The Audi Q9 is Here, and It’s Enormous

Ever seen an Audi Q7 out and about and thought to yourself, ‘nobody could possibly need a car any bigger than that?’ Us too, but apparently, plenty of people haven’t, because after months of teasing and drip-fed information, the Ingolstadt brand has unveiled its biggest car ever: the Audi Q9.

At over 5.3 metres long and 2.2 metres wide, Europe clearly isn’t really the primary market for this car, because it’s bigger than most villages here. Really, it’s got US sales on the mind, although it’s also designed to serve as a sort-of-successor to the recently-departed A8 saloon, which won’t be coming back in its current form any time soon.

Nevertheless, it’s coming to Europe, and in the UK, it’ll initially be available with a single engine option: a 3.0-litre turbodiesel V6 that also gets some mild hybrid tech and an electric compressor for low-end response. It makes 295bhp and 465lb ft of torque, and is hooked to an eight-speed automatic and standard all-wheel drive. It’s enough to get the gargantuan Q9 to 62mph in a hot-hatchish 6.5 seconds.

Some European markets will also get the option of a less powerful, 241bhp diesel, which sounds like it might have to work quite hard in a car likely to weight comfortably north of two tonnes, but you’ll have to move to North America to get hold of the powertrains you really want. They get a 2.9-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 with 429bhp, as well as an SQ9 with a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 knocking out 591bhp.

The Q9 rides on standard adaptive air suspension with a range of 90mm between the lowest and highest settings, while standard all-wheel steering should mask at least some of the sheer size of this lad. As usual with these systems, it turns the rear wheels in the opposite direction to the fronts at low speeds for a tighter turning circle, and with them at high speeds for greater stability, at up to 5 degrees in either direction.

Outside, it's all very Audi, with the usual ultra-powerful Matrix LED headlights and what Audi calls world-first digital OLED tail lights. It should come as no surprise that the interior is the main focus here. You get seven seats as standard, or a more comfort-oriented version that swaps the middle bench for two individual captain’s chairs.

It’s as screeny as we’ve become used to in modern Audis: a big curved unit houses the 11.9-inch instrument display and 14.5-inch central touchscreen, while a third screen, just for the front passenger – optional in some other Audis – is standard fit here, meaning driver and passenger need never hold a conversation if they don’t want to. Truly, the future.

A huge panoramic sunroof comes as standard with the usual photovoltaic darkening trickery, and in an Audi first, power doors are an option, so you don’t have to do anything so uncivilised as opening and closing them yourself. There's a beefy 22-speaker B&O sound system, too, which also matches the interior ambient lighting to the colours of a given track's album cover. Seems a perfect opportunity to revisit Charli XCX's Brat and see just how green it can go.

UK pricing is unconfirmed, and will be announced at the end of August when orders open here, but in Germany, a Q9 with the same diesel engine the UK is getting starts at €108,400, or around £93,000. A suitably big price for a truly massive car, then.