Audi RS Q5 will be a 600bhp super SUV to replace your BMW X3 M
Audi’s in the process of shoehorning the RS5’s 630bhp hybrid V6 powertrain into the Q5. These prototypes will become the new RS Q5
Audi is preparing a new RS Q5 super SUV to fill the hole in the market left by the now discontinued BMW X3 M and only catered to currently by the aging (but still excellent) Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio. Spied testing here, the sportback-bodied prototype bears all the hallmarks of an Audi Sport product in its second trimester.
Looking at the prototype, we can see makeshift arch extensions to house widened wheels within the extremities of a prototype that’s still using the body in white of a standard SQ5 Sportback. At the front, we can see RS5-style front bumpers with large flanking vents that reach vertically almost to the headlights. Behind the honeycomb vents, heat exchangers and brake cooling ducts.
At the rear, we see the de rigueur cavernous oval exhaust pipes, though it’s unclear whether this prototype is wearing a near-production bumper, as it doesn’t feature the same integrated exhaust outlets as the RS5 and prototypes we’ve seen of the upcoming RS6. It’s possible this won’t carry over to the SUV model. We can also see a small exaggerated spoiler. Nothing on the cabin yet, but it is interesting to see with a peer through the windscreen, a set of very serious Recaro seats in this mule.
Powertrain and hardware-wise, we can speculate the RS Q5 will borrow much from the RS5, which has 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 working in concert with an electric motor. In the RS5, that engine and motor are good for 630bhp and 603lb ft, the motor fed by a 25.9kW battery. The RS5 manages 50 miles on a full charge. The RS Q5, likely weighing more and with more drag, won’t quite match that. While this mule doesn’t have any high-voltage warning stickers, we can see it’s a hybrid by the fact that the Q5’s fuel flap is on the right-hand side of the car, with only the PHEV – and this prototype – featuring a flap on the left hand-side for the charging port.
We expect the sophisticated twin-valve dampers, capable of independent adjustment of compression and rebound, to be adopted, likewise the RS5’s five-link hardware set-up. The RS Q5 could also get the RS5’s electromechanical torque-vectoring rear differential, that features a 10bhp, 30lb ft electric motor and can deploy torque differences between the rear wheels of 2000nm, in as little as 15 milliseconds. In the RS5, this allows the tyre-destroying Torque Rear drift mode.
What it may not share with the RS5 is rear-wheel steering. Look closely and we can see (just about) that the prototype’s rear wheel is kinked outward when the fronts are on full right-hand lock. That suggests that a rear-wheel steering system is at least being considered for the RS Q5, to improve its agility.
Audi’s RS5 landed to mixed acclaim, its sprawling technical appointment and potent hybridised twin-turbo V6 powertrain working well to imbue what is a 2400kg car with a sense of dynamism. That said, the RS5 falls further towards the side of Autobahn express than a true super saloon and estate to trouble the BMW M3 as a driver’s car. Perhaps that slightly more relaxed character will suit a fast SUV better.
Though this RS Q5 mule isn’t as close to production-spec as it could be, we still expect to see the production version revealed next year. It’ll have the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio to face for the crown of best smaller super SUV. There will also be Mercedes-AMG’s GLC 53 or BMW's X3 M50 as lighter, less intense and less expensive options.
