Audi's Biggest Car Ever Debuts July 29, and the Cabin Came First

Audi's biggest car ever is finally here, and the launch numbers make it obvious who it was built for.

Audi pulled the covers off the Q9 on July 29, 2026, and the four rings finally have a full-size SUV sitting at the top of the range. For weeks the teaser campaign had rationed out the cabin one detail at a time. Now the whole spec sheet is on the table, and it describes a car that cares more about comfort and space than about back-road pace.

It picks up the flagship job the A8 saloon held for decades, chasing the luxury buyers who swapped low-slung sedans for tall three rows years ago. Above the Q8 in the lineup, it's the largest and most senior Audi you can order, and it goes straight after the BMW X7, the Mercedes-Benz GLS and the Range Rover.

What's under it now

In the US, the Q9 arrives with a 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 good for 429 hp and 442 lb-ft, routed through a ZF eight-speed automatic to quattro all-wheel drive. Audi quotes 0-60 mph in 4.9 seconds and a 7,700-lb towing rating. That's quick, and properly useful for something that tips the scales north of 5,300 lb. Europe opens on a diesel instead, the Q9 TDI at 220 kW, from €108,400. Want the real muscle? That's the SQ9 and its 591-hp V8, which we cover on its own.

At 209 inches long on a 123.5-inch wheelbase, it's the largest Audi ever built. The three rows come as a six or seven-seat layout, with second-row captain's chairs or a bench, and there's 19.3 cubic feet of cargo behind the third row that grows a lot once those seats fold flat.

A cabin built around arrival

The cabin was what Audi showed off early, and now that the sheet is out you can see the logic. This is the first Audi with fully electric doors, all of them, and you can open them from the key, the myAudi app, the MMI, the brake pedal or the seatbelt buckle. Overhead there's a panoramic glass roof of roughly 1.5 square metres, split into nine individually controllable segments that flip between clear and opaque. On the top trim it also carries 84 LEDs across 30 colours, synced to the ambient lighting.

The materials list reads like Audi emptying the good cupboard: alpaca wool, Dinamica microfibre, Nappa leather and natural ash trim, plus new tamarind brown and stone beige colourways that lean matte rather than glossy. Sound comes from a Bang & Olufsen system with what Audi calls 4D sound, and it adds headrest speakers for private calls and navigation along with seat actuators that put a physical pulse behind the music. Front occupants get ventilated, massaging sports seats, and the second row is ventilated too. On the practical side there's Qi2.2 wireless charging, USB-C ports up to 100 watts and a cargo rail-and-hook system.

Price and timing

In the US the Q9 starts at $87,700 before a $1,295 destination charge, with the first cars reaching customers in the fourth quarter of 2026. Other markets get going around the same window. Trim structure and full regional pricing will land closer to on-sale, but the headline is clear enough: Audi finally has a full-size flagship, and it's priced about where the segment sits.