Audi wants to take on BMW in the European luxury SUV segment. Walter de’ Silva, design boss at the Volkswagen Group, told Automotive News Europe [sub] that Audi will definitely take on the BMW X6 with an Audi Q, and might also field a challenger to the BMW X4.
The Euro rumor mill already calls the X6 rival the “Audi Q6.”
“We will definitely launch a sportier crossover between the Q7 and Q5,” de’ Silva told ANE.
As the list below shows, Audi has a lot of competition, but is catching BMW in a period of falling sales. (We’ll see how the list looks when Audi launches its Q ships.) The list is compiled by JATO Dynamics and shows Europe’s top-selling premium large SUV with sales results in the first nine months of the year and change compared to the same period in 2010.
De’ Silva said that Audi is still making up its mind whether it should fit a smaller SUV between the Q5 and Q3. BMW confirmed that a similar sized X4 is coming, ANE figures an ETA of 2014.
| Rank | Model | Sales | Change |
| 1 | BMW X5 | 19,849 | -5% |
| 2 | Land Rover Range Rover Sport | 13,179 | -10% |
| 3 | Porsche Cayenne | 13,018 | 51% |
| 4 | Mercedes M class | 12,865 | -14% |
| 5 | BMW X6 | 10,889 | -15% |
| 6 | Audi Q7 | 10,314 | 22% |
And to think most of us on TTAC deried the X6 (correctly IMO for its lack of function and appearance) and yet it sells very well adding 50% to X5 sales.
You can guarantee that not all of those people would not have otherwise bought an X5. The big question is if the X6 did not exist, would the X5 have sold 20k or 30k, or how may in between? There must be a lot of development cost to recover from what must be very few true incremental sales.
I did not understand the X6 until i found out it had more EPA cargo space than an Infiniti FX. They do move more product then I expected so I put my foot in my mouth when they came out with the BMW GT. I’ve taken it out. I was not wrong about that one. It is a dealership rock. They had to send them to the service fleet just to get rid of them.
I don’t think the 5 GT is that bad. It looks kinda odd looking directly at its ass, but not too bad otherwise. It’s basically a large hatchback. Isn’t BMW planning something similar with the F3x 3-series when it goes on sale?
As for the broader category of luxury SUVs, I don’t get it. I thought auto manufacturer’s depended on volume for profit. How can the market possible support an X3, X4, X5, and X6 (and all their competitors)? What would an X4 look like anyway? X4 compares to the X3 the same way the X6 compares to the X5?
I think the bigger reason is cannibalization, which I had been railing against for a while now when it comes to BMW. Who wants the hatchback/wagon when you can get the hulking SUV for the same money? The fact that the GT has a body only its mother could love doesn’t help.
And, I don’t think the market CAN support all the X variants, as they will fall victim to cannibalization as well.
I just factory ordered a 2012 Q7. I drove GL, X5, G460, Escalade and MClass. The Q7 was the best for me because it had a normal liftgate which is becoming harder to find on luxury SUVs, it was not a rebadges Jeep Grand Cherokee or GMC Yukon Denali (drove that too). The GL is AWESOME, but the Q7 is ultimately a better deal in the same class.
Only one problem both the Range Rover and Range Rover sport will be replaced within the next year or 2 and in 3 or 4 years Range Rover launch the bigger version of the Evoque. With a smaller version of the Evoque also on the way and even a Jaguar Suv on the cards then Audi will be walking into a very crowded Market place. Brits buy a lot of these cars in Europe and guess whos the market leader….. Yep Land Rover. This is a Market JLR will fight tooth and nail on and they won’t leave a single niche untapped.
the 5 Series GT offers a good value for car buyers. before you start laughing, hear me out.
it is not a 5-Series hatchback with a $5k to $10k markup. is actually a 7-Series hatchback with a $15k price cut.
In Germany, none of these cars sell much. In two weeks I saw ONE Q7, and about three x3. The X1 was popular, but as far as any SUV goes, in the land of $10 gas and diesel, they are few and far between. Germans don’t drive trucks as cars…they didn’t get CAFE to screw this one up.
Pretty much all these cars are “for export”. There are still a lot of really nice station wagons (there, I said it !!!) in Germany, and most of those have a small turbodiesel for 120 mph sustained autobahn and 45 mpg.
Maybe a dozen x5’s in that two week time, all of which were diesels.