Q5 Hybrid Back in Audi Product Plan for 2010

According to Audi's leaked rollout schedule the mid-sized Q5 Hybrid is coming to market in February 2010. However recent reports suggested that Audi had canned the Q5 Hybrid project. Now new evidence says that it's back on the 2010 menu. At the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit VW Group head of powertrain development Wolfgang Hatz told Autoweek that Audi would have to bring out at least one hybrid model in order to compete.

"If you look at what you have to spend to get the advantage of the hybrid and what you have to spend on other technologies like diesel, the diesel is much more cost-effective," Hatz stated. "We have to do hybrids in order to show people that we are able to do them."

Hatz said the Q5 Hybrid would go on sale in America in late 2010. He continued to say: "At the moment, we have to spend quite a lot on the basic technology, which we can perhaps spread later on more models."

The bigger Q7 had been the initial candidate for a hybrid powertrain but economic times have seen the public buying more affordable categories of motor vehicles. A Q5 Hybrid makes sense in this case. The petrol powered Q5 is already being sold in Europe where it competes in the same category as the BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLK.