Audi Confirms Hybrid Q5, Does This Make U.S. Audi Chief Look Foolish?

Just because he (reportedly) said the Volt is "a car for idiots" does not mean he is attacking hybrid systems or saying hybrids are for idiots. You can spin his comments to mean whatever, but no, he doesnt look foolish...

He looked foolish long before that.

How so?

Not as foolish as you though!

Agent00R,

How so? What he reportedly said? Or do you not think that was foolish (if true)?

The Q5's electrohysdrolic steering that feels weird at low speed but nice at high speeds is retarded it should be consistant. As for hybrids the more the merrier!

this post is a non-sequitur. The Volt is a pure electric that will not ever justify the costs to the buyer. The proposed Q5 is a mild hybrid aimed at a market segement that's enamored with hybrids and will not consider a diesel, despite its demonstrable superiority in many respects. Having a hybrid entry, especially in the US where the hybrids have a special cache, may make sense for Audi but doesnt imply any rationale for the economics of the Volt.

2nd, they're not "switching" from diesel to hybrids, just realize that the US wants hybrids and they want to increase US sales. A diesel hybrid would be nice. I hear the 3.0 gas engine is coming to the Q7 also.

Agreed. It would be nice if Audi developed a diesel hybrid system. That would be great.

if wife wants RXh then husband can buy her this and he can drive it and not feel feminine

I was under the impression that Audi basically poo poo'd the whole hybrid thing as just a fad, and they would stick to diesel as their mpg performance outlet. So yes, this talk of a hybrid Q5 does sound like they're suffering from eatyourwords-itis.

Told you so.
http://www.autospies.com/news/Audi-Says-It-Is-Not-Interested-In-Jumping-On-The-Green-Bandwagon-50290/

If I were in the market, I would consider this over the Lexus RX.

Simply due to the materials used in the RX cabin alone, there should have been massive layoffs in the Toyota design studios.

The RX interior is great, what are you talking about?

The RX's cliched, dated interior features too many bland 'plasticy' surfaces unsuitable for any luxury vehicle. It's almost as if Toyota gave up after designing the LS.

Here is a nice "intelligent" discussion regarding this point for Fourtitude.com. Take note Autospies and learn a thing or two:

"If you read this site regularly and monitor Audi news, then you you may recall some quotes by Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen referring to potential buyers of the upcoming and much-hyped Chevy Volt as 'idiots'. The quotes were paraphrased from an off the record candid conversation by a journalist who'd sat next to the AoA boss at a press dinner. Audi's de Nysschen doesn't deny use of the word though and while he's since defined more accurately his sentiment but Audi's confirmation this week of an upcoming Q5 hybrid gave the website Autospies.com an opening for a depressingly sensationalist article that doesn't really seem to be about anything more than raising eyebrows.

In their story today titled 'Audi Confirms Hybrid Q5, Does This Make U.S. Audi Chief Look Foolish?' the car website with the James Bond fetish wonders about Audi's choice to add a hybrid and further asks in regards to diesel "Are (Audi) throwing in the towel? Folding under pressure?"

We've come to find some of the Autospies staff to be good folks, but we're often surprised at how their management is willing to go along with the site's doing its best CNN/Fox News sensationalist news impression to drive discussion. This piece is no different.

So what do we think?
We don't know that we'd have agreed with de Nysschen's supposed assertion that buying a Chevy Volt over a Cobalt is 'idiotic'. We see his argument about there not being a sound financial reason to pay the premium for a basically like car only for a technological jump that couldn't hope to be paid for by fuel savings. Apply that logic to Audi's best selling A4 vs. RS 4 and you can't really justify the financial price jump between the two Ingolstadt models either. In the end it's all about enthusiasm - performance in the case of the A4 vs RS 4 and green in the case of the Volt vs Cobalt.

Audi is adding a Q5 Hybrid and that's not inconsistent with de Nysschen's points before or since the salacious quotes about the Volt. Audi has always played with alternate technologies like the Audi duo hybrid technologies of the 1990s and sees TDI not as a be-all-end-all solution but a brick in Audi's wall of technology that moves us into the future. Building a hybrid simply adds to their technological cache along with FSI, lighter weight materials like aluminum, etc.

The Autospies piece quotes Autocar suggesting the Q5 hybrid will be a 3.2. We hear they're wrong and that it'll be paired with a 2.0T in the case of the Q5. The beauty of the VAG hybrid solution for longitudinal cars is that it can be paired with a V6 as it's been seen in the Porsche Cayenne, the aforementioned 2.0T or even a TDI if the economies make sense. Cool stuff for sure.

As for Autospies, the eyebrow raising headlines along with an article that overly simplifies both the reasons behind the comment and Audi's o

continued....

As for Autospies, the eyebrow raising headlines along with an article that overly simplifies both the reasons behind the comment and Audi's own strategies suggest a writer who just doesn't see the big picture or, like Fox or CNN, decides to ignore the realities because eyebrow raising headlines drive more readership.

It doesn't take more than the intelligence of a fool to see that these AutoSpies headlines are made up only to start flame wars and attract web traffic, so the guy hasn't exactly proven that he isn't a fool by stating the obvious. Then he is saying that the Q5 Hybrid is less idiotic than the Volt because the Audi hybrid "moves us into the future" and "adds to their technological cache". Well, doesn't the Volt do the same? Both come with premiums that won't can't be repaid through fuel savings, and both are technological advances. So if the Volt buyers are idiots, what makes the Q5 hybrid buyers different?