Audi Q5 unveiled at Beijing

By Guy Bird

Motor Shows

21 April 2008 10:22

How does the new Audi Q5 stack up in the metal? CAR Online is reporting from the Beijing motor show - and we pored over the newcomer and met its designers at a preview night. The Q5 looks refreshingly better than in the spyshots and artists’ impressions doing the rounds.

Launching in late 2008 and going up against the Volvo XC60, Saab 9-4X and BMW X3, the Q5 will have serious rivals, but its lines are clean and its sloping roofline and small coupe-style windows creates a genuinely ‘crossover’ rather than ‘SUV’ profile.

Audi Q5: the design brief

The Q5’s body is curvier than its bigger Q7 brother's. Thank goodness. Exterior designer Irishman David Caffrey admitted to CAR: 'We were a little more playful on this car.'

The bonnet is more sculpted and a bold crease scores the side body above the front wheel arch before fading away under the B-pillar and reappearing above the rear wheel arch. A pronounced ‘rocker’ line at the car’s base rises to the rear wheel arch to add to the feeling of dynamism.

Click 'Next' to read about the Q5's interior

Click here for CAR's first official pictures story

By Guy Bird