Audi replaces its bestseller—here’s the next Q5 SUV

Enlarge / The third-generation Audi SQ5 (blue) and Q5 (black) go on sale early next year. (credit: Audi)

Audi provided flights from Washington to Munich and accommodation so Ars could be briefed about the Q5, as well as the A5 and A6 e-tron we wrote about several weeks ago. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

MUNICH—Germany’s triumvirate of luxury automakers made their reputations off the backs of sedans, but the uncomfortable fact is that these days, they sell far more in the way of SUVs and crossovers, particularly in North America, where the prevailing sentiment is that station wagons belong with bell bottom jeans in the suburbs of the ’70s and hatchbacks are reserved for college kids. The ur-Quattro might have made Audi famous, but the Q5 is what keeps it profitable.

There’s a new Q5 on the way, the third in its line. As global electrification timelines are proving to be a little slower than once predicted, automakers are responding accordingly, and at Audi, that has meant developing Premium Platform Combustion, a new flexible architecture for internal combustion engine-powered vehicles (including hybrids) that combines the latest in software-defined vehicle technology with more fuel-efficient powertrains and the latest active and passive safety standards.

In mid-July, we published our first look at the first car to use PPC, the next Audi A5. Expect the SUV you see in this article to be a far more common sight in the US.