The Audi Q5 TFSI e 55 quattro is a slightly more petite SUV alternative to the more imposing Q7 e-tron from the German automaker. The Q5 55 quattro PHEV is also the first plug-in Audi to forego the “e-tron” designation, which will likely only apply to BEVs going forward. The Q5 offers the traditional blend of robust performance and sleek, Germanic refinement we have come to expect from the brand from Ingolstadt. It has a pretty moderate electric range for a modern PHEV, but should cover most commutes.
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Charging time for an Audi Q5 TFSI e
The expected time it will take to charge your Q5 TFSI e from empty to full is shown in the table below. Since charging tends to slow down outside of this range to protect the battery, we only provide the time to charge for rapid charging from 20 to 80 percent.
Where you can charge a Audi Q5 TFSI e
Your Audi Q5 TFSI e can be simply charged at home, plugged in when you go to work, or topped off (often for free!) while you’re out and about in places like supermarkets and public parking lots.
How is a 2021 Audi Q5 Hybrid recharged?
The 17.9kWh battery in the Audi can be fully charged in about eight hours using a three-pin household connection as opposed to two and a half hours using a conventional 7.4kW residential wallbox. Cables are available as standard for Type 2 wallboxes, public chargers, and your typical residential outlet. It’s simply a shame there isn’t a place specifically for cables because if you want to carry them, they take up a lot of boot room.
The Type 2 socket is found on the rear passenger-side wing of the vehicle and is easily accessed by pushing a release. It features a button to switch timed charging on or off as well as a button to release the cable (which can only be done if the vehicle is unlocked). The timed charging settings, which can be adjusted via the screen in the car or via a phone app, are there to let you take advantage of off-peak electricity pricing if you have them. If the car is plugged in, the app also enables you to pre-set the cabin temperature, which is a typical feature of electric vehicles and is especially useful in the winter when you can have the car warm up and de-ice itself before you leave. In the summer, it’s useful for bringing the inside temperature of the car down to a more bearable level before your trip.
How long does it take an Audi Q5 hybrid to charge?
The Q5 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) expands on a popular design by adding an all-wheel-drive system and a 2.0-liter turbocharged gasoline engine. The Q5 can go up to 26 miles on pure electric power alone, and it can accelerate from zero to sixty miles per hour in just 5.3 seconds.
When using a dedicated home charger like the ones listed below, charging the Audi Q5 takes about two hours. Although the Audi Q5’s battery is rather tiny, charging nevertheless happens quite quickly despite the lack of a rapid charging feature.
How can I charge my UK-spec Audi Q5 Hybrid?
1. Select a charging device
a wall box for the home or a public charging station. The charging port for your car must then be found.
Only an AC port is available on plug-in hybrid vehicles, however both AC and DC plugs are available on fully electric Audi vehicles.
2. Organize the cable.
Use the charging cable (Type 2, Mode 3), which is standard equipment in your Audi, if the charging device is a home wall box or an untethered AC charger.
If you use a DC charging station, the cable will already be connected to the device and is available for usage.
3. Allow the car to recharge
Your Audi is charging when the charging LED light starts to blink green. The charge will continue if you lock the car, and the cable will stay connected to the vehicle until you come back.
When the charging LED light stops blinking and stays solid green, charging is finished.
Follow the charge level.
Your smartphone and your Audi are connected via the myAudi app. The app allows you to check your charge level and estimated wait time.
How can I charge my home-based Audi e-tron?
If you can set up a 240V Level 2 charging station, such as ChargePoint Home, the Audi e-tron is quite simple to charge at home. The SUV’s whole 204-mile range will be restored by this charger in around 9 hours.
Does the hybrid Audi Q5 self-charge?
There are both gasoline (TFSI e) and diesel models in the Audi Hybrid lineup (TDI e). Audi’s characteristic direct-injection turbocharged engine is used in both fuel types along with an electric motor:
Audi Q5 TFSI e
The Audi Q5 is a mid-range SUV and the brand’s most recent petrol plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) vehicle.
The Audi Q5 TFSI e has an all-electric range of 26 miles and a top speed of 84 mph. There is no need to find a charging station because you can still operate the internal combustion engine when the car is plugged in because the battery will recharge itself through regenerative braking.
How is a battery for an Audi Q5 charged?
-2- At the positive terminal, raise the cap. Connect the charger wires to the jump-start terminals in the proper order (terminal with cap = “positive,” terminal with hexagon = “negative”) Now turn on the battery charger after connecting it to the mains.
How does the hybrid plugin for an Audi work?
Due to their adaptability, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) inspire enthusiasm. For instance, in electric-only mode, the vehicle is free of local pollutants in cities, does not experience range anxiety while traveling great distances, and is sporty and dynamic thanks to the combined power of its combustion engine and electric motor. The drive idea provides a lot of options.
For each model, the PHEVs’ WLTP cycle electric-only range will be greater than 40 kilometers. Customers can use the hybrid drive concept to drive on around a third of their typical trips in electric-only mode on a daily basis.
Audi’s brand-new plug-in hybrid vehicles all use an electric motor built into the transmission in conjunction with a turbocharged gasoline engine with direct injection. Electrical power is provided by a lithium-ion battery located underneath the bottom of the luggage area. As a result, during acceleration, the combustion engine can be supported by the electric motor. High start-off performance and strong acceleration are the end product.
The driving system is similar to the new, entirely electric Audi e-tron in terms of recuperation (combined electrical consumption in kWh/100 km: 26.222.6* (WLTP); 24.623.7* (NEDC); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0). High efficiency and optimal performance in terms of recovery are designed into it. The latest Audi PHEV cars may recover up to 80 kW of energy when breaking. The majority of decelerations in regular traffic are handled by the electric motor. The duty is split between the hydraulic wheel brakes for medium braking applications because they can only complete this task on their own at a deceleration of more than 0.4 g.
The 104 pouch cells that make up the lithium-ion battery for the A6, A7, and A8 are assembled into eight modules. At a voltage of 385 V, it has a storage capacity of 14.1 kWh. The Q5’s lithium-ion battery has the same capacity and is made up of prismatic cells. In each instance, the low-temperature circuit that supplies the electric motor and the power electronics also houses the battery’s cooling system. When recovering, the power electronics reverse their function, converting the high voltage battery’s direct current into a three-phase current for the electric motor. The typical heat pump provides effective climate control for vehicles and may produce up to 3 kW of heat energy from 1 kW of electrical energy, with waste heat generated within the car.
What is the hybrid Audi Q5’s operating range?
I’ve never given my vehicles names, but the 2021 Audi Q5 plug-in hybrid that I recently spent a week in offered Sybil as a suggestion. It’s the title of a 1976 movie that was based on the 1973 best-seller that made a sensation out of the life of Shirley Mason, a woman who claimed to be controlled by 16 different personalities. It presented a case of multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder) during my time using the Q5 plug-in that was just as compelling as Shirley’s enormously well-known account (strangely, much of her tale turned out to have been fabricated).
The Walter Mitty Luxe CUV
I left for a week at my lake home almost as soon as the 2021 Audi Q5 plug-in hybrid was delivered. Because there isn’t a plug close to where we park, I diligently followed the onscreen instructions to put the Q5 in Battery Save mode so that its fully charged battery pack would have enough energy to perform at its best when I tested it at our northern test track in Michigan’s thumb. The Q5 operates like a mild hybrid in this mode, conserving all of the battery energy it has built up during acceleration.
The Audi plug-in behaves like a 4,760-pound SUV with a 248-hp, 273-lb-ft 2.0-liter turbo-four once you reach to driving speeds, yet it will still move out of the driveway in electric mode. She’s no fireworks, each horse pulling 19.2 pounds. Sybil tested in Battery Save wafted to 60 mph in a leisurely 8.5 seconds and then completed a quarter-mile pass at 81.7 mph in 16.7 seconds. The 2.4-liter, non-turbo 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander performs almost identically to a less upscale plug-in hybrid that lacks the Q5’s sports aspirations. It’s a derogatory analogy.
The Poky E-SUV
Of course, driving plug-in hybrids in battery electric mode is how society prefers that we do. You won’t be able to obtain the Q5’s attractive 43/64/50-mpg-e city/highway/combined EPA figures until at least 70% of your driving is done in this mode. The central console has a button that, when touched, enters EV mode, allowing Sybil to switch into her even mousier 141-hp/258-lb-ft quiet mime persona. The Audi Q5 plug-in hybrid limped to 60 in 16.4 seconds and lumbered across the quarter-mile line in 20.9 seconds at 66.8 mph with each overburdened horse now toting 33.8 pounds. That’s assuming you didn’t lose patience and kick-down the engine by pressing the switch at the end of the accelerator pedal’s stroke. To locate an SUV that accelerated nearly as slowly, we had to go back to the 1997 Toyota Land Cruiser, which was equipped with a sluggish 212-hp inline-six and a four-speed automatic transmission (16.2 seconds to 60 mph, 20.1 seconds at 66.3 mph through the quarter).
The RS Q5 That Audi Doesn’t Offer
My 2021 Audi Q5 plug-in hybrid (PHEV for short) finally had its full 362 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of combined gas and electric motivation when I finally took it to the test track, engaged the Dynamic drive select setting, and let it run in its Hybrid mode. Our docile Q5 suddenly changed into the fastest Q5 model we’ve tested, accelerating to 60 mph in just 4.5 seconds and barreling through the quarter-mile lights in 13.2 seconds at 103.1 mph. That puts it two tenths faster than the fastest Audi SQ5 V-6 turbo we’ve tested, which only makes 349 horsepower but is 308 pounds lighter and delivers the same amount of torque (369 lb-ft). The Porsche Macan S and the inconspicuous Q5 plug-in, which share a corporate MLB platform, are competitive at full power.
To get the turbo spooling, the pedal overlap technique, often known as “brake-torque,” was used to accomplish the performance mentioned above. The quarter-mile trap speed decreases to 98.7 mph if you merely floor the gas after coming to a halt, and the times are off by two or three tenths. To reach our best time, we typically only make two or three laps in each direction. However, with this plug-in Audi, I made back-to-back runs to drain the battery and see if the performance of the hybrid mode would deteriorate to the same level as that of Battery Save mode. Not at all. Presumably, slowing down from 100 mph repeatedly recovered enough electrons to give all 362 horses enough energy to run continuously.
How Does the 2021 Audi Q5 Plug-In Hybrid Handle?
When you turn the steering wheel or slam on the brakes, this does not feel like an RS Q5. With stops from 60 mph taking 116 feet instead of the 104 and 107 required by the SQ5 and Macan S, those 308 extra pounds became apparent. Additionally, even while the Q5 plug-maximum in’s lateral grip of 0.92 g is respectably close to the 0.94 g recorded by its cousins, those lighter utes lack the Q5 plug-dynamic in’s playfulness.
How Does It Rank as a Plug-In?
The sensation of this car may seem strange to drivers used to PHEV and fully electric cars because the electric motor climbs up through the first few gears. The driving experience is otherwise very unremarkable. The driver’s right foot angle is essentially shown by a huge power meter that replaces the standard tachometer. When in EV mode, pushing that needle past around 55 to 60 percent power ignites the engine. (The tach is reduced to a linear gauge that is one inch long.)
When the battery was completely down after my test run, I requested the navigation system to locate the closest public charging station. All of the first-place options were in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. I paged through and plugged in while I ran the test calculations at a nearby Level 2 charger in Port Huron, Michigan. The display indicated that a full charge would take four hours, but when I left after 30 minutes, I had four miles of electric range. From there, I used Battery Save mode to drive to the cabin where I plugged in the Q5 using extension cords that I had strung from a 110-volt outlet. It took exactly 18 hours as predicted by the information screen to add the final 15 miles of range.
The 14.1 kWh capacity of our 2021 Audi Q5 plug-in hybrid is rated for a 19-mile electric range. The battery size increases to 17.9 kWh for the 2022 model year, extending the range to 23 miles. Additional powertrain improvements have also changed the engine’s output numbers, which are now 261 horsepower at 5,250 rpm and 273 lb-ft of torque at 1,600 rpm. However, neither the numbers for the electric motor output nor the overall combined system output change. Audi claims that the redesigned 2022 Q5 PHEV has a reduced curb weight, although it credits this to a change in the list of standard features. While the gas-only ratings fall to 25/27/26 mpg for 2022, the EPA’s gas+electric ratings rise to 60/61/61 mpg-e. Also take note of the $1,000 increase in the base pricing.
Should You Consider an Audi Q5 Plug-In Hybrid?
Sure. You’d never get tired of riding in Sybil, er, the Q5 PHEV, with so many personalities! Of course, if we spent around $60K on one, we’d probably settle down with its RS Q5 character and then wonder why we didn’t choose a minimally optioned base Macan instead of this heavy PHEV.