Here's Audi's next Q7 SUV and US-only SQ7, now with an RS V8

MUNICH, GERMANY—Audi is having a bit of an SUV renaissance lately. Over the past 18 months, it has brought out a new electric Q6 and replaced the midsize Q5, and later this summer we’ll get to see the Q9, a full-size leviathan with the Escalade in its sights. But today it’s the turn of an all-new version of the Q7, and the North America-only SQ7, both of which go on sale later this year for model year 2027. The standard Q7 will come to the US with a twin-turbo 2.9 L V6 that generates 429 hp (320 kW) and 442 lb-ft (600 Nm). Meanwhile, the SQ7 borrows the 591 hp (441 kW), 590 lb-ft (800 Nm) V8 as found under the hood of the RS7. But there’s no plug-in hybrid version slated as far as we know. Both models use an eight-speed automatic transmission (ZF’s very capable 8HP) and all-wheel drive. Audi says these are the quickest-accelerating Q7 and SQ7s it has made, and it also says they should be much better to drive, too. Standard Q7s will ride on steel springs or can option the adaptive air suspension that’s standard on the SQ7—this gets an optional third mode that lowers the car by more than an inch (30 mm). The new Q7 has a more upright design than the SUV it replaces, with a silhouette that reminded me more of a station wagon. The big wheels almost certainly contribute to that impression, fooling you into thinking it’s a smaller car that’s a bit closer. Standard Q7s ride on 20-inch wheels, with 23-inch wheels—once the preserve of lowriders and docks—for the SQ7.