Next-Generation Audi Q8: What We Know So Far

Audi CEO Gernot Doellner confirmed a next-generation Q8 to Edmunds, reversing an earlier plan to drop the model. No powertrain, platform or launch date has been announced.

Author: Nikita Novikov

00:43 04-08-2026

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Audi will keep the Q8 in its next generation, even though no successor project had been formally approved before. Brand CEO Gernot Doellner told Edmunds the decision changed after he joined the company. The new crossover will remain a five-seat, sportier alternative to the more practical Q7, and it won’t be pushed aside by the larger Q9. Doellner continues to lead Audi after his contract was extended in the fall of 2025.

That’s where the confirmed information ends. The speculation about gasoline V6 and V8 engines, including the 4.0-liter unit from the SQ9, comes from Edmunds. Audi hasn’t named a platform, powertrains, output figures, a reveal date or markets for the future Q8. The phrase “in the near future” doesn’t guarantee a debut in any specific model year either.

Keeping the Q8 explains the brand’s new lineup structure. The newly revealed Q9 became Audi’s largest-ever crossover, offering six or seven seats, while the Q8 will keep competing with the BMW X6 and Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe. The Q9 launches in North America and Europe in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The current Q8 belongs to the first generation, which arrived in 2019. In the US, the 2026 model starts at $75,600 and tops out at $86,200. The lineup includes the standard Q8, the SQ8 and the RS Q8.

The European Q8 is currently offered with 3.0-liter diesel V6 engines rated at 231 and 286 hp, plus a 340-hp gasoline V6. Plug-in hybrids produce 394 and 490 hp and can cover up to 83 km on WLTP electric range alone. Carrying that lineup over to the successor is still premature, though.

We previously covered the seven-seat Audi Q9, which stretches over five meters long, as well as the current RS Q8, whose output tuning house ABT raised to 760 hp. The new Q8 will occupy a middle ground: it stays five-seat and less utilitarian than the Q7 and Q9.

Buyers are left waiting for a technical presentation. So far Audi has only guaranteed that the next Q8 will exist — not its engines, pricing or delivery timeline.