Audi has taken the wraps of the Q5 facelift that’s coming to India next year. It gets updated styling, more tech on the inside and even mild-hybrid tech for the first time.
Audi pulled the Q5 off their shelves in India earlier this year and along with it, many other cars too. The German carmaker is set upon revamping their entire product portfolio in India and that involved bringing facelifts or next-gen models of all the cars they have discontinued in India. Audi has already revealed the India-bound Q3 and A3 earlier and now, here’s another missing piece of the puzzle that has been given a fresh new facelift – the 2021 Audi Q5 facelift.
So is the facelift comprehensive enough? Yes, certainly. While the new Q5 looks significantly different from its younger sibling, the Q3, the design theme is more or less the same. The front end has been updated with a new octagonal single-frame grille that is now a lot shallower than before. It also loses the brushed silver bezel that connected it to the headlamps. Although the one pictured above is a fully blacked out grille, Audi also has another option for the grille with more chrome on it.
The bumpers are now a lot more chiseled and the air intakes are more angular, also larger. They also get the same blacked-out treatment as the grille. The biggest highlight of the new Q5 has to be its new headlamp and tail lamp setup. Like most new Audi’s, the lights have been used as a gimmick and it looks rather cool. The Q5 now comes with full LED headlamps as standard across the range and Matrix LED lamps are an optional extra for the top-spec trims. The DRLs have also been completely revised and seem a lot more complex and sophisticated now.
The tail lamps at the rear also get a redesign and also feature digital OLED (organic LED) tech. In typical Audi fashion, the headlamps and tail lamps perform a dance when you press the lock or unlock button and it can even be personalized. In fact, the new lighting setup is the biggest giveaway about this being the new Q5. The SUV does not see much differences in profile expect for new alloy wheels. At the rear, the differences are more subtle and only comes in the form the redesigned LED tail lamp cluster and a sportier bumper with integrated exhaust tips.
There are not many changes on the interiors of the new Q5. We are so glad Audi didn’t introduce their twin-screen setup here on the Q5. The climate control stack has still been kept manual and its great that way. While there are no design changes, the screen size has gone up from 8.3-inch to 10.1-inch and there’s a lot more tech. Audi’s new MIB 3 system is 10 times more faster than its predecessor, it gets connected car tech and also Amazon’s Alexa platform. The central control system on the transmission tunnel has also been removed and placed on the steering wheel for a more driver-oriented setup. Interior space however remains unchanged from before.
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Internationally, the new Q5 gets a range of petrol and diesel engines but here in India, it will be a petrol only model. The Audi Q5 facelift will be powered by a 2.0L TFSI petrol engine in the 45TFSI spec in India. It will produce 245hp and 370Nm of torque, identical to the spec on the current A6 that is available here. The engine will come mated to a 7-speed S-Tronic dual clutch gearbox with the Quattro all-wheel drive system being standard. The new Q5 will also get a mild-hybrid setup to improve fuel economy.
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The Audi Q5 facelift will go on sale internationally by the later half of 2020 but it will only arrive here in India by 2021. It is only with the facelifted car that Audi will bring back the Q5 to India as the current car had been discontinued in the run up to the BS6 norms. The Audi Q5 rivals the likes of the Mercedes-Benz GLC, the Land Rover Discovery Sport, BMW X3 and the Volvo XC60. We expect prices for the new Q5 to start from around Rs 55 lakh (ex-showroom).
