Audi Confirms Plug-In Hybrid Petrol-Electric Power For Next Year's New Q8

How we’ve managed it this far without a gargantuan Audi crossover-SUV-sports-luxury-thingy is something mankind will probably never know, but worry not, good CTzens, because the Q8 is finally almost here.

Audi has revealed some of the car’s specs and confirmed an early 2018 start date for production at its facility in Bratislava, Slovakia. It’s based on the same platform as the Q7 and will have much the same interior as the Q7, but the Q8 will have a lower, more sloping roof line, new and different styling and potentially even more technology, all of which is designed to position it as the firm’s new SUV flagship.

There will be diesel engines along the same lines as the Q7 range, and a plug-in petrol-electric hybrid powertrain that will be able to travel up to 37 miles in EV mode. It’s a combination of the familiar 3.0-litre V6 TFSI engine and a single electric motor, which together shunt 443bhp and 516lb ft to the four driven wheels. It will be good for 155mph and 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds.

The roof is 40mm lower and the seat count has been reduced to four for the ‘near-production-ready concept’, but a five-seat version is likely to be added for production. At 630 litres there’s more boot space than you get in a Skoda Octavia estate but less than there is at the back of the Skoda Superb estate, putting it firmly in family-friendly territory as long as the loss of headroom isn’t an issue.

It will have wheel-selective torque control, which is essentially powertrain-based torque vectoring, as opposed to the simpler braking-based types. It should help reduce understeer and make the big Audi corner more like a smaller, lighter car.

Rejoice, for it’s looking likely that there will also be an SQ8, powered by the same 429bhp biturbo diesel V8 you’ll find in the current SQ7. Don’t rejoice at the tyre replacement bills: the Q8 – at least in almost-production-ready guise – wears 305/35-section tyres on 23-inch wheels…