What's the difference?
Zeekr is making waves in Australia at the moment but it's not because of the car you see before you.
Nope, it’s the 7X mid-size SUV that’s captured a heap of attention and a whole lot of sales. In fact, of the 1832 sales the brand has managed over the first three months of 2026, just 54 were for the X.
But that was the old X and this is the new one. With more power, more performance, faster charging and a whole heap of pretty special equipment, especially for the small SUV segment.
So, is that enough to finally put the X on the map?
Replacing a popular model is fraught with danger. Existing customers will tell you they love it, while focus groups of non-customers will tell you why they hate it and sometimes carmakers get caught trying to appease both groups.
Sometimes they’ll make it too big or change too much in the search for more sales and ultimately end up removing the elements that made it popular in the first place.
Which is why Audi has been extra careful with some subtle evolution for this new-generation Q3 SUV and Sportback. This isn’t just a popular model for Audi Australia, it has been the best-selling model for the German brand for more than five years, so getting it wrong would be a disaster.
It's a good thing in a small package, this Zeekr X, and there are a lot of things I like about it. In fact, the only sticking point for me is the price. But that's all about perspective. If you see this as a newcomer Chinese brand, then yes, there are a lot of more affordable options out there. But if you see it as a premium player, it's really a more affordable version of a Volvo.
Note: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number of automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
So is this new Q3 good enough to remain Audi’s number one choice? In a word, yes.
Audi has resisted the temptation that some brands fall into by making too many changes to a proven sales performer. This new Q3 isn’t radically different from the old Q3, but it has improved in almost every way.
It isn’t different enough to widely expand its appeal to a new wave of customers, but there’s no reason it won’t remain Audi’s most popular choice for the foreseeable future.
Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.