The mildly refreshed Audi Q7 had its world premiere today at the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show in China. For the 2010MY, Audi’s full-size SUV has received a few minor styling tweaks that include a redesigned front grille, bumpers with new underbody protection and new LED daytime running lamps and taillights while the interior has been updated with a restyled instrument cluster and a new, third generation MMI navigation system. Mechanical changes include the introduction of a new energy recovery system that helps reduce fuel consumption. For more details and a high-resolution image gallery of the Q7 facelift, click here.

Three years after its initial launch, Audi is releasing a facelifted version of its full-size SUV that benefits from mild styling tweaks and more fuel efficient powertrains. Starting from exterior, it will take a trained eye to spot the differences that concern the updated large single frame grille sporting vertical chrome bars, the revised front headlights, the LED front blinkers and rear tail lights, the chunkier door moldings and the newly integrated underbody protection plates in the center section of the front and rear bumper.

Same goes for the Q7′s interior that gains a new selection of colors and materials, a chrome surrounding for the instrument cluster and most importantly, a new, third generation MMI navigation system.

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This 500-hp monster is the strongest commitment to the diesel engine yet.

Some folks are writing off the diesel. The future, they say, lies in electric vehicles, with hybrids as the transition technology. Diesel fuel is expensive, they continue, and there is the further popular conception that diesels are not “clean.” In reality, a diesel typically shaves 30 percent off fuel consumption, and diesel fuel savings are even more substantial at high speeds. New technologies make burning diesel clean as—if not cleaner than—gasoline combustion.

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