- Audi’s Q9 lost its electronic door handles after its CEO vetoed them.
- Gernot Döllner said China’s ban on electric handles played only a minor role.
- Late design change forced costly manufacturing revisions before production.
The big Q9 SUV is Audi’s most luxurious, tech-heavy vehicle yet, so Audi’s designers reasoned it needed a suitably posh set of door handles. And that’s what it got until one test drive convinced its CEO that sometimes the old way is simply the better way.
The flagship SUV was originally supposed to feature electronic door handles instead of conventional mechanical ones, Gernot Döllner revealed to media. But after driving the vehicle himself late in development, Döllner decided they simply weren’t as satisfying or practical to use in everyday life.
Related: Audi Gives Its Biggest SUV Level 2 Hands-Free Driving, Years After Quitting Level 3
The original Q9 handle setup reportedly relied on a small touch sensitive wing built into the top of the door. Rather than pulling on a physical handle, drivers would touch the sensor on the wing, which would trigger an electromechanical mechanism to unlatch the door. It’s a solution already seen elsewhere in the industry, and Döllner says it will be used on a future European product in a different segment. But he decided it wasn’t right for its biggest SUV.
“We had an innovative door handle concept [but] we had a final test drive and said, it’s innovative, but from a customer perspective, it’s worse than a conventional door handle,” The Drive reports Döllner explaining. “And we were absolutely lucky to be able to change,” the CEO said, adding that China’s decision to ban such handles happened in parallel, and wasn’t the primary motivation.
Döllner, who declared himself “really proud” of the final, conventional handles, concluded that buyers of a large luxury SUV care more about solid operation than showing off clever technology. Opening the door while wearing gloves, carrying shopping bags, or wrestling kids into child seats isn’t the ideal moment to discover the downsides of a futuristic touch sensor.
Last-Minute U-Turn
The real eye-opener is just how late the decision appears to have been made.
“Normally, it takes two years to change [door handles], but our body engineers did an outstanding job, and we were a little bit lucky that it worked package-wise,” Audi’s boss said.
But even if the Q9 lost its fancy handles, it isn’t exactly lacking technology elsewhere. Audi’s new flagship still comes loaded with electrically-powered doors, a huge panoramic glass roof and innovative curved OLED taillights.
Sitting above the Q7, Audi’s new flagship takes aim at the BMW X7 and Mercedes-Benz GLS with available six- and seven-seat layouts. Europe’s Q9 gets a 295 hp (299 PS) 3.0-litre straight-six diesel, while America’s features a 429 hp (435 PS) 2.9-liter petrol V6 and the SQ9 delivers 591 hp (599 PS) via a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8.
Audi
