Audi launches premium compact Q2 SUV
Audi New Zealand has launched an all-new vehicle, the Q2 compact SUV, with expectations that it will help the company have 50 per cent of its sales in the off-road segment.
The Q2 shares the same platform at the Audi A3 hatchback and is 200mm shorter than the company’s Q3 crossover, with a low roofline.
Priced from $54,500, the Q2 comes with a 1.4-litre, TFSI petrol engine producing 110kW of power and 250Nm of torque, and is paired with the Sport S-tronic transmission. The 1.4 engine is also found in the A1 and A3.
It is an all-new product in the premium vehicle segment with its physical rival being Mazda’s CX-3 while it will probably compete against Mini’s Countryman, BMW’s X1, Jeep’s Renegade and Mercedes-Benz’s GLA.
Later in the year, an all-wheel-drive Quattro version of the Q2 will be launched in New Zealand, with an expected price tag in the “mid to high $60,000s” said Audi NZ.
The company’s general manager, Dean Sheed, said at the media briefing in Wellington that currently 40 per cent of it’s sales where the Q range (Q3, Q5 and Q7) but with the addition of the A2 “50 per cent of the business will be the Q range”.
He said sales targets of the Q2 this year were 250 units but he expected 300 “if we can get the products”.
Sheed expected 60 per cent of Q2 buyers would be existing Audi owners, coming out of A3s or Q3s, while 40 per cent would be new to the brand, attracted by the price point of the premium crossover.