Exclusive: 2015 Audi Q7 spied testing in India

It seems like Audi is getting its second generation Q7 to India much earlier than expected. We managed to get some exclusive pictures of a heavily camouflaged version of the 2015 Audi Q7 testing in Mumbai. When it unveiled the Q7 just over two weeks ago the German automaker hinted that it might launch the SUV at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show and they have hinted at a summer delivery for German customers.

Audi had hinted at a 10 product assault for the Indian market on the competition in 2015 and the new Q7 will be one of the more important product for the German luxury carmaker.

The 2015 Q7 features Audi’s new design philosophy which now sees its cars moving away from rounded edges to sharper features. There are three configurations one can order it with - Xenons, LEDs or matrix LED lamps. All three headlight setups to get the arrow- shaped LED daytime running lights (DRLs) while the top-spec model gets the integrated turn signals.

A look at the side profile and its similarities to the outgoing model is evident, but the roofline rakes sharply at the rear and seems like the roof has also been lowered marginally. At the rear, the sharp theme continues complementing the overall design and even the entire mid-section below the tail lamps has been reworked. The tail pipes have been changed are now flatter and rectangular in shape.

Powering the new Q7 is a 3.0-litre TDI diesel engine in two states of tune producing 214/268bhp and 500/600Nm. Petrol power comes from a 3.0 TFSI producing 328.5bhp and 440Nm and a 2.0 TFSI churning out 248bhp and 370Nm. The most power output for the SUV comes from the e-tron Quattro plug-in hybrid model with a combined output 367bhp and 700Nm of torque.

We are expecting the larger V8 powered diesel mills to follow. All these engines will be mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission and Audi is offering Quattro as standard fare across the variants. However, for India we expect Audi to only offer diesel engines.

While the Audi Q7 might go on sale in Europe and America by mid-2015, we can expect the SUV to be launched here a little before the end of next year. While we await the pricing of the car like the rest of the world, we are more than sure that it will be priced higher the outgoing model. The new Q7 will compete with the Porsche Cayenne, Range Rover and Volvo XC90 when it goes on sale here.