 2024 confirms this assumption.
It was previously reported that dealers in North America were informed of the model’s arrival more than a year ago. The Q9 will be one of the last new Audi models with internal combustion engines.
Audi is expected to offer a combination of mild hybrids and connected hybrid transmissions, which will include a version of the 4.0-litre V8. The plug-in hybrid Q9 should travel more than 110 km without recharging.
Launching the Audi Q9 in 2025 as a 2026 model will allow the manufacturer to continue a full model cycle (with facelifting), before Audi completely eliminates the car with DVC from its lineup in 2033.