2016 Audi Q7 Debuts Official Photos and Info

2016 Audi Q7 Debuts with Next-Gen Styling, Next-Level Weight Savings

As of late, every automaker is boasting colossal weight savings realized from redesigning traditionally heavy vehicles using more lightweight materials. Land Rover claimed to have shaved as many as 926 pounds from the latest Range Rover—our scales showed perhaps half that savings—and Ford has trumpeted the 2015 F-150’s aluminum body as saving 700 pounds versus its predecessor.
Now Audi’s all-new Q7 SUV arrives touting a curb weight that’s 717 pounds lighter than before.
That’s a lot of fat to trim, but simplifying the task was the fact that the last-gen Q7 was veritably overengineered. It sat on a platform shared with Volkswagen’s Touareg and Porsche’s Cayenne, underpinnings designed to deliver big-time off-road ability; as such, the bones were heavier and beefier than necessary for those vehicles’ day-to-day tasks.

Let Jeep Have the Off-Road Business, We’ve Got Carbs to Cut

Freed from requiring major off-pavement ability, Audi was able to pull weight out of the Q7’s MLB II body structure, suspension, and even its transmission. A mix of high- and ultra-high-strength steel comprises the lion’s share of the SUV’s body-in-white; using aluminum most everywhere else—the fenders, hood, doors, and the tailgate—means the basic vehicle has shed 209 pounds. A further 221 pounds was pulled out of the Q7’s suspension, which switches from front control arms to multiple links at all four corners and is made almost entirely from aluminum and high-strength steel. The front half-shafts are hollow, and the knuckles are forged-aluminum pieces. More pounds were found by incorporating the transfer case into the eight-speed automatic transmission and by streamlining the electrical architecture.

Even though the 2016 Q7 is virtually the same height as the old one, it looks lower, wider, and longer. In fact, thanks to clever visual tricks like the matte-aluminum trim surface between the front and rear wheels, the gently tapering roofline, and the powerful fender flares, the new Q7 looks more wagonlike than ever. The low-rider vibe isn’t merely visual: Audi’s relocation of the engine lower in the chassis has yanked the Q7’s center of gravity down by a claimed 2 inches.
The jury remains out among our staff on the Q7’s new grille design, borrowed from 2012’s Crosslane Coupé concept, is fantastic or deserving of a fiery death, but there’s no question that everything aft of the single-frame piece is hot. Because we can’t talk about a new Audi without investigating what, if any, changes were made to its lighting elements, we should point out that the headlights’ LED running lamps now form pairs of arrow-shaped elements. And the rear end as a whole positively sizzles.

An Audi With a Nice Interior? Shocking . . .

Things get even better inside, where occupants face an all-new dashboard that appears to house full-width HVAC vents. (The actual openings are only in the expected central and outboard locations, but the effect is stunning nonetheless.) A seven-inch screen rises from the dashtop to display pertinent audio, navigation, and vehicle information, and the driver can toggle amongst these menus via Audi’s latest-generation MMI infotainment controller and touch pad. The same gloriously sharp 12.3-inch TFT instrument-cluster display that debuted in the 2016 TT sports car is available here, as is a 4G LTE data connection to feed the onboard Wi-Fi. A pair of 10.1-inch tablets can be fitted to the front seatbacks and are linked to the main MMI system.
In addition to being nicer to eyeball, the Q7’s cabin is also nicer to occupy. There’s an extra 0.8 inch of second-row legroom, and headroom increases by 1.6 inches in front and 0.9 inch in the second row. There is still a pair of pop-up third-row seats, and the middle row can be scooched fore and aft by up to 4.3 inches, as well as fold forward to enable access to the way back. There are now LATCH child-seat anchors in all five rear seats, as well as one in the front passenger chair, which means single parents with a stressful-sounding number of young children can fit their Q7s with up to six child seats. Despite a slightly narrower and shorter body, the Q7’s cargo capacity increases slightly. Audi also lowered the cargo opening 1.8 inches and making a power tailgate standard. Foot motion–activated operation is optional.

Acrimonious Acronym Usage, Powerful Engines

TFSI? TDI? PHEV? Glancing at the specs, it would seem the 2016 Q7 is powered by acronyms. It isn’t. Instead, it gets a carry-over 333-hp supercharged 3.0-liter V-6, as well as a new 272-hp V-6 TDI turbo-diesel that churns out a meaty 443 lb-ft of torque. In a move that likely was precipitated by the SUV’s massive weight loss, the Q7 will for the first time offer a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder; it makes 252 horsepower. Quattro all-wheel drive will be standard in the U.S., and a plug-in-hybrid e-tron Quattro model will make it to our shores, too.
The plug-in actually is quite noteworthy, mostly because it unconventionally pairs a 258-hp diesel V-6 with an electric motor integrated into the Q7’s eight-speed automatic transmission. Total system output stands at 373 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque, enough, in fact, to make the e-tron Quattro the quickest Q7 to 60 mph by Audi’s measure. (At six seconds flat, it beats the supercharged six’s 6.1- and the TDI’s 6.3-second times; no performance estimates were given for the turbo four, but it’s guaranteed to be the slowest.) U.S.-spec fuel-economy estimates haven’t yet been released.
Mercifully, Audi doesn’t describe its driver-assistance technologies using acronyms, because the 2016 Q7 is loaded to the hilt with ass-saving digital guardians. There is cool, performance-enhancing stuff like the brake-based torque-vectoring system and the electronically controlled center differential, which can vary the all-wheel-drive system’s torque split from the standard 40/60-percent front-to-rear to 70/30 or 15/85 as conditions dictate. Optional rear-wheel steering enhances stability at higher speeds by slightly turning the rear wheels in concert with the fronts, and the setup injects a shot of agility at parking-lot velocities by turning the rear wheels against the fronts.

The Q7’s list of tech stretches on with semiautonomous gear like Audi’s Traffic Jam Assistant, which can both fully modulate the brakes and throttle and steer the Q7 on the highway at speeds up to 37 mph; this is the first time Audi has put this until-now experimental tech (which we sampled in an A6 Avant in Las Vegas) into production. A new trailering assistant will back up a trailer for you—simply dictate where you want the trailer to go using the MMI knob, and the Q7 handles the steering; the system can also stabilize the trailer when backing up straight and even warn the driver if a steering input will result in contact between the trailer and the SUV’s rear bumper. More familiar safety tech like lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, and automatic braking also appear, and Audi promises more is coming: Soon after it launches, the Q7 will gain the ability to steer around obstacles in the road and brake the car when turning left against traffic to avoid impacts with oncoming vehicles.

If this report seemed breathless, that’s because our reaction to the new Q7 was pretty much one extended gasp. Audi has packed a ton of new technology into a freshly optimized three-row luxury crossover while removing, it says, nearly half a ton of mass. You can be sure we’ll park the 2016 Q7 on our scales to verify Audi’s weight claim as soon as we can, which will be close to the rig’s mid-2015 on-sale date.

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