Audi Is Reviving Its 1930s Horch Nameplate for a New Flagship SUV -- Built to Take on the Maybach GLS

Audi has spent the last several months testing a heavily disguised, near-production version of its upcoming three-row Q9 SUV -- but the version generating the most attention on enthusiast forums and spy-shot sites isn't the standard model or even the performance SQ9. It's a range-topping variant wearing a nameplate most people outside classic-car circles have never heard of: Horch.

Horch is not a marketing invention. It was one of the four original companies -- alongside DKW, Wanderer, and Audi itself -- that merged in 1932 to form Auto Union, the company whose four interlocked rings still sit on every Audi's grille today. Through the 1920s and '30s, Horch was Germany's answer to Mercedes-Benz and Maybach: hand-built, chauffeur-driven luxury cars for industrialists and heads of state. Production stopped after the Second World War, and the name has sat unused for roughly eighty years. Reviving it for a modern flagship is Audi's clearest signal yet that it wants a genuine seat at the top table of ultra-luxury SUVs, not just a well-equipped Q7 with a bigger price tag.

What the Spy Shots Show

Prototypes photographed testing in Spain wear a redesigned nose with tall, closely spaced vertical grille slats -- a deliberate throwback to the upright chrome grilles of 1930s Horch tourers -- finished in gloss black rather than the standard Q9's more conventional single-frame design. The rest of the body is shared with the regular Q9 and its sportier SQ9 sibling, which Audi has already confirmed will run a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 producing 591 hp. Expect the Horch version to sit above that, likely with additional hybrid assistance and a cabin trimmed to a standard closer to Bentley's Mulliner division or Mercedes-Maybach's in-house atelier than anything currently wearing four rings. A debut is expected in 2027, most likely at a major European motor show ahead of right-hand-drive and Gulf-spec cars following within the year.

Why This Matters in Dubai

The GCC is exactly the market this car is being built for. Audi's own Q7 and Q8 already sell strongly across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but the brand has never had an answer to the Mercedes-Maybach GLS, Bentley Bentayga, or Rolls-Royce Cullinan -- three-row SUVs that regularly outsell the sedans from the same brands in this region, where buyers want chauffeur-friendly space without giving up presence at the valet stand. A Horch-badged Q9 would be Audi's first genuine attempt to compete in that specific segment, priced and equipped accordingly.

It's also a reminder of how quickly the ultra-luxury SUV segment keeps expanding, and how much of that expansion is happening in markets like this one. At House of Cars Dubai, a large share of the SUVs that come through our doors -- whether we're sourcing a specific configuration for a client or handling a trade-in on a Cullinan or Bentayga -- are bought and sold precisely because Gulf buyers treat this category as seriously as they treat two-door supercars. If Audi does bring a genuine Horch flagship to market, it will be entering a region that's already primed to want one, and one where a healthy resale and specialist market for it will exist from day one.

For now, the Horch name remains a prototype wearing camouflage on a test track in southern Spain. But reviving an eighty-year-old marque isn't the kind of thing a car company does halfway, and it's worth watching closely over the next twelve months -- especially for anyone in this market already cross-shopping the GLS and the Cullinan.