Last summer Audi had already presented the diesel variant of the Audi SQ5, a 3.0 bi-turbo V6 with 308 hp and a maximum torque of 650 Nm. Now it's time to unveil, in Detroit, the Audi SQ5 gasoline.
This will be one of the main attractions of the German brand for the North American salon… and what an attraction! Unfortunately, Audi has already given us tremendous grief by announcing that this model was created specifically for the following markets: United States, Canada, China, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and … Ukraine. In other words, if you want to buy this V6 3.0 TSFi with 349 hp then the best thing will be to travel to Ukraine, as you won't find it in any other country in Europe.
With automatic transmission (eight speeds) and Quattro all-wheel drive, the Audi SQ5 TFSi makes the usual 0-100 km/h race in 5.3 seconds, strangely more 0.2 seconds than the Diesel variant. The consumption of the TFSi will obviously be higher than that of the TDi, making an average of 11.7 km/liter (less 2.2 km/liter).
After that and all things considered, it might even make sense for Audi not to venture out with the launch of this SQ5 TFSi in Europe. If the SQ5 TDi offers us more advantages, both in terms of performance and economy, then there is really no reason to take this TFSi home. This is unless the commercial value of these two models is extremely disproportionate...
Since the new Audi SQ5 TFSi won't come to Portugal, get to know that the SQ5 TDi will hit the national markets between March and April this year. The prices for this Diesel variant are still unknown, but we will aim for something around 80 thousand euros.
Text: Tiago Luís