Audi confirms UK prices for new Q9 flagship
For its server farm-sized SUV to succeed, it must talk buyers out of a Range Rover. Good luck
The new Q9 takes Audi where it has never been before: the upper reaches of the full-size luxury SUV market. There be monsters etc. For the most part, it is about doing better (i.e. making more money) in North America, where the sky really is the limit in terms of size and potency, and competing with the likes of the BMW X7. Of course, it was part of that car’s remit to do battle with the current Range Rover - and clearly the Q9 has the size and the badge and cliff-faced grille needed to do both.
Quite how it gets on over there will be interesting, though Audi’s focus on the global market (it has high hopes for China and the Middle East, too), does mean that Europe and the UK are something of a side show. The 600hp flagship variant, powered by an unencumbered V8, will not even make it to the old world, meaning the Q9 launches in this country with less of a bang than a steady burr: there is one engine available from today, and it is a 3.0-litre V6 diesel.
If that sounds like the most noughties thing you’ve heard since a Liam Gallagher solo project, you should know that the diesel unit is very much a modern affair (i.e. it comes with both MHEV tech and an electric-powered compressor for improved response), yet its output is familiar: 299hp and 465lb ft of torque ought to make the Q9 brisk enough despite its prodigious size.
Brisk enough to talk UK buyers from the prospect of owning a Range Rover, the Tudor mansion of cars? Well, Audi has been sensible enough to undercut the £107,530 starting price of an entry-level SE (a model that also comes with a six-cylinder mild-hybrid diesel engine), though £103,900 on the road is hardly a substantial saving at this level. For the record, a BMW X7 xDrive40d, with a superior 352hp oil burner, is from £94,375.
When was the last time you saw one of those? The X7’s uncommonness suggests that in this county at least, people in the market for six-figure SUVs tend to favour a Land Rover product. Naturally, Audi will have newness on its side, not to mention electrically adjustable and heated seats for seven - or for six, if you’d prefer to pay for the option of ventilated and massage seats across three rows. Stretch to the Vorsprung trim at £113,250, and you get 23-inch wheels and the world’s first curved OLED rear lights, among much else.
“The Audi Q9 is a compelling new proof point of Audi’s leadership in the premium automotive market,” says Audi UK director José Miguel Aparicio. “As our first full-size SUV flagship, it completes the Audi SUV portfolio and introduces a new benchmark for luxury, innovation and comfort.” Well, the existing benchmark is certainly well-established; like the X7 before it, the Q9 will likely need more than comfy seats and lighting confetti to leave a dent in it.
king ugly this thing is until now.This is aimed at places that have big parking spaces and like brash grilles, although Jaecoo do appear to be doing a roaring trade here now...
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