Currently reading: Audi SQ5 to be engineered for 'oversteer potential'
Upgrades to the SQ5's suspension and steering should make for a sportier drive; focus is on making the upcoming model more involving

Audi is promising the prospect of “oversteer” potential in its upcoming SQ5 sports SUV.

The 2017 Audi SQ5 has now been revealed in Detroit. Click here for more

The new Audi SQ5, due next year, is deep into development, and significant attention is being paid to the handling to make it more involving to drive. 

One senior engineer involved in the project promised the car would be able to oversteer, and would make for a much livelier drive than the standard car on which it is based.

As with the current SQ5, there will be V6 petrol and diesel versions developed for sale in different regions around in the world. Europe will get the 3.0-litre V6 diesel, with power increased significantly over the 282bhp of the initial range-topping Audi Q5 V6 diesel thanks to revised turbocharger and new tuning. 

The SQ5 is likely to get steel springs and passive dampers as standard, with air springs and adaptive dampers optional. The suspension will be overhauled over the standard Q5 for a sportier drive. The steering software will also be tweaked, with a dynamic variable steering system optional.

The oversteer potential is set to come from the option of a sports differential on the Quattro all-wheel system’s rear axle. The tuning of this is said to allow for a livelier and more engaging rear end. 

Development of the SQ5 is set to switch to Arjeplog in Sweden in the next couple of weeks. Here the testing on the slippery ice tracks will allow Audi to decide just how playful it wants the SQ5 to be.

Audi is also understood to be experimenting with technology from the larger SQ7 to which the Q5 is closely related, including the larger car’s 48V electric sub-system to power an electric turbo and active anti-roll bars, and a rear-wheel steering system. Cost is likely to prohibit this technology from the smaller model at this stage, however.

Audi also has a plug-in hybrid version of the Q5 in development for launch in 2018. 

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Mark Tisshaw

mark-tisshaw-autocar
Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.

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bomb 19 October 2016

Audi is possibly stung from

Audi is possibly stung from criticism of the numb handling Q5/SQ5 in light of Porsche's success in building an entertaining SUV in the Macan that uses the exact same starting point. That doesn't mean there's any point to this, though.
jason_recliner 19 October 2016

Why?

Why would you want oversteer in a stupid tall wagon? That's just a stupid idea and a stupid car.
Daniel Joseph 19 October 2016

@jason_recliner

jason_recliner wrote:

Why would you want oversteer in a stupid tall wagon? That's just a stupid idea and a stupid car.

...a tall SUV is just about the last car you'd want to be getting the tail out with, even on a track. Nuts.

androo 19 October 2016

Does anyone need this on an SUV?

The world's car makers have spent decades making sure their cars don't oversteer, for good reasons, and now they'r engineering it in so morons can endanger the rest of us by trying ti out where they shouldn't be. Fine if the satnav limits its use on track, but otherwise, utterly pointless and borderline irresponsible. The UK needs a few Nurburgrings building to let idiots get this sort of thing out of their systems so the rest of us can get safely from A to B. Which may be boring, but what's the point of 'fun' when it so often ends in tragedy?
Daniel Joseph 19 October 2016

@androo

androo wrote:

The world's car makers have spent decades making sure their cars don't oversteer, for good reasons, and now they'r engineering it in so morons can endanger the rest of us by trying ti out where they shouldn't be. Fine if the satnav limits its use on track, but otherwise, utterly pointless and borderline irresponsible. The UK needs a few Nurburgrings building to let idiots get this sort of thing out of their systems so the rest of us can get safely from A to B. Which may be boring, but what's the point of 'fun' when it so often ends in tragedy?

Exactly, and moreover...