Audi SQ5: can performance diesels work?

I’ve been in Munich this week driving something of a pioneering vehicle from the brand with the four rings.

It’s Audi’s SQ5 and it’s the German firm’s first ever diesel-powered S model, as well as the company’s first proper performance SUV. And no, the ridiculously torquey V12 TDI Q7 doesn’t count…

First Drive: Audi SQ5 (2012 onwards)

While it’s mighty quick for a vehicle more akin to something the size of a piece of farm machinery it left me thinking, is the SQ5 the start of a fast saloon revolution?

Despite the queue you’ll have to sit in at the fuel station it actually sounds like a butch turbocharged petrol V8 – things are starting off well I thought. Then I drove it – and that’s not a slight on the SQ5’s character.

The motor is great, even in a weighty 4x4. The chassis’ dynamics are limited due to ride height and mass, but drop the engine into an A4 and it’d turn a family saloon into the most efficient inter-continental ballistic missile ever envisaged.

Audi already put the SQ5’s 313hp engine into the A6, but in an A4 it’d surely be awesome. In the mid-size 4x4 it’s nearly as quick as the S4 saloon from 0-62mph – 5.1 plays 5.0 seconds to 62mph – so with less weight it’d blow the 3.0-litre supercharged V6 into the weeds.

Even in the SQ5, you’ll get 4.3mpg more out of it – think what it’d be like in a mid-size saloon. Petrol power wouldn’t get a look in.

We’ve had fast diesels from BMW and Audi before, but never one with a chassis to match. With a few tweaks, Quattro four-wheel drive and 40mpg-plus efficiency, it’s a pretty appealing proposition.

The 143hp 2.0 TDI A1 we had in a while back proves how a pokey diesel engine in a car with a surfeit of power over weight can be a hoot to drive.

Road Test: Audi A1 2.0 TDI S Line (2011 onwards)

Sure, you’ll always have your petrol purists craving high-octane aromatics rather than the soapy diesel sludge that sticks to your hands after a fill-up, but the way Audi’s 3.0-litre V6 BiTurbo engine revs and sounds could certainly change a few minds.

The diesel revolution has been in full swing for a while now, but maybe it’s time for diesel evolution. The dagger-dagger image needs to be updated and a super-performance diesel could be just the way to do it.

Go on Audi, I dare you…