Audi Q7 3.0TDI temporarily removed from sale in Australia

Audi Australia has temporarily removed the non-S Q7 from its line-up, as the factory in Germany revises the car's AdBlue diesel exhaust treatment system.

According to Audi, it's currently "working on a solution to improve recognition of the wrong medium” being added to the AdBlue tank in Q7 3.0TDI vehicles.

The car will be back on sale when the AdBlue system "optimisation" is given the tick of approval by the relevant authorities in Europe.

Although the SQ7 isn't impacted, the 160kW and 200kW 3.0-litre diesel variants currently aren't available Down Under, and have been removed from the Audi Australia website. However, the diesel-electric Q7 e-tron plug-in hybrid isn't impacted.

There's no clear timeline on when the model will be returned to Australian showrooms but, given it competes in a popular segment – and faces some strong competition from the upcoming BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE – the company won't be dawdling.

AdBlue fluid is a combination of urea and deionised water. It's injected into the exhaust stream through a 'Selective Catalytic Reduction' system, and reacts with the (nasty) nitrogen oxide (NOx) in diesel exhaust to create less-harmful nitrogen (N2) and water vapour (H2O).

Thanks to Damian O'Toole for the tip! 

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