2026 Audi Q5 driving REVIEW PHEV (e-hybrid) – why is the Q5 the most sold Audi?
Many don’t know, but the most important Audi is actually the Audi Q5 because this is their best seller here now in the new generation. And today we’re driving it as the plug-in hybrid. More relevant for more and more people and we’re going to test how it performs, you know, between the combustion and the electric drive. Everything here with Thomas on Autogefühl, in 4K full screen, full length. Let’s go with the front large Singleframe grille. New design here also with these inserts. This is the S-line, the Sportier design, and with the bright Audi rings here. You could also get a dark package if you prefer that. Glacier white is this exterior color here. The length has grown slightly in the overall length here now at 4 meters 72 or 186 inches. Then from 18 to 21 inch wheels, theoretically you could also get 17 inch winter tires, but these here are the 20 inch wheels. If you go for an S line or a true S model, you would already start from 19 inch. Interesting is that we have also a painted wheel archer, so more elegant design in this respect, and the suspensions are actually quite elaborated. The base suspension or the S, the fixed sport suspension, they both have frequency adaptive dampers already. And this one here, optionally equipped with the adaptive air suspension, which of course gives you this floating ride. Then all are all-wheel drive. And then here the new light signature goes all the way through. Different LED specs are available, not only for the front with matrix LED, but also for the rear with these OLEDs, so organic LED. However, here you can see the difference. This is when the OLED is not equipped with the vehicle, whereas with other vehicles we had recently there was the OLED. There you can also see the difference. I think, yeah, it also looks cool like this, not really that necessary. And new true design, honest design for the exhaust. So this is a real exhaust on both sides, even for the four cylinders. So the Audigo Fuel Fake exhaust police is now actually out of job, at least for the new Audi models. That’s very interesting, isn’t it? Now towards the interior here, the small slim key fobs, nice. Then here, door closing sounds. Nice from the front. Also, especially nice from the rear, that sound there. And talking about sound. How about this first generation Audi R8 there? That’s very nice, right? This one is from 2010. Oh, and that’s the first generation Audi TT. That vehicle here is from 2000. So wow, 25 years contrast to filming this car here. Now to the Q5 plug-in again. Then inside of the door here, top part, it is a structure, but it’s not entirely super hard, but it’s not really soft. But at least it’s structured when you feel it, but not very soft. Then fabric insert here for this trim. There are different trims available. One of the things I don’t like so much about the Q5 is this one here. It collects scratches, fingerprints, and so on. And this is a one-button design for everything. And then you control the side mirrors and so on. And when you grab this handle from the inside, sometimes you’re like over. So not ideal, I would say. I would wish the classic controls for the mirrors in there. Then here, hard pack, just a rubber pad again at the bottom part. And here for the plug-in specific, trunk opening. And here you release the fuel cap for the petrol filling in. Then S-line, and we were just placed really low here, right? And usually it’s more like there. And then we also have the S-line steering wheel, contra stitches, perforation at the outside, Audi rings, two-dimensional. We know that in more future Audis, the three-dimensional things will come back. And then when I put the ignition on, you can see this is also backlit. So, and it has clicking sound. I’m not a fan of one-button design and the capacitive control, but then again you have a clicking feedback at least, so that’s good. But I would still wish for real buttons there again. But Audi is working on that, definitely. Then the seats, there are base fabric seats available. These are sports fabric seats in this case with more shoulder accentuation, then more grey on the inside. And with these individual pads, they look nice and also increase comfort. Then there’s also Dynamica microfiber available and also a mix of animal skin and leatherette. There’s no animal-free interior for the Q5 yet. There, for example, the BMW X3 offers better choices, definitely. But the ergonomics itself, they are actually quite good. And here with Wami 89, 602, still enough headroom left. You can also here put this one a little bit longer. And depending on the market, you have the different choices. For example, the US market is more focused on the slick surfaces. And I would wish they would also offer a full high-grade leatherette like BMW. And BMW also has more seating depth, you know, so the bolstering underneath, definitely. But still, good seating position, up and down, in and out with that steering wheel. Very easily done. And also as a tall person, you can find a good seating position. And here, Leah discovered this here for us. This would be like opening and closing, usually, but it’s moved down there. And I wonder if they kept it for some other markets where this one is mandatory or something like that. Yeah, maybe. If you have a Q5 and 200, if you have a new Q5 and you have opening and closing up there, then tell me in the comments. And I also do some more research on that. And it’s the same thing for the other side. So in this case, it’s a little bit lazy designer. What do you think? And indeed, we just got confirmation from Audi the US models will have opening and closing right here at the door, which I do prefer. In the US, it’s mandatory, actually, on both sides. I think it would be just way easier if we would also have that in the EU. Right? And for the front window, you can also get this lamination here in the window. Welcome to this interior of the ONU Q5 generation. And you have this one-panel design with the infotainment system here, digital instruments there. It is a lot of high-gloss black and a lot of bezels, yes. It’s still somewhat harmonious in the design, you know what I mean? Then you have different design elements here for this middle dashboard area and passenger display. It comes from the mid-tech package. And if you have the base-base version, here it would just be a back panel design. Not ideal, I would say. And most US and European customers don’t use the passenger display. It’s more a thing in the Asian markets, definitely. And then you can see here, really large middle constant. You have like this opening more towards the driver. Then here, adaptive cup holders. In the front, you have inductive charging pad, also ventilated, two USB-C chargers. You do have a button here down there for the drive select, different driving modes, and also a EV button. So now it was into the dynamic mode, therefore the engine now hopped on. But you can also go to the EV mode in here. At the moment, it’s not possible because it just hopped on the engine. And there you can also rule how you want to drive the vehicle and ESC off would possibly here as well. Then volume up and down. This is still manual, so to speak. Just shutting down the engine right there. And I’ll also go into the details of the driving modes very soon, how they react while driving. Then here, fabric cover, also soften off your elbow. You can put it up, more space underneath. And you can also put this one here in a specific angle. Cannot make it longer, but the angle is actually changeable. So overall, you get along very well with this cockpit, how you can see everything. Some things here, for example, the climate unit, they thought, hey, let’s put your hand right there and then control it like this. I think it’s not an ergonomic solution, so this should be better. And we are wishing back the real Audi climate knobs, but Audi promised us that from 2027, the all new models that come there will get back like physical knobs and dials and so on. So they have at least listened. But when they listen to such a feedback, it really takes time in automotive development that you can bring these things back. So yeah, that’s the thing. It’s also quicker already than it was in the past, but still it takes sometimes years to even out these things again. Glovebox, by the way, also smoothly dampened and some space in there, so it’s actually quite good. Also manual vents here in the middle part. So yeah, so you still have some interface things you can access easily. More about climate units and so on. And this software version, by the way, is now Android backed, so it’s at least quick. Here about the screens, this is here the digital instrument cluster. You can also change the views a little bit here. One more preview about the consumption. If you combine everything, that’s also interesting. What I’m not happy with is here the RPM, this is the comfort mode, and it’s in the right lower part. And in the efficiency mode, it’s still there. Only if you go to the dynamic mode. Then you have the RPM view here. So I think they should update that. I like to have the RPM here, not like in the right corner. And the main input taint system. So one of the key things here you have like a independent heating with the plug-in, of course, which you can activate here or time it, for example. Then you have basic main menu energy settings, like a charging goal you can also set, but I think that’s not really necessary for a plug-in hybrid, I would say. And there’s also the Kai internal GPS right here. And this one is important to set it if you want to have the optimum hybrid use, actually, as I will explain in the engine part. And very important here on the favorite button, I can set actually a shortcut that this speed limit giant EU law is deactivated. You can see it here in the top left. And another important thing is here, left next to the steering wheel with this stock column here. Press once, then the lane assist during cruise control is off, but press and hold for two or three seconds, then the lane keeping assist is completely off. And I would recommend it because it’s too aggressive, I feel. Now to the interior and the rear doors on top part, they’re actually quite hard, but there’s a structure. Then we have some fabric here on the inside and the lower door pockets or hard pack. At the bottom, there’s a small rubber pad there. And then we can change a lot of the seats here. So for example, here the inclination, you can have this cargo position or more laid back. But then you can also slide them forward and backward. And isofix covers here at the sides. So you can lift them up like this. And we also have the same fabric pattern folding on these. Adaptive cup holders. So this is very good build quality also from the inside. That nothing in the rear gets spilled. Ski hatch, also individually possible. And also two thirds, one third here for the sliding forward and backward to get more cargo length or more lag room. It’s not too much lag room here considering the car length, but here with these recesses here, it still fits for tall adult when I’m also here in the tall adult position in the front. And headroom, 1 minus 89, 62, also no problem. So it’s overall actually quite cozy in here. Two USB-C tiles in the top part. And the lower part, you also have a separate climate unit. But the only thing is that a little bit more legroom would be nice for sure. Now the trunk or the boot, usually 520 liters for the Q5, new generation. Here 440 liters. You lose a little bit because of the plug-in hybrid concept and how they have to hide all the other stuff. And then here you can see it barely works that this is still vertically underneath, but you can see it’s really less space in the height because here, usually, this one is a little bit lower. And I could also fold it up to store, for example, here, this cover. This could be stored in a normal version. Here it’s not possible. Well, then again, you have this even loading sill, meter of 40 inches in width. Length is 95 centimeters or 38 inches. This is all the same. It’s just that you lose a little bit of height. And here we are now at 27 inches or 59 centimeters. Still okay, so to speak. To fold the seats, the cool thing is here. We do have a remote unlock. The cable can be sold there. It can be also secured, but you can also leave it at home and you just charge it home at the wall box, for example. And then here, loading through to the front seat is about 70 inches or 1 meter 78. And you can also see, second difference, here there is basically a step where it falls down then here in the plug-in. So like this. So this is then the second limitation, so to speak. And under the hood, the strongest engine is the 3-liter V6 in the SQ5. The normal engines are 2-liter TDI, diesel or a 2.0-liter TFSI, which is also the base for the plug-in hybrid version. Here with 295 system output horsepower. There would also be a stronger one. This one here, it’s 6.2 seconds in the acceleration figure, also with all-way drive. Now with a bigger battery, in comparison to the older generation, now 21 kilowatt hours net, and that gives you like some 80 something, 50 miles of pure electric range. Charging on this side here, on the driver side, 11 kilowatt AC and takes about two and a half hours to charge from 0 to 100. No DC charging available, but for this kind of battery size, also not really needed. Then very interesting, the pure EV driving is about 140 kilometers an hour maximum that you drive only on the electric drivetrain, but that’s not very efficient, so maximum like 90 miles. But how does the car choose it? First of all, when you’re driving slower, more in the city, it rather prefers the electric drivetrain. And then when you’re driving more motorway, higher speeds, rather the combustion engine. That makes sense also in the efficiency sense. However, if you have set a GPS route, it will even calculate it better and then check out, ah, how long are we driving, which parts are more like high-speed motorway, which parts are in the city, and then adapt it for the whole route. That actually makes sense, but you can also select it yourself and you can also use this EV button on the interior to say, ha, this moment I want to drive electric, and then maybe later with the combustion and again when you reflow it out and so on. And as for the fuel economy, it really depends always how often you recharge and so on. But if you use both your fuel tank and the battery, we could score some combined long-term seven liters on one on kilometers. That’s about 34 mpg US, 41 mbg UK. Petrol only if the battery is depleted, more like about nine to 10 liters on one kilometers, more like 26 mbg US, 31 mpg UK. So it always depends on how are you using it. And again, the electric drivetrain makes sense if you don’t drive too fast. So as soon as you drive like more than 120 kilometers an hour, more like 70 miles an hour, then it would always make sense to use the combustion engine. Let’s drive the Audi Q5, new generation, and here also in the plug-in hybrid model to a 95 horsepower, 6.2 seconds in the acceleration figure. And we also have the progressive steering ears so that we don’t have to steer too much, but it still does something from the input on the wheels. You’re also driving with the Audi internal GPS, for example. And you can see here, once again, it’s very easy to steer this. At the same time, it’s also sporty to steer it. And we can do some first acceleration. We can also go here to the dynamic mode. And you guys see the throttle. That was 20 to 60. And there you can see the power of the Plug and Hybrid model, where even the Lear meter goes off. Because what’s happening? Yeah, the 2D TFSI would not be so powerful on its own, but here with the electric motor as an addition, it directly gets you this electric boost where you have the instant torque. So this is also why it’s so quick from the get-go. Yeah, and Lear was really surprised as for that. Especially in dynamic mode, then the power of both drivetrains is stressed. However, you can also go to, for example, the efficiency mode. Then here the combustion engine goes off immediately because now we are going downhill. With the brake pedal, I can get recoperation, so I can get some energy back to the vehicle. So that’s also good. And most of the time here in the city surroundings, the vehicle will also stay in the electric mode. And if I would like to stress that, I can also put the EV button here in the lower part. This would also be possible if I really want to decide myself, hey, you know, I want to drive the electric mode. Beautiful views here to South Tyrol once again. The steering is really precise, as I said, and it’s a lot of fun to drive this around. We do have 20-inch wheels on here, as mentioned on the exterior part, together with the optional air suspension. And that evens out the larger wheel size quite good. Also, when I’m going here over these manhole covers, it’s not uncomfortable at all. So the air suspension really gives you a nice soft ride. At the same time, it also has a sporty feedback that you can see the car also here in these tight corners and so on. That is actually fun to drive it. So that’s the really cool thing. I really like it. They have good mix that they found here between the sportiness and the comfort. And at this moment, since we are all in the lower speed areas, still doing that, it’s all electric and it drives really smooth in the EV mode. So you can hardly tell this is not an electric vehicle at this moment, you know. So it kind of feels like they are like all electric Q6 when it’s in the plug-in hybrid mode here. And it’s really smooth and fun experience to drive it with the EV mode. So I just recommend to charge it frequently and then to use this electric mode as often as possible, especially if you are not at motorway speeds here. Let’s just see how the difference is. For example, I can also induce the combustion engine here with shifting down. So let’s say I want extra power for overtaking, then in this case it’s deactivated directly again, but I would go to the dynamic mode. If I want the combustion engine to stay on, then I now have both powertrains at the same time. Can accelerate out of the corners. Lovely again how agile it is. Really tight here in these corners and you can also accelerate out very well. And even if you have both drivetrains combined, you always feel that there is this electric push happening. Sound on the engine is not too good, so this is more likable to drive it with the all EV mode, definitely. But really cool how smooth it is handling. So this combination of comfort and sportiness is very, very good here in this mid-size segment. Also the noise insulation, you hardly hear anything from the outside. We have it here with the installation package. So in the front then we have the laminated glass. And we were earlier also driving it on the motorway. So we are showing you here the more interesting parts of driving, but we’ve also been driving it like really, really fast, really, really high speeds on the motorway. And that was still very, very silent. So that’s also good. And then as I said earlier, when you are on a longer route, have also the GPS especially, then on the motorway the combustion engine is predominantly active, whereas on city driving, lower speeds, the EV mode is more active. And this is also the best efficient solution overall. Leah still in a good mood, although dynamic driving or in between? In between. As a passenger, of course, you feel that when the car is heavy and I mean it’s a large SUV and you also have the battery package on plus to it. So at some point it also creates some stress then on your passengers. I gotta say that. If we are in the balance mode again, let’s see. Yeah, then the engine is shut off once again, at least when the battery is full enough. At the moment it is. Theoretically, if you only drive in the city, you could also score pure EV numbers that are higher than 80 kilometers or 50 miles, even more like 100 kilometers, 60 miles, something like that. It always depends then on the individual use case. Yeah, but I can’t stress enough that driving is really one of the special things here of the Audi Q5. It’s super smooth, it’s baldy, it’s comfortable, especially if you go for all these options. And yeah, air suspension, not all the competitors here in this segment here offer an air suspension. So it’s of course a unique feature that may say is GLC is also offering that. Not on all markets though, but the Q5, I think it should be available with air suspension on all markets indeed. And I mean, can just recommend to go for that one. Unless maybe you want to keep it for 10 or 15 years. You know, repair cost for an air suspension could always be higher. Then it might be wise not to take it. But especially if you go for a lease, the air suspension is, of course, always a dream to drive. As for pricing, entry price is around 50,000 euros or pounds and so on. However, if you spec the vehicle, you have higher drive frame, plug-in hybrid, then technology packages and so on. This very vehicle here is already a little bit more than 80,000 euros. Yeah, that hurts then, but it’s also somewhat like the competitors offer it. If you, for example, also spec a fully spec like BMW X3 plug-in hybrid and so on. Then from the exterior, I think it works very, very well, especially here with the white Audi rings and the white exterior color. Plug-in hybrid has some negative effects, of course, because it’s limiting the rear, like the trunk in the rear. Of course, you don’t have anyway with this plug-in hybrid. So you can still live with it because the width and the length are still the same, of course. On the interior, we had some things that should be improved, like the climate unit, maybe more seat offering like BMW does and so on. But it drives so well with this air suspension, a floaty ride. So it also drives, I would say, better than some of the other competitors, especially if you went here for this optional air suspension. So the driving is the thing. More things to improve, the lane keeping assist. The good thing is you can easily deactivate it just by pressing here with your left index finger or left next to the steering wheel on the indicator stock, because the lane assist is really aggressive, so I usually always deactivate. At least it’s easy to deactivate. So these are my experiences, my thoughts. The plug in hybrid concept also works very well with this vehicle. Would you go for one? Tell me in the comments, and now join more Audi Q five content.
This is our in-depth review of the 2026 Audi Q5 PHEV (e-hybrid). We’re taking a look at Exterior, Interior and technology.
00:00 all-new Audi Q5
00:44 Wheels and suspension
01:19 Light signatures
02:03 Interior quality and comfort
05:56 Cockpit and interface
08:43 Driver POV
10:17 Rear seats
11:36 Trunk / boot
15:18 Driving Q5 e-hybrid
21:44 Price and pros and cons
#Audi #audiq5
Data & facts:
Audi Q5 / SQ5
2/3 SUV 1/3 Sportback worldwide, and 50/50 in Europe (sales)
built in Mexico
LED – LED Plus – Optional Matrix LED
S-line: matt black, SQ5 matt silver look
Aerodynamic optimization for less resistance and less noise
front windshield standard acoustic glass, side front windows optional
4,72 m 186” length (+ 3,5 cm 1,5”)
18-21“ wheels (17 winter wheel)
19“ standard for SQ5 and S-line
Real exhausts instead of fake exhausts
Optional rear OLED with possible warnings for vehicles behind
projector braking light
Base suspension or fixed sports suspension stiffer setup (Standard SQ5), both with frequency adaptive dampers
Optional (or Northern America standard for SQ5) adaptive air suspension up to 6 cm travel adjustment
Standard progressive steering
12“ instruments
14,5“ infotainment Android Automotive
11“ passenger display optional
optional HUD
optional Bang & Olufsen sound system with Active Noise Cancellation
Optional movable rear bench 10 cm
Optional rear USB C slots 100 W each
front USB C slots standard, optional 60 W each
520 l up to 1.470 l trunk (440 l phev)
Sportback 515 l
With Subwoofer and rear seat bench plus -45 l
Seats
Base seat in animal/leatherette mix or
Sport seats (Standard S-line or SQ5) in fabric or animal/leatherette mix or Dinamica microfibre/animal mix
All engines MHEV in EU 1,7 kWh battery gross, recuperation up to 25 kW
Northern America no MHEV
2.0 TFSI 204 hp FWD/AWD 8,6 s / 7,2 s
NA: 268 hp
2.0 TFSI PHEV 26 gross 21 kWh net 295/360 hp (6,2 or 5,1 s)
EV driving max 140 kmh 90 mph
11 kW AC 150 Min full charge (2 1/2 h)
2.0 TDI 204 hp AWD 7,4 s
3.0 V6 TFSI 367 hp AWD SQ5 4,5 s
All AWD quattro ultra
2,0 or 2,4 t AWD
From 50.000 pounds or 52.000 Euro, high spec 76.000 Euro
SQ5 85.500 Euro
Specced PHEV 83.000 Euro
Sportback + 2.500 Euro
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