Does The New Audi Q3 Base Model Look Posh Enough to Earn Its Badge?
The new Q3 hasn't even been announced yet for the United States, but you can already virtually build the compact luxury crossover in its domestic market. Audi has fired up the online configurator tool in Germany, revealing the base model. As you can see from the screenshots we captured from the website, it looks far less sophisticated than the press images released a few days ago.
That makes sense. Automakers always put their best foot forward when launching a new car, typically showcasing the most expensive version available. This
2026 Audi Q3
with zero options is far less desirable once you strip away the S Line goodies and all the other extras. Without ticking any boxes on the options list, German buyers must fork out €44,600 ($52,000). It's a hefty sum for an entry-level configuration, but keep in mind that 19% of that price is due to the value-added tax (VAT).
2026 Audi Q3 base model
Photo by: Audi
2026 Audi Q3 S Line
Photo by: Audi
So, what do you get on a zero-option Q3? Arkona White is the only paint color
Audi
includes for 'free.' Those basic-looking 17-inch wheels with 235/60 tires will have to suffice unless you're willing to upgrade to alloys up to 20 inches. While even the standard headlights are full-LED, they appear rather plain. The matrix setup, featuring the 23-segment checkered flag motif seen in the official images, is replaced by a simpler design consisting of rectangles.
Around back, the base Q3 has simple taillights that skip OLED tech and the wide light bar, and the Four Rings logo doesn't light up either. The honeycomb pattern on the rear bumper of higher trims is also gone, leaving you with a sea of plastic. At least there are no fake exhaust tips, as
Audi has pledged to use the real thing forward
, acknowledging the widespread disapproval of the faux ones. However, the new Q3 hides the exhaust tip underneath the bumper, though we imagine future SQ3 and RS Q3 hot versions will flaunt theirs.
2026 Audi Q3 base model
Photo by: Audi
2026 Audi Q3 S Line
Photo by: Audi
Unsurprisingly, the interior also looks underwhelming without the silver and metallic accents. The base
Q3
loses the ambient lighting and the flat-bottomed steering wheel. Audi wraps the seats in cloth, but at least retains the 40:20:40 split rear bench, even on the most basic configuration.
Another plus: the dashboard has a normal look, unlike other new base models from Ingolstadt that skip the passenger display. Cars like the latest A5 and A6 use the same dashboard, regardless of whether the optional screen is selected. When it's not, a
piece of blank plastic juts out from the passenger side
, constantly reminding you of the missing feature.
2026 Audi Q3 base model
Photo by: Audi
2026 Audi Q3 S Line
Photo by: Audi
Speaking of screens, Audi fits all Q3 versions with the same 11.9-inch digital instrument cluster and 12.8-inch infotainment system, so you're not stuck with smaller displays. However, the bezels are much thicker than we'd expect for a 2025 car. Sadly, even the base Q3 gets touch-sensitive keys on the steering wheel.
The Q3 ushers in a newly developed
unified stalk on the left side
that handles both windshield wiper and turn signal controls, positioned above a separate stalk for adaptive cruise control. This reorganized layout clears space on the right for the gear selector, making room on the center console for features like cupholders and the wireless smartphone charging tray.
We imagine the US-bound Q3 won't be as decontented as its German counterpart, since luxury brands typically prefer to sell better-equipped versions in America.
Base 2026 Audi Q3
10
Source: Audi
See Other Base Models:
The Base 2026 Nissan Leaf Doesn't Get The Cool Taillights
The New Base Mercedes CLA Loses Its Passenger Screen
Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily.
back
Sign up
For more information, read our
Privacy Policy
and
Terms of Use
.
Source:
Audi
Share this Story
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Reddit
WhatsApp
E-Mail
Got a tip for us? Email:
tips@motor1.com
Join the conversation
(
)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
European No.2 Toyota outsold by Škoda
In a not unexpected development, Škoda Auto has not only overtaken the BMW brand to become the third largest make Europe-wide but it outsold Toyota in May. Škoda surge sees it well ahead of Audi in Germany ACEA data for last month released earlier on 25 June reveal the new pecking order with the Czech marque delivering 72,602 passenger vehicles (+16%) versus 72,536 Toyotas (-3%). The VW brand remains firmly in first place (127,318, +3.5%). Year to date, the tally is now: Volkswagen - 615,646 (+8%) Toyota - 366,562 (-8%) Škoda - 334,437 (+7%) BMW - 330,867 (+1%) Škoda has become particularly strong in Germany throughout 2025, sales in May alone rising by 13 per cent year-on-year, reaching 88,781 during the first five months. This puts it more than 7,000 vehicles ahead of next-placed (fifth) Audi. Much of the brand's success in the largest European market is coming from the Octavia, though the Kodiaq and Karoq are also doing very well. "European No.2 Toyota outsold by Škoda" was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Hill
5 hours ago
- The Hill
Hackathon teams race to solve defense tech challenges as Europe boosts military capabilities
SANDHURST, England (AP) — Hunched over laptops, the team of four raced to solve a challenge: how to get a set of drones to fly themselves from one place to another when GPS and other signals are jammed by an enemy. Elsewhere around the hall, groups of people — engineering students, tech workers and hobbyists — gathered around long tables to brainstorm, write computer code or tinker with more drones and other hardware. Most of them were strangers when they first gathered last month at Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy to compete in a 24-hour 'hackathon' focused on defense technology. Many were drawn to the event because they wanted to use their technical skills to work on one of the biggest challenges confronting Europe: the continent's race to beef up its military capabilities as Russia's war in Ukraine threatens to widen global instability. 'Given the geopolitical climate, defense tech is relevant now more than ever,' said Aniketh Ramesh, a startup founder with a Ph.D. in robotics in extreme environments and one of the drone team members. The hackathon, he said, 'is a good place to sort of go and contribute your ideas.' 'Robotics and drones are having their iPhone moment' because costs have come down and the hardware is widely available, Ramesh said. That means building drones to do new things is more a 'thinking challenge' than a technical one, he said. Ramesh already knew one teammate, a former British army paratrooper, from a previous event. They recruited two others — one engineer and one with a Ph.D. in computer vision — through the event's group chat on Signal. The drone problem was just one of the many challenges the teams could choose to solve. The tasks were proposed by defense startups like German drone maker Helsing and robotics company Arx, the British military and Kyiv-based venture capital firm D3. Some worked on software, such as an algorithm to predict which way a target would move. Others came with their own ideas. One team made a plastic cup packed with sensors that could be produced in large amounts to be scattered across a battlefield. Another team built a scale model of an autonomous medical evacuation aircraft. Similar competitions have been held regularly across Europe since last year, inspired by the Ukrainian military's on-the-fly wartime innovations to fend off the larger Russian army. The grassroots meetups are part of a wider network of defense innovation that organizers hope to foster in Europe, underscoring the continent's scramble to churn out weapons that have been turbocharged by U.S. President Donald Trump's persistent threats to withdraw from the NATO trans-Atlantic security alliance. The idea is to 'go build a prototype, take your prototype to become a product, and go build a company' that can 'deliver stuff to the frontline and hopefully save someone's life,' said Benjamin Wolba, who organizes a separate but similar series, the European Defense Tech Hackathon. Wolba's group has held tournaments in about 10 cities in the past twelve months, including one in Lviv, Ukraine, in May, and has scheduled more this year in Sheffield, England; Gothenburg, Sweden; Marseilles, France; London; and Berlin. The European Union-backed EUDIS Defence Hackathon holds simultaneous competitions at eight universities twice a year. Meanwhile, NATO has launched DIANA, an 'accelerator' program to speed up defense innovations. The competitions are producing real-world results. The winners of one European Defense Tech Hackathon were a team of Bulgarian high school students who came up with a de-mining solution that they used to found a startup. At last year's London event, the winning team devised an idea for an anti-drone system. They went to Ukraine for more testing, and then were bought by a startup that went on to raise millions in venture capital funding, said Richard Pass, co-founder of the London hackathon. This year, instead of a trophy, some London teams signed term sheets with investors. Hackathons have their origins in the software industry. Small teams of programmers and developers are pitted against each other in marathon brainstorming sessions to write programs that could become new products. 'The beauty of the hackathon is you get a mixture of people who never normally meet,' said Wolba. 'Engineers are 'paired with actual investors who understand something on the commercial side, but also, critically, military end users.' Organizers want to foster a culture of nimble startups to join Europe's defense ecosystem, traditionally dominated by a handful of big 'prime' military contractors such as Britain's BAE, Germany's Rheinmetall and France's Thales that are focused on building pricey hardware. 'There's definitely been a shift in the industry from the purchase of more exquisite, high-cost capabilities, such as fighter jets, or submarines, or expensive tanks, towards more low-cost systems that can give you scale advantages,' said Pass. A recent aerial confrontation between Pakistan and India further highlights how Europe is at risk of losing its edge against adversaries, he said. Pass said reports that Pakistan used Chinese-made fighter jets armed with Chinese air-to-air missiles to down Indian air force planes, including three French-made Rafale jets, came as a big surprise. Not only does it show 'technological parity between the Chinese and leading Western industrial nations like France,' but it also hints at China's advantages in mass-producing fighter jets that could overwhelm Western forces, he said. Fostering a broader European defense tech start-up ecosystem is a way 'to regain that technological advantage,' he said. Defense tech startup founders can ride a wave of investment as Europe moves to beef up its military capabilities. Leaders of NATO, which includes 30 European nations, are meeting this week to endorse a goal to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense. The European Union has sought to mobilize 800 billion euros ($927 billion) to boost the 27-nation bloc's defense, with priorities including drones, AI, autonomous systems and quantum computing. Britain, which left the EU, has meanwhile pledged to spend 10% of its defense budget on new technologies. Europe still has a long way to go. The continent's defense tech startup ecosystem is young and about five years behind the United States, consulting firm McKinsey said in a recent report. But it's growing rapidly as investors flock there. Venture capital investment in Europe's defense tech sector for 2021-2024 more than quadrupled from the previous three-year period, according to Pitchbook. At the London hackathon, teams worked into the evening, fueled by chocolate bars, energy drinks, fruit and a late-night pizza delivery. Army cots were available for those who wanted to catch a few hours of sleep. Soldiers in camouflage and defense company reps hovered on the sidelines to provide advice and answer questions. Andrii Solonskyi, CEO of Soloma Avionics, which fielded a team, said defense hackathons are 'a bit of a novelty.' The industry has traditionally been more structured and formal, because 'it's a serious business and there's a lot of things that can go wrong,' he said. But, 'what we definitely feel is that you can be very agile in defense right now.'
6 hours ago
Hackathon teams race to solve defense tech challenges as Europe boosts military capabilities
SANDHURST, England -- Hunched over laptops, the team of four raced to solve a challenge: how to get a set of drones to fly themselves from one place to another when GPS and other signals are jammed by an enemy. Elsewhere around the hall, groups of people — engineering students, tech workers and hobbyists — gathered around long tables to brainstorm, write computer code or tinker with more drones and other hardware. Most of them were strangers when they first gathered last month at Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy to compete in a 24-hour 'hackathon" focused on defense technology. Many were drawn to the event because they wanted to use their technical skills to work on one of the biggest challenges confronting Europe: the continent's race to beef up its military capabilities as Russia's war in Ukraine threatens to widen global instability. 'Given the geopolitical climate, defense tech is relevant now more than ever,' said Aniketh Ramesh, a startup founder with a Ph.D. in robotics in extreme environments and one of the drone team members. The hackathon, he said, 'is a good place to sort of go and contribute your ideas.' 'Robotics and drones are having their iPhone moment" because costs have come down and the hardware is widely available, Ramesh said. That means building drones to do new things is more a 'thinking challenge" than a technical one, he said. Ramesh already knew one teammate, a former British army paratrooper, from a previous event. They recruited two others — one engineer and one with a Ph.D. in computer vision — through the event's group chat on Signal. The drone problem was just one of the many challenges the teams could choose to solve. The tasks were proposed by defense tech companies like German drone maker Helsing, robotics company Arx, the British military and Kyiv-based venture capital firm D3. Some worked on software, such as an algorithm to predict which way a target would move. Others came with their own ideas. One team made a plastic cup packed with sensors that could be produced in large amounts to be scattered across a battlefield. Another team built a scale model of an autonomous medical evacuation aircraft. Similar competitions have been held regularly across Europe since last year, inspired by the Ukrainian military's on-the-fly wartime innovations to fend off the larger Russian army. The grassroots meetups are part of a wider network of defense innovation that organizers hope to foster in Europe, underscoring the continent's scramble to churn out weapons that have been turbocharged by U.S. President Donald Trump's persistent threats to withdraw from the NATO trans-Atlantic security alliance. The idea is to 'go build a prototype, take your prototype to become a product, and go build a company' so that you can 'deliver stuff to the frontline and hopefully save someone's life,' said Benjamin Wolba, who organizes a separate but similar series, the European Defense Tech Hackathon. Wolba's group has held tournaments in about 10 cities in the past twelve months, including one in Lviv, Ukraine, in May, and has scheduled more this year in Sheffield, England; Gothenburg, Sweden; Marseilles, France; London; and Berlin. The European Union-backed EUDIS Defence Hackathon holds simultaneous competitions at eight universities twice a year. Meanwhile, NATO has launched DIANA, an 'accelerator' program to speed up defense innovations. The competitions are producing real-world results. The winners of one European Defense Tech Hackathon were a team of Bulgarian high school students who came up with a de-mining solution that they used to found a startup. At last year's London event, the winning team devised an idea for an anti-drone system. They went to Ukraine for more testing, and then were bought by a startup that went on to raise millions in venture capital funding, said Pass. This year, instead of a trophy, some London teams signed term sheets with investors. Hackathons have their origins in the software industry. Small teams of programmers and developers are pitted against each other in marathon brainstorming sessions to write programs that could become new products. 'The beauty of the hackathon is you get a mixture of people who never normally meet,' said Wolba. 'Engineers are 'paired with actual investors who understand something on the commercial side, but also, critically, military end users.' Organizers want to foster a culture of nimble startups to join Europe's defense ecosystem, traditionally dominated by a handful of big 'prime' military contractors such as Britain's BAE, Germany's Rheinmetall and France's Thales that are focused on building pricey hardware. 'There's definitely been a shift in the industry from the purchase of more exquisite, high-cost capabilities, such as fighter jets, or submarines, or expensive tanks, towards more low-cost systems that can give you scale advantages,' said Richard Pass, one of the co-founders of the London event. A recent aerial confrontation between Pakistan and India further highlights how Europe is at risk of losing its edge against adversaries, he said. Pass said reports that Pakistan used Chinese-made fighter jets armed with Chinese air-to-air missiles to down Indian air force planes, including three French-made Rafale jets, came as a big surprise. Not only does it show 'technological parity between the Chinese and leading Western industrial nations like France,' but it also hints at China's advantages in mass-producing fighter jets that could overwhelm Western forces, he said. Fostering a broader European defense tech start-up ecosystem is a way 'to regain that technological advantage,' he said. Defense tech startup founders can ride a wave of investment as Europe moves to beef up its military capabilities. Leaders of NATO, which includes 30 European nations, are meeting this week to endorse a goal to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense. The European Union has sought to mobilize 800 billion euros ($927 billion) to boost the 27-nation bloc's defense, with priorities including drones, AI, autonomous systems and quantum computing. Britain, which left the EU, has meanwhile pledged to spend 10% of its defense budget on new technologies. Europe still has a long way to go. The continent's defense tech startup ecosystem is young and about five years behind the United States, consulting firm McKinsey said in a recent report. But it's growing rapidly as investors flock there. Venture capital investment in Europe's defense tech sector for 2021-2024 more than quadrupled from the previous three-year period, according to Pitchbook. At the London hackathon, teams worked into the evening, fueled by chocolate bars, energy drinks, fruit and a late-night pizza delivery. Army cots were available for those who wanted to catch a few hours of sleep. Soldiers in camouflage and defense company reps hovered on the sidelines to provide advice and answer questions. CEO Andrii Solonskyi said defense hackathons are 'a bit of a novelty.' The industry has traditionally been more structured and formal, because 'it's a serious business and there's a lot of things that can go wrong,' he said. But, "what we definitely feel is that you can be very agile in defense right now."
