An electric version of the Audi Q5 midsize SUV will be manufactured at the company’s new (set to open on September 30) manufacturing facility in Mexico, according to recent reports.
Audi’s plans call for the new $1.3 billion Mexican facility (the company’s first in the country) to eventually produce all of the firm’s Q5 models sold anywhere in the world.
Immediately after launch, the San Jose Chiapa facility will only be producing internal combustion engine (ICE) variants of the Q5, but electric Q5 production is expected to begin relatively soon thereafter.
“They are training personnel,” stated one of the two unnamed sources for the information. No launch date is set yet, the source also noted.
As it stands, the ICE Q5 is manufactured in Ingolstadt, Germany, and is then exported globally after production. Local production also occurs in China and India as well, but the units produced there are for local sale only.
Considering that the Q5 is one of the German company’s top-selling models globally, the news is quite interesting. The company is presumably looking to expand its profit margin on the model by a fair amount.
The new Mexican facility will produce up to 150,000 units a year, once up and running, reportedly.
On a related note, Audi’s first electric SUV — the e-Tron Quattro concept vehicle unveiled last year at the Frankfurt Motor Show — is currently expected to enter into production sometime in 2018. Manufacture of the model is expected to be based out of Brussels, Belgium.
While a finalized name hasn’t been revealed, the “Q6” seems likely. The all-electric range of the SUV is expected to sit somewhere around ~310 miles (500 kilometers) per charge, on the European testing cycle.