- Audi’s 2026 Q3 Sportback has been spotted testing in prototype form.
- The VW Tiguan twin debuts later this year with ICE and PHEV power.
- Q3 adopts the same split headlight treatment as the Q6 e-tron.
Audi’s 2024 US sales figures make for depressing reading unless you’re a BMW dealer. The brand was down 14 percent overall and its Q5, Q7, and Q8 SUVs all suffered drops of at least 25 percent. The one bright spot was the aging Q3, whose sales shot up by 45 percent, which means the chances are high that this year’s new combustion Q3 is going to have the tills ringing.
Our spy photographers first snapped the regular squareback version of the 2026 Q3 testing back in the fall of 2023, but it’s taken another 18 months for a prototype of the sexier Sportback variety to make an appearance.
Related: Audi Confirms New Q3, A7, And PHEVs For 2025
The ordinary Q3 already has a pronounced droop to its roofline and a slope to its rear window, but the Sportback amplifies the coupe effect, adding more degrees of rake to the rear screen and noticeably shortening the C-pillar and side window. The pictures suggest Sportback buyers will sacrifice some rear headroom and luggage capacity if they intend on loading cargo up to the headliner, as is the case with the current Q3 Sportback.
Just visible through the rear camouflage at each corner are a strip of vertical segmented LEDs (though not illuminated here) that function as brake lights and give the taillights an arrow-like shape when the SUV is slowing. And we believe there’s a full-width horizontally mounted LED strip below each taillight that connects them across the hatchback door.
Moving to the front, the Sportback looks, as you’d expect, identical to the non-Sportback model. We can see the Q3 adopts a split-headlight look like its electric Q6 e-tron big brother, but interestingly not seen on other recent ICE-powered Audis such as the A5 and Q5. Check out the image of an almost disguise-free Q3 in the gallery below for an even clearer look at that new front end.
Under the skin, the Q3 shares its MQB Evo platform with the latest Euro-market VW Tiguan and Cupra Terramar. The architecture is designed for combustion cars, so there’ll be no EV version – all-electric Audis have even numbers now, anyway – but there will be plenty of gas and hybrid options.
European buyers should get a choice of 1.5 and 2.0-liter petrol engines, a 2.0-liter diesel, and two PHEVs based on the 1.5 that deliver up to 268 hp (272 PS) and as much as 70 miles (113 km) of electric range. America’s Q3 menu will be more restrictive – the current Q3’s sole stateside powertrain is a 228 hp (231 PS) 2.0-liter straight gas motor. But since hybrid sales are booming in the US right now, and Audi needs to leverage every angle to get its overall sales figures back on track, a PHEV is very likely to make its debut.
