Our prestige motoring expert, Damien Reid, gets some rarefied air.
The Q8 is Audi's new flagship model, taking the mantle from the A8 as the world continues its love for SUVs. The Q8 is the off-roading sibling of the A8 as a premium, luxury off-roader, so we took it to the stunning Atacama Desert high up in the mountains on the edges of the Andes in Chile.
Here, the oxygen is just 57 per cent of its capacity at sea level, being 4500m (15,000ft) above it, meaning car and driver were working hard just to stay rolling.
The Q8 will be Audi's Number One model in China, its biggest market, so it's an important car and will be filtering into dealer showrooms by the fourth quarter of this year.
