SPY PHOTOS! Subsequent-Gen Audi SQ7 SPIED Rocking a Greenback-Retailer 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe Halloween Masks and Considering We Wouldn’t Discover

Spy photographs of the closely camouflaged 2026 Audi Q7/Q7 facelift (notably the high-performance SQ7 variant) have set boards ablaze, and for good motive. Beneath the swirling black-and-white wrap, the brand new Audi’s entrance finish is carrying a face that appears nearly an identical to the outgoing fourth-generation Hyundai Santa Fe (2021–2023, the so-called “last-gen” mannequin that bowed out with the 2022 mannequin yr in lots of markets).

Look previous the disguise and the similarities are uncanny. The 2022 Santa Fe featured slim, horizontal higher LED daytime working lights that sat excessive on the fenders, flowing into a large, cascading grille with a particular parametric jewel sample and chrome encompass. Immediately under sat bigger most important headlight models built-in into the bumper, making a clear split-headlight look that was elegant but assertive. Quick-forward to the camouflaged 2026 SQ7 prototypes, and the format is nearly the identical: slim higher DRL “eyebrows,” a broad octagonal grille with horizontal emphasis, and decrease most important headlight clusters framed by vertical air intakes. Even the hood shut-line and the best way the grille tucks beneath the forefront mirror the Santa Fe’s proportions with startling accuracy.
The resemblance isn’t refined. Aspect-by-side photos circulating on Reddit, AudiWorld, and GermanCarForum have customers doing double-takes, with feedback starting from “Did Audi simply Photoshop a Santa Fe entrance onto the Q7 prototype?” to “That’s actually the 2022 Santa Fe grille with Quattro badges.” The wheel arches, the flat shoulder line, and the general wide-and-low stance solely reinforce the visible overlap.

For context, the 2022 Santa Fe was broadly praised for lastly giving Hyundai a genuinely premium-looking entrance finish within the mid-size phase, one that might sit in a Lexus dealership with out elevating eyebrows. Now Audi, a model that costs triple the value and has constructed its fame on teutonic restraint and originality, seems to be borrowing that precise recipe for its flagship seven-seat SUV.

Whether or not that is acutely aware homage, lazy convergence, or just two design groups arriving on the similar resolution in a wind-tunnel-dominated period, the consequence is identical: a six-figure German efficiency SUV carrying the face of a $34,000 Korean household hauler that’s already headed to the used-car heaps.

So we’ll ask you straight: when the camouflage lastly comes off in 2026, will this be a intelligent, assured evolution for the Q7 household, or an embarrassing case of a luxurious marque copying a mainstream design that’s barely two years outdated? Is the brand new Audi Q7/SQ7 entrance finish successful that cleverly modernizes the lineup, or a miss that makes the 4 Rings look suspiciously like they shopped on the Hyundai components bin?

The feedback are open, let the roasting (or defending) start.

Audi SQ7 spy picture from @Wilcoblok on Instagram

2022 Hyundai Santa Fe