Fourteen years ago, I had found myself driving through the twisty ghat roads of Goa in the very first generation of the Audi Q3. It was a fantastic drive through the red hills of the former Portuguese colony in the bright orange SUV. And that vehicle really helped Audi launch in India and earn the colloquial moniker ‘Chaar Choori’. In 2013, Audi became the first luxury carmaker in India to cross the 10,000 sales mark in a financial year, thanks to the popular first-generation Q3. Over two generations, the Q3 has sold more than 26,000 units in India in the past 14 years.
However, the past few years have been rough for the German carmaker — both in India and globally. A poor product strategy — thanks to global management decisions around electrification — saw Audi fall behind its German rivals and even Jaguar Land Rover. In the first half of 2026 as Mercedes-Benz and BMW touched close to 10,000 units, Audi India sold just 2,182 vehicles.
So, it was quite significant that Audi India chose Goa to host the media drive of the new third-generation Q3. Things have changed for both the coastal state and the Q3 in these 14 years. On the outside, the new Q3 looks slightly softer but keeps the carmaker’s innovative headlight design. Audi was the first major carmaker to introduce the now-standard LED daytime running lights, or DRLs.
The new Q3 now gets ‘Digital Matrix’ LED headlights, with each headlight module having 25,600 tiny 40-micrometre individual LEDs that can be individually controlled. This allows the light beam to be reshaped and adjusted according to the oncoming traffic, providing added safety.
Some higher-end vehicles already have such features, but this is the first time what one would describe as a compact luxury SUV is getting it. The digital matrix headlights also allow the vehicle to have interesting startup and shutdown light patterns. The Q3 also gains a new taillight with a connecting light and a backlit logo.
A driver’s car
Audi also was the first carmaker to introduce us to the concept of a digital/virtual cockpit — an edge-to-edge digital screen replacing the entire analogue instrument cluster. I remember experiencing this for the first time on the second-generation Audi TT sportscar in 2015, and I was just blown away by the intrigue of the possibilities of such screens. And today, you get such screens even on vehicles like the Hyundai Venue and Kia Sonet.
The new Q3, though, has something called a ‘Digital Stage’ — two large displays serving as the instrument cluster and the infotainment screen, which is slightly curved focussing on the driver. And while they are individual displays, they together feel seamless. The new Audi MMI operating system, which is now based on Google’s Android Automotive OS, has a lovely interface and a very natural user experience.
Frankly, Audi’s older system, as good as it was in the early 2020s, had begun to fall behind. The new system really does place the carmaker among the top in terms of intuitiveness. The 12-speaker SONOS audio system is brilliant. I heard a whole gamut of tracks while driving through Goa and I might even go as far to say that this is the best audio system in its class.
As I said, the screen is curved toward the driver, and this is the first hint that tells you that the new Q3, like its predecessors, is a driver’s vehicle. That is also what Audi India Brand Director Balbir Singh Dhillon told me. He said that 86 per cent of the buyers of the vehicle over the past few years have been driving the SUV themselves.
And honestly, the new Q3 is a lot of fun to drive. I was heading to Tambdi Surla, the location of an ancient 13th-century Chaulukya Dynasty temple inside the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary. It is not a very popular tourist spot in this state of beaches and casinos, but it is a fantastic drive. I drove from Vagator on the coast through some rural roads in Assagaon and then got onto the brand new highways, heading toward the eastern corner of the state before finally driving through some twisty ghat roads.
By the end of it, I had driven close to 200 km, and trust me, during most media drives, one usually ends up driving a hundred kilometres tops. I really enjoyed driving this vehicle. Yes, the Q3 has the same two-litre turbocharged petrol engine found on the Volkswagen Tayron and Skoda Kodiaq, in the very same state of tune with 204PS of power. But maybe because the Q3 isn’t an extended wheelbase three-row SUV unlike the other two, it feels sharper and more agile. Additionally, the Q3 has the Quattro all-wheel drive system, and ever so often when you push the car through the corners and maybe touch a little bit of gravel, you sense the system shifting some power to the rear wheels. It gives you a sense of confidence.
Also read: India wants more fuel-efficient cars. Kia’s answer is a hybrid Sorento
The gaps
From a driver’s perspective, the new Q3 is a fantastic package. But you probably would have picked up on some issues while reading. One, there is no extended wheelbase. Although the new Q3 is slightly longer than the outgoing model, it has the same wheelbase. This lends the vehicle its agility, but there is a significant market in India for people who prefer to be driven, and rivals such as the BMW X1 long-wheelbase have an advantage there.
The second is a bit more complex. One reason for the huge popularity of the old Q3 and Audi in general was the fantastic performance of its two-litre diesel engine. This engine, codenamed EA189, unfortunately had the starring role in the 2015 ‘Dieselgate’ scandal that engulfed Audi’s parent Volkswagen Group.
That was a reason for the group to withdraw completely from selling diesel motors in India. While diesel engine sales are nowhere near their peak in the mid-2010s, it still accounts for almost a third of the luxury market in India. More than the long wheelbase, I believe this is a significant gap that Audi has. Will they bring in something like a plug-in hybrid to cover that gap remains to be seen, although the Q3 has that option in certain markets. Audi may also re-enter with a diesel or bring the similarly-sized all-electric Q4 here.
Whatever Audi India decides to do, a lot of the success of the new Q3 will be determined by its price tag, and that announcement is still a few days away. I really liked driving the Q3 and it should definitely help the company regain some of its lost lustre.
Kushan Mitra is an automotive journalist based in New Delhi. He tweets @kushanmitra. Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)