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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I would love driving this car
I would love driving this car around with my darling annuaire sexe really love it!
DONT BOTHER!
I bought one of these and took delivery just before christmas 2019. Initially thought it was great, but I was only using locally so benefit of hybrid was good and performance put a smile on my face. Then I decided to venture further afield and its all gone south. My expectation was that I could use EV on the local roads at the front end of my 150 mile journey, then 26 or so miles later, fire up the engine and recharge the hybrid system etc. etc. Only this car doesn't recharge the hybrid system when driving. Well only to about 20% then it stops - so it has the hardware on board to do it but something tells it to stop. As a result, the trip I used to do in a 3.0d X3 which got my 45 MPG now with this econonical hybrid technology - 31! - so took it to Audi, most people standing around dont know much about the things. Then someone pops out and says oh yes they don't recharge more than 20-25%. What use is this to anyone? I should have saved 10 grand and just bought a petrol or diesel. So, basically after the sweet spot of 30-50 miles where is gets slightly near the 100MPG plus quoted, any further than this it is only going to get worse! My advice - seriously dont waste your money!
DONT BOTHER!
I bought one of these and took delivery just before christmas 2019. Initially thought it was great, but I was only using locally so benefit of hybrid was good and performance put a smile on my face. Then I decided to venture further afield and its all gone south. My expectation was that I could use EV on the local roads at the front end of my 150 mile journey, then 26 or so miles later, fire up the engine and recharge the hybrid system etc. etc. Only this car doesn't recharge the hybrid system when driving. Well only to about 20% then it stops - so it has the hardware on board to do it but something tells it to stop. As a result, the trip I used to do in a 3.0d X3 which got my 45 MPG now with this econonical hybrid technology - 31! - so took it to Audi, most people standing around dont know much about the things. Then someone pops out and says oh yes they don't recharge more than 20-25%. What use is this to anyone? I should have saved 10 grand and just bought a petrol or diesel. So, basically after the sweet spot of 30-50 miles where is gets slightly near the 100MPG plus quoted, any further than this it is only going to get worse! My advice - seriously dont waste your money!