Audi’s biggest overhaul in years is about to hit dealerships—here’s what’s new

Audi of America has released pricing and equipment details for its 2027 lineup, covering 10 model families from the Q3 to the RS e-tron GT. The automaker said the 2027 updates collectively represent the “most comprehensive product cadence” in its history, with the goal of simplifying how options are grouped so customers can more easily match a vehicle trim level to their needs.

Every 2027 Audi vehicle with a Bang & Olufsen or SONOS audio system (minus the e-tron GT, Q8, and A8) now includes Sound Enhancement PLUS. As described by Audi, the feature optimizes audio quality throughout the cabin with deeper bass, frequency restoration, and automatic volume adjustment that adapts across different media sources.

Bang & Olufsen-equipped models also get Virtual Rooms, a feature that shapes the cabin’s sound to mimic the acoustics of venues such as concert halls, stadiums, and jazz clubs.

Here is a quick look at all of the updates across the 2027 Audi lineup.

A5 and S5

One trim, but more packages to pick from

The A5 moves to a single trim structure for 2027, although revised option packages add variety.

For example, the Driver Assistance package brings a heads-up display, dashcam, and park assist plus, while the Executive package adds a Bang & Olufsen sound system, ventilated front seats, and LED headlights with daytime running lights.

The Vorsprung package sits above both, adding a front passenger display, Park Assist Pro with remote functionality, and a surround view camera system. A new Sport Plus package leans into performance styling with an S-line interior, adaptive S sport suspension, and red brake calipers. The S5 mirrors this structure with its own version of each package.

Starting MSRP: $50,400.
Engine: 2.0L TFSI, four-cylinder.
Output: 268 horsepower, 295 lb-ft. of torque.
Drivetrain: quattro, S tronic.

Starting MSRP: $63,600.
Engine: 3.0L TFSI, six-cylinder.
Output: 362 horsepower, 406 lb-ft. of torque.
Drivetrain: quattro, S tronic.

Destination and delivery: $1,295

Base Trim Engine: EV
Base Trim Transmission: Automatic
Base Trim Drivetrain: Rear-Wheel Drive

A6 and S6

Air quality package benefits owners with sinuses

The A6 TFSI now includes a heated steering wheel, a surround-view camera system, and a leather-covered airbag cap as standard equipment. The Driver Assistance package adds an integrated dashcam, while the Executive package brings dual-pane acoustic glass and a Bang & Olufsen sound system.

Meanwhile, a new Air quality package adds a particulate matter sensor and an ionizer.

The A6 Sportback e-tron lineup, offered with rear or dual-motor quattro power, receives hardware and software updates for 2027.

A6 Sedan

Starting MSRP: $64,900.
Engine: 3.0L TFSI, six-cylinder.
Output: 362 horsepower, 406 lb-ft. of torque.
Drivetrain: quattro, S tronic.

A6 Sportback e-tron

Starting MSRP: $66,700 to $75,200.
Output: 375 horsepower.
Drivetrain: rear-wheel drive.

A6 Sportback e-tron quattro

Starting MSRP: $68,700 to $77,200.
Output: 456 horsepower.
Drivetrain: quattro.

S6 Sportback e-tron

Starting MSRP: $79,600 to $83,300.
Output: 543 horsepower.
Drivetrain: quattro.

Destination and delivery: $1,295

Q3 and Q6 e-tron

More safety tech for one, standard quattro for the other

Following its all-new redesign for 2026, the Q3 now includes a direct tire pressure monitoring system and Adaptive Rear Assist, which can apply emergency braking to avoid a rear-end collision with pedestrians.

A new Convenience package bundles a heated steering wheel, surround-view cameras, and park assist into one offering, while the Driver Assistance package adds a heads-up display and Park Assist Pro.

Q3 S line quattro

Starting MSRP: $44,400.
Engine: 2.0L TFSI, four-cylinder.
Output: 255 horsepower, 273 lb-ft. of torque.
Drivetrain: quattro, S tronic.

Destination and delivery: $1,295

The Q6 e-tron, Audi’s first model built on the Premium Platform Electric architecture, comes standard with quattro all-wheel drive for 2027. Hardware and software updates are aimed at improving efficiency and driving feel.

Q6 e-tron quattro

Starting MSRP: $64,500 to $73,700.
Output: 456 horsepower.
Drivetrain: quattro.

SQ6 e-tron

Starting MSRP: $73,200 to $76,600.
Output: 509 horsepower.
Drivetrain: quattro.

Q6 Sportback e-tron

Starting MSRP: $68,300 to $76,500.
Output: 456 horsepower.
Drivetrain: quattro.

SQ6 Sportback e-tron

Starting MSRP: $75,600 to $79,000.
Output: 509 horsepower.
Drivetrain: quattro.

Destination and delivery: $1,295

A8 and Q8

Mostly unchanged, although some small updates

The A8 L is largely unchanged for 2027, with two new 21-inch wheel options added to the Black optic package. The S8 gets a new wheel color and standard heated rear seats.

Meanwhile, the Q8 receives the S line exterior as standard equipment along with a new 21-inch wheel design. SQ8 buyers will have a new 23-inch wheel option. The RS Q8 performance now includes standard dual-pane acoustic glass for the side windows.

A8 L 55 TFSI

Starting MSRP: $95,100.
Engine: 3.0L TFSI, six-cylinder.
Output: 335 horsepower, 369 lb-ft. of torque.
Drivetrain: quattro, Tiptronic.

Starting MSRP: $130,000.
Engine: 4.0L TFSI, eight-cylinder.
Output: 563 horsepower, 590 lb-ft. of torque.
Drivetrain: quattro, Tiptronic.

Q8 55 TFSI

Starting MSRP: $76,900 to $87,500.
Engine: 3.0L TFSI, six-cylinder.
Output: 335 horsepower, 369 lb-ft. of torque.
Drivetrain: quattro, Tiptronic.

SQ8

Starting MSRP: $100,600 to $108,100.
Engine: 4.0L TFSI, eight-cylinder.
Output: 500 horsepower, 568 lb-ft. of torque.
Drivetrain: quattro, Tiptronic.

RS Q8 performance

Starting MSRP: $139,700.
Engine: 4.0L TFSI, eight-cylinder.
Output: 631 horsepower, 627 lb-ft. of torque.
Drivetrain: quattro, Tiptronic.

Destination and delivery: $1,295

The RS e-tron GT performance is also mostly unchanged for 2027, although a high-gloss black Singleframe grille has been added to the Forged carbon package.

RS e-tron GT performance

Starting MSRP: $170,500.
Powertrain: dual motors, 105 kWh battery.
Output: 912 horsepower.
Drivetrain: quattro.

Destination and delivery: $1,295

Q7, SQ7, and Q9

Details still to come

Audi has not yet released 2027 pricing for the Q7, SQ7, or Q9.

The redesigned Q7 pairs a 429-horsepower turbocharged V6 with a range-topping SQ7 that features a 591-horsepower twin-turbo V8. Audi said the Q7 will arrive at dealerships in the fourth quarter of 2026, with pricing to follow closer to that time.

The Q9 is Audi’s first true full-size flagship SUV, offered in six- or seven-seat configurations and built to compete directly with vehicles like the BMW X7, Mercedes-Benz GLS, and even the Cadillac Escalade. It debuts on July 28th, with North American deliveries possibly starting as early as November.

Warranty coverage across the lineup

Every 2027 model year Audi comes with Audi Signature Care, which covers scheduled maintenance at the one year/10,000 mile, two year/20,000 mile, and three year/30,000 mile intervals, plus one brake fluid service.

That warranty coverage is paired with a four-year/50,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, a 12-year corrosion perforation warranty, and four years of roadside assistance. Owners who want coverage beyond that point can extend their service through Audi Care Select, which expands maintenance coverage to 120,000 miles.

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Stephan Dorsey

Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.

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Recent Reviews

Meta pulled facial recognition code from its smart glasses app one day after WIRED found it

TL;DR

Meta stripped NameTag facial recognition code from its AI app one day after WIRED exposed it on 50 million phones. Meta says no decision has been made.

Meta removed nearly all traces of an unreleased facial recognition system from its smart glasses companion app on Friday, one day after WIRED reported that the software had been quietly embedded in an app installed on more than 50 million phones. The feature, which Meta internally called NameTag, was designed to convert faces captured by the company’s Ray-Ban smart glasses into unique biometric signatures and compare them against a database stored on the user’s device. WIRED also found that faces the system failed to recognise were cropped, indexed, and stored locally for future processing.

Andy Stone, Meta’s vice president of communications, told WIRED on Monday that the feature is “purely exploratory,” adding that no final decision has been made on what to do with it. That characterisation sits uneasily with the evidence WIRED documented. The version of Meta AI published the day of WIRED’s Thursday report contained several code libraries explicitly named for face recognition, a process for running the NameTag recognition pipeline, and a “Person recognised” alert the app would have shown if someone were identified.

Friday’s release stripped all of it out, along with a folder where the app would have stored the cropped images and biometric signatures of unrecognised faces. Meta did not answer WIRED’s questions about why the code was removed or whether the changes were planned before the story was published. A few fragments remain in the latest version, including an internal debug menu label and a dormant link meant to open a recognised person’s profile, pointing to parts of the system that are no longer there.

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The gap between Meta’s public statements and the code WIRED found is the central tension. Before the Thursday report, Stone dismissed the findings by writing that the company could not answer questions about how the system would work because “the feature does not exist.” Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, called the reporting “incredibly misleading” and “absolutely dishonest.” Yet the code was functional enough to include three AI models, one to detect faces, another to crop them, and a third to encode them as biometric data, all embedded in the companion app for a product already at the centre of a mounting privacy crisis.

Meta declined to answer ten questions WIRED posed before publishing, including whether it had already created the database of face profiles NameTag uses, how long the app retains photographs and biometric data of unrecognised people, and whether that data would ever be sent back to Meta’s servers. The company also did not respond to questions about whether it was building NameTag for blind or low-vision users, or to criticism from privacy advocates who warned the system could let stalkers and abusers identify strangers in public.

NameTag first surfaced in February, when The New York Times, citing internal Meta documents, reported that the company was developing face recognition for its smart glasses and considering a launch as early as this year. One internal memo reportedly described releasing the feature during a “dynamic political environment” when privacy and civil liberties advocates would be distracted by other concerns. WIRED subsequently found that much of NameTag’s machinery had been built into the Meta AI app as early as January, months before any public acknowledgement, adding another layer to the company’s pattern of shipping first and disclosing later when it comes to its smart glasses.

Kade Crockford, director of the technology for liberty programme at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said the removal does not undo the original decision to ship the code and pointed to it as evidence that consumer privacy needs stronger legal protection than Congress has been willing to provide. The Massachusetts House of Representatives last week unanimously passed a consumer privacy bill that, if enacted as written, would impose strong enforcement provisions including a private right of action allowing aggrieved users to sue. “State lawmakers need to do their job and step up to protect consumer privacy,” Crockford said.

“Meta’s sneaky tactics in slipping the face-recognition code into its smart glasses show exactly why data privacy bills need the teeth of strong enforcement,” Crockford added. “Companies like Meta prioritise their bottom line, so lawmakers need to speak in the only language its C-suite understands.” Whether a code removal prompted by investigative reporting constitutes a victory or merely a tactical retreat depends on what Meta does next, and on whether the regulatory pressure building on both sides of the Atlantic produces enforceable consequences before the feature quietly returns under a different name.

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Stephan Dorsey

Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.