For the first time in its history, Audi has a full-size three-row luxury SUV. The 2027 Q9, revealed alongside a 591-horsepower SQ9, lands squarely in BMW X7 and Mercedes GLS territory with a price tag starting at $89,095 in the United States.
The timing is surgical. Audi dropped the redesigned Q7 just weeks ago, and now the Q9 arrives as the brand’s flagship SUV, a vehicle Ingolstadt arguably should have built a decade ago. BMW has owned this segment since the X7 launched in 2018, largely unchallenged from the four-ring camp. That free ride is over.
The Q9 is physically larger than the current X7 in every dimension. At 5.31 meters long, it stretches nearly 13 cm beyond the BMW. It’s 21 cm wider and sits 25 cm lower, giving it a more planted, aggressive stance with a wheelbase reaching 3.14 meters.
Styling plays it safe. The Q9 looks like a scaled-up Q7, with Audi’s now-standard split headlights, oversized grille, and a full-width rear light bar that has become the luxury SUV uniform. From the back, telling the Q9 apart from the Q7 takes a careful eye, which is either brand consistency or a missed opportunity depending on your tolerance for design repetition.
Inside, screens dominate. A 14.5-inch infotainment display sits between a 12.3-inch instrument cluster and a matching 12.3-inch passenger screen. Audi deserves credit for retaining some physical controls and mostly ditching glossy black trim in favor of wood or carbon fiber.
The six-seat configuration gets heated, power-adjustable seats across all three rows. A panoramic roof spanning more than 1.5 square meters features switchable transparency, the kind of spec-sheet item that gets attention in showrooms.
The powertrain split between continents tells a familiar story. Europe gets Audi’s 3.0-liter turbodiesel V6 in two outputs: 241 hp or 295 hp. American buyers get a twin-turbo 2.9-liter V6 making 429 hp in the standard Q9, while the SQ9 brings a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 with 591 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque.
The SQ9 is the direct counter to the BMW X7 M60i, and at $119,395, it sits right in that competitive window. European pricing for the diesel Q9 starts at €108,400 in Germany, with order books opening this week. U.S. deliveries are expected before year’s end.
Audi has pledged to ditch fake exhaust tips across its lineup, and the Q9 follows through. The SQ9 gets a real quad-pipe setup. It’s a small detail, but one that reflects a brand trying to rebuild credibility on authenticity after years of questionable design choices across the industry.
BMW is not standing still. The next-generation X7, internally coded G67, is expected in 2027. Munich’s SUVs tend to grow with each generation, and the company will want clear separation between the upcoming X7 and the recently launched G65 X5.
That’s the tension here. Audi finally built the SUV it needed, but it arrives just as BMW prepares to replace the vehicle it’s targeting. Whether the Q9 can carve out real market share before the next X7 arrives will determine if this was a strategic masterstroke or a case of showing up just in time to face a fresher competitor.
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