Witness The Making Of The New-Gen Audi Q5 At The Company's Mexican Plant

By Seshan Vijayraghvan

1 mins read

Published on October 10, 2016

Highlights

The 2nd Gen Audi Q5 made its debut at the 2016 Paris Motor Show
The facility, in San Jose Chiapa, Puebla is Audi's first in the Americas
The plant will turn out 150,000 units a year and employ 4200 local worker

Since the big unveil of the new-gen Audi Q5 at the 2016 Paris Motor Show, and even before that, the Ingolstadt-based carmaker has been opening sharing details about the car's development. The company has already started production of the second-generation Audi Q5 at its San Jose Chiapa factory in Mexico. Audi Mexico has released a video which us a sneak-peak at the manufacturing process of the new-gen Audi Q5. As mentioned in our earlier reports, the San Jose Chiapa plant in Puebla is Audi's first car plant in the entire North American continent and the new facility has already helped create 3300 jobs in the region. In fact, it is being said that by the end of this year, the factory will employ another 900 people, bringing the total number to 4200. As for the manufacturing plant itself, the entire facility is spread across an area of 988 acres and includes all of the essentials like - press, paint, and body shops, along with the assembly line among others. Audi has invested about $1.1 billion to build the facility and at full capacity, it will churn out 150,000 units a year. Coming to the car itself, the new-gen Audi Q5 is built on the company's tried and tested MLB Evo platform and is over 90kg lighter than its predecessor. Despite the weight reduction the new Q5 has slightly grown in size as the car now measures 4.66 meters in length, 1.89 meters in width, and 1.66 meters in height. The SUV now has a slightly longer wheelbase of 2.82 meter, offering enhanced cabin space. Under the hood, the new Q5 will come with both petrol and diesel engine options - 2.0-litre TFSI, a 2.0-litre TDI motor and a top-of-the-line 3.0-litre TDI. While the petrol engine is capable of churning out about 248bhp, the 2.0-litre oil burner comes in three states of tunes 147bhp, 161bhp, and 188bhp. On the other hand, the 3.0-litre TDI motor produces a 281bhp and develops a peak torque of 620Nm that comes mated to an 8-speed tiptronic gearbox. The other two engines come mated to either a 6-speed manual gearbox or a 7-speed S tronic automatic transmission.