© Audi Audi – and other crossover makers – adds a tapered rear roof to its #1-selling CUV
How do you make a crossover look cool? Audi’s answer is to shave off the back edge of the roof and call it a Sportback. Do you like it?
Jan 05, 2021 With a supplementary 12-volt electric motor aboard, the Audi Q5 is barely a hybrid. But it is very much an Audi. With compact crossovers supplanting sedans as the heart of the American car. A big idea makes you take notice. With standard quattro all-wheel-drive and seating for 7, the Audi Q7 sets the standard in the luxury SUV segment with impressive driving dynamics, benchmark connectivity, and advanced driver assistance technologies.
“Looking at the side, that's where you will see the biggest change,” said Audi designer Andreas Valencia Pollex. “…we've created a roofline that's taught, elongated and very sporty.”
Audi Q5 Quattro
The idea of taking your basic two-box-design CUV, the basic shape that silhouettes every crossover utility vehicle on Earth, and shaving off the back corner of the roof, is nothing new.
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How many of us have taken the low route and joined the decades-long chorus of mockers of the much-unloved Pontiac Aztek, which tried to be different by bending its roof downward at the rear? Such low-hanging fruit, such low-brow mockery. We pontificate about how we would never have approved that program, how we could have seen from the earliest design sketch that it was untenable, how we… Yeah, but we didn’t.
What makes this design different? Audi, BMW and Mercedes all offer this basic shape, the elongated roof gracefully retreating downward as it goes from B-Pillar to rear hatch. They’ve all done it in a more cohesive, elegant fashion, not in the Aztek's sudden squared-off angularity. The Audi Q5 Sportback is among the nicest examples of that new design genre.
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The grille also gets its own unique treatment, though more subtle. It's part of the S-Line package, standard equipment on U.S. Q5 Sportbacks. We also get the OLED taillights.
But the interior and drivetrain are pretty much the same as the regular Q5, which is, by the way, Audi’s biggest seller.
You can get a Q5 Sportback in either Q5 or SQ5 trim. The Q5 gets the 2.0-liter mild hybrid four making 261 hp and 273 lb ft of torque. That engine’s mated to a seven-speed DCT. The SQ5 Sportback gets the 349-hp 369-lb-ft 3.0-liter V6 with an eight-speed automatic. Both powertrains are pulled straight from their non-Sportback siblings.
Audi hasn’t released any figures for rear-seat headroom or cargo space, but you could assume a slight loss in those departments. Likewise, prices will be released closer to the Sportback’s debut in showrooms in the first half of 2021.
Crossover Audience
Otherwise, assume a big improvement in style, if that’s what you are looking for. Audi, and most of its competitors, are seeking an edge and offering something for every possible taste out there, maybe even yours.