This post was originally published on Autocar
Ingolstadt’s sporty SUV steps away from diesel and goes back to petrol
There’s a very small detail on the new-generation Audi SQ5 that I think means a great deal: the red Audi Sport oblong is back. This oh-so-subtle differentiator could for a very short amount of time be stuck on the back of anything that had four rings at the front. Then Audi got rid of it entirely. Now it’s back on a proper S car.It would be a reach to say this ties up with Audi Sport returning to form, but this SQ5 is certainly good and much more of an S car than Audi’s latest electric cars. With the EV stuff, S variants have been a touch meh – more of a trim level with a few nice bits, rather than the toned-down RS experience that we had all come to enjoy. Sure, the S6 E-tron is quicker than the regular Audi A6 E-tron, but with an EV it’s a bit like, so what? Plus it has a notably shorter range. By contrast, the SQ5 is notably different to the regular Audi Q5.