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Audi is rapidly expanding its electric and electrified vehicle offerings, and the Q5 SUV is the latest to get the three-pin treatment. Audi is introducing a 55 TFSI e quattro model which has a 40km one-charge range for short, zero-emission hops around town.
For the open road? That bit's taken care of by the 2.0-litre TFSI turbo petrol engine, boasting 252hp. Combined with 105kW electric motor, that means you've got a combined 367hp to call upon, along with 500Nm of torque, which is available at just 1,250rpm thanks to the boosting effect of the electric motor.
0-100km/h is expected to take just 5.3 seconds, with a top speed of 239km/h. More importantly, Audi reckons it'll put 100km under the wheels for every 2.4 litres of fuel burned (that's 117mpg) and its CO2 emissions are between 46g/km and 53g/km. Even in fully electric mode, the Q5's top speed is a robust 135km/h.
To do that, it uses a permanently excited synchronous motor (PSM, steady now) which is actually integrated into the seven-speed S-Tronic automatic gearbox. That can send power to all four-wheels for proper quattro traction, but if the rear wheels aren't needed, power transmission is shut down to the back, saving on friction and reducing fuel consumption.
Feeding the electric motor is a 14.1kWh battery, which is cooled and heated by the car's own climate control system - which itself also uses a super-efficient heat pump that in turn takes the strain off the battery when you're trying to warm up the cabin on a cold day.
While you're driving, the predictive efficiency assistant (PEA) is busy taking feeds from the sat-nav and the traffic-monitoring camera and radar to figure out what's the best level of regenerative braking to use. If you're not using the cruise control, the PEA can send a small kick up through the accelerator to tell you to lift off and coast for maximum efficiency. The electric motor can generate up to 0.2g, which Audi says is enough for all but the hardest braking efforts.
Needless to say, there are three driving modes - Hybrid, which mixes electric and petrol power; EV which runs on only the battery; and Battery Hold, which runs on petrol power while storing battery charge for later deployment.
Charging the battery fully from a domestic socket will take around five-to-six hours, but you can chop that down if you can find a 400-volt charging point. You can also pre-heat or pre-cool the interior while the car is charging by using the myAudi smartphone app.
Standard equipment includes LED headlights, sport seats, three-zone automatic climate control, convenience key, PHEV-specific displays and 18-inch wheels in a five-arm turbine design.