Audi Q9: When Business Class suddenly sports four rings

With the new Q9, the brand is introducing a ‘9’ to its range for the first time – and unveiling its largest Audi to date. It is 5.31 metres long, comes with three rows of seats as standard and, as an option, six individual electric seats. That sounds less like a family SUV and more like a lounge on wheels. Or, as Audi itself puts it: a ‘mobile living space’.

What’s exciting here is not so much the sheer size as the shift in perspective. The Q9 defines ‘premium’ not by more power or larger wheels, but by what happens between the doors. Automatic doors, business-class seats, the largest panoramic glass roof ever fitted in an Audi, and an interior that is more reminiscent of a designer lounge than a classic SUV.

Technically speaking, Audi is also pulling out all the stops. Curved digital OLED rear lights are being used in a production vehicle for the first time anywhere in the world. Added to this are an enhanced projection headlight system, hands-free driving on selected motorways, and a whole arsenal of intelligent driver assistance systems. In short: the Q9 is not only designed to look impressive, but also to handle with equal confidence.

The real transformation, however, lies elsewhere. With the Q9, Audi is shifting the focus from the driving experience to the in-car experience. The car becomes a lounge; the interior becomes the actual product. Anyone who previously thought that an SUV had to be capable of off-road driving above all else will find a different answer here: above all, it must be capable of long-distance travel – as relaxed as a business-class flight, if possible. Just without the boarding.