What is it?
What difference can 1g/km of CO2 make? To the planet, it’s a very small step in the right direction. But for company car drivers, it can mean a significant financial saving when - as here, with this first in a soon-to-be-long line of new Audi plug-in hybrids - it dips official emissions below 50g/km.
The tax changes come into force next year and are set to super-incentivise fully electric cars and encourage take up of hybrids, dropping BIK tax from 16% to 14%. Little wonder, then, that Audi’s spreadsheet wizards are predicting keen sales of this Q5 TFSIe, which delivers not just dazzling emissions figures but also SQ5-baiting levels of straight-line performance.
In top-level technical terms, this Q5 55 TFSIe (there’s also a less performant 50 TFSIe) mates a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine to an electric motor powered by a 14.1kWh lithium ion battery. On paper, working together, the two units can deliver 362bhp, with a top speed of 148mph and a 0-62mph time of 5.3sec. The car can also travel a claimed 26 miles on electric-only power, with a top speed of 84mph.
Alas, even with the new testing system, hybrid economy claims mean little, because so much depends on how you drive. Do lots of short journeys and you’ll sip fuel, go a long way at motorway speeds you’ll pay a price for lugging all the depleted hybrid ancilliaries around. Officially combined fuel economy is rated at 113mpg - or 32.5mpg for the petrol engine alone.
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The Apprentice
Certainly an Audi is not ever
Certainly an Audi is not ever in my wish list, but to be fair they have done a pretty good job here, that boot isn't bad at all considering the large (by hybrid standards) battery, its quick and sounds like it rides good. Price is less than I was expecting too. As a company car tax dodging executive barge I have to admit they are spot on. Pity they will never be plugged in.
jer
Company car?
straw pole does anyone offer 55k company cars ? Worked for many big companies and never seen an option or an exec with a personal nin chauffeur driven 60k car. exec packages just give higher allowances and more salary bonus shares etc.
The Apprentice
jer wrote:
Yes.. I am very much pond life level in a very big company and can still hit a £42K car level these days, there is a whole universe above me with bigger options available.
There are also a wealth of small company bosses or sole businesses, consultants etc who lease a flash motor for themself as a company car, never met one running something modest.
splithead
What a car, i would like to
What a car, i would like to get one but i need to meet a girlfriend to drive this car. I found the perfect website for this, go to this free dating site
Citytiger
I think
I would choose the XC60 PHEV, its a better looking car, with more standard spec, at a similar price, and the hybrid system doesnt sacrifice bootspace..
NGL
XC60 PHEV
Lovely looking car the XC 60 twin-engine but, once you've depleted the HV battery in well under 27 miles, you're left with a two-and-a-half tonne Front Wheel Drve hatchback - unlike the Audi Q5 which can run quattro in TFSI (Battery Hold), EV (Electric) mode, or both.
As Volvo (and Mitsubishi) place the HV batteries where the prophaft would normally be, the combustion engine drives the font axle only and the batteries / motor the rear axle only.
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