Category: Audi

Audi has announced it will unveil the A5 convertible at the next Paris Motor Show in October of this year.

After the new Q5, Audi will add another variant to the A4/A5 family by launching a convertible version from the A5 coupé. Unlike the BMW 3-Series, Audi won’t switch to folding roof and will use a traditional canvas on the A5. As expected, the A5 convertible will be available with the same engine range as the coupé.

The A5 convertible is a milestone fro the carmaker which decided to build the new model at its Neckarsulm plant in Germany alongside the coupé while previous models were and still are being built by Karmann.  Karmann has started to build the A4 convertible in 2002 and has built 200,000 cars since then. The loss of the Audi A5 convertible contract is a real blow for the German coachbuilder which suffers from Indian and Chinese competition.

Audi took the wraps of the long-awaited Q5 at the Beijing Motor Show. The hot SUV will reinforce Audi’s lineup and help to boost it sales to achieve its 2018 target.

Despite spy-photographers working hard on spotting the Q5, Audi will have almost succeeded to keep its latest model in the dark. Pictures had emerged recently, but interior details had remained unknown. The new A5 is exactly what was expected, a small Q7. At 4630 mm long and 1880 mm wide, the Q5 is shorter than the Q7 by 450 mm removing the ability to add a third seat row in the future. Like the Q7m the A5’s exterior styling doesn’t have the grace of the saloons, but at least, the new model will fit better on our British roads.

The Q5 is based on the company’s MLP platform also used by the A4 and A5. As expected the Q5 is only equipped with the in-house Quattro transmission unlike the new GLK. In normal running conditions, the transfer case distributes the power to the front and rear axle in a 40:60 ratio for a rear-focused style that enhances driving pleasure. When needed, the quattro driveline can deliver up to 65 percent of the power to the front axle and a maximum of 85 percent to the rear axle. In addition to the in-house transmission, the topping engines, 3.0 TDI and 2.0 TFSI, will be available the S tronic, a new twin-clutch transmission with seven speeds. The 2.0 TDI transfers its power to a six-speed manual transmission.

The engine range will offer three engines, one petrol unit and two diesel units. The entry level will be powered by the  2.0 TDI  seen in the other brand’s models. Drawing on four cylinders and two liters of displacement as well, it delivers a power output of 168bhp  and a torque of 258 lb ft between 1,750 and 2,500 rpm. Average consumption reaches 35mpg. The other diesel engine is the powerful 3.0 TDI. This V6 diesel engine delivers 240bhp, with 369 lb ft of torque available between 1,500 and 3,000 rpm. Audi claims this three-litre engine achieves 31mpg. The only petrol unit is the The 2.0 TFSI which has been entirely redesigned for the Q5. The power jumps to 211bhp and the torque is of  258 lb ft at 1,500 rpm and remains constant up to 4,200 rpm. The Q5 2.0 TFSI achieves 28mpg.

With the unveil of the Q5 and the GLK, the fight to dominate the premium small SUV is launched.

Until now the V12-diesel-powered Audi R8 has haunted the motorshows, but hasn’t revealed more details yet. Here is the sound of the V12 TDI.

The German news magazine, Der Spiegel has recorded the V12 engines and is offering to listen to the music form the inside, the outside, in acceleration, and at normal pace. It’s still possible to hear the traditional diesel’s noise, but high revs are still impressive.

Click here to listen to the V12 TDI

Audi has announced that the eagerly-awaited Q5 will be unveiled on April 19th.

The Q5 will be one of the hottest SUV of this year and will compete with the BMW X3, the Mercedes GLK, and the Volvo XC60. Based on the MLP like the A4 and A5 models, the Q5 is expected to be powered by a wide range of engine. Both petrol and diesel will be available.

The new model will be Audi’s attempt to expand its SUV range which features only one model, the Q7. Later the company will launch a smaller SUV likely to be called Q3.

The Audi A4 has been elected at the most popular car in Germany in a vote organized by more than 100 regional weekly newspapers.

More than 100 regional weekly newspapers in the former East Germany invited their readers to vote for “Our Car.” The selected cars had to be launched during the past year. Among the 56 models, the Audi A4 ranked first. Two other Audi joined the top ten. Audi A5 took third place, Audi R8 seventh. The Audi A4 has already received numerous major awards – including the “Golden Steering Wheel” from Bild am Sonntag and the “Auto 1” trophy from AutoBild naming it the best new car in all of Europe.

This was in fact the fourth time that the brand with the four rings has won this readers’ poll. In 2001, the old-generation Audi A4 took first place, a feat later achieved by the Audi A6 in 2005 and the Audi TT last year.

After the Q7 hybrid, the plummeting value of the dollar makes another victim among the Audi future hybrid lineup. The carmaker has announced that the Audi A4 hybrid won’t cross the Atlantic ocean.

The Q7 was canceled due to its price expected to be too high in the US. The A4 gets the same fate, but Audi USA communications director Jeff Kuhlman also explained that cost of homologating the hybrid system on both vehicles would likely not be offset by the sales expectations.

Instead, Audi plans to sell a diesel-powered A4. The selected engine would be the 237bhp 3.0-litre V6 unit also available on the Q7. What’s interesting about this news is the trend followed by the market. It seems that there will be two schools. One one side, there will be Japanese and Americans promoting hybrid technologies. On the other side, there will be the German clique with its diesel engines. How will the American market react to both offers. Generally recalcitrant to diesel engines, will the German brand image be powerful enough to convince consumers to switch?

Audi has announced that it will launch a V10-powered R8 in the second quarter of next year.

Audi executive director of engine and powertrain, Wolfgang Hatz, confirmed that the carmaker will launch the eagerly-awaited V10-powered R8 next year after solving the cooling problem generated by the twin-turbocharged engine. “The cooling is no problem now. The car is now signed off, and will appear during the second quarter of 2009. I can’t say much about it until then,” he said. He also confirned that the engine will be an updated version of the 5.2-litre petrol unit. “Why would we spend money developing a whole new engine for this car, when we already have such a good one,” he added.

Expected to be dubbed RS8, the top of the range will feature the V10 seen in the RS6. Final specs remains unknown. The RS6 engine delivers 580bhp, so the RS8 will likely be more powerful. The RS8 is rumoured to reach a top speed above 200mph and run 0-60mph in less than four seconds.

An Audi’s spokesman has revealed in an interview that there was no pan to build the rumoured R4 which was said to take on the Porsche Cayman.

The rumour had emerged on the Internet one year ago and had been “confirmed” by a leaked official document from Audi. However a company spokesman told Automotive News the carmaker had no plan to build a smaller R8. At a time Ferrari officially denies working on a new 2+2 model despite several prototypes spotted during testing, Audi’s statement should be regarded with suspicion. In the meantime, the rumour itself should also be regarded with suspicion.

According to the rumour, the R4 was a sportier TT expected to take its styling cues from the R8 supercar. The coupé was reported to be based on a mid-engine platform and hit the showrooms by 2011.

Audi marked a new milestone by producing the millionth current generation Audi A3 model.

Audi announced that the 1,000,000th model rolled off the production line at its factory in Ingolstadt. The milestone car is a Brilliant Red, 138bhp 2.0-litre TDI Audi A3 Sportback intended for a customer in Franconia, Germany.

Since the launch of the first generation in 1996, more than 1.9 million units have been manufactured. Each day, more than 800 units of the Audi A3 roll off the production line in Ingolstadt. Among the 230,849 units produced last year, the Sportback accounted for 68.9 percent of the total.

The Q7 hybrid was expected to go on sale from next year on the American market, but Audi has announced that the hybrid SUV won’t cross the Atlantic ocean as its selling price would be too high there.

In an interview with Automotive News, Johan de Nysschen, Audi’s brand head in the U.S, has revealed that the carmaker won’t bring the hybrid-powered Q7. However the company plans to sell it on special order. “It was a very hard car to make the numbers work. We will not do the hybrid Q7 as a conventional product offering," told Johan de Nysschen to the newspaper.

Expected to weigh in €50,000 in Europe, the Q7 would cost around $78,000 in the US while a hybrid GMC Yukon only costs $50,000. It seems that Audi doesn’t believe people are ready to pay a $28,000 extra for the quality of the Q7. The hybrid Q7 is powered by a 272bhp 3.6-litre FSI petrol engine and a 51bhp electric motor. The carmaker claims the hybrid Q7 achieves 28mpg and emits 237g CO2/km.

The company doesn’t mention the recent sales drop in the large SUVs segment as one of the reason to drop off the hybrid Q7 in the US. However, the company plans to focus on the Q5 hybrid which won’t also be sold at a competitive price due to the weak dollar. Maybe, Audi doesn’t see any future for big SUVs.