Audi Q7 vs BMW X5 vs Mercedes GLE: Which Large SUV Should You Lease?

The X5 Problem: The Car Being Reviewed Is Not The Car You Can Order

This is the single thing that makes a Q7 against X5 against GLE comparison harder than it looks in November 2026, and it is worth understanding before you read any other X5 content.

BMW announced an all new X5 on 8 October 2026, including a fully electric iX5, and published UK on the road prices at the same time. That is unusual and it has had the effect you would expect: a wave of specification articles and comparisons written against the new car. But BMW UK's own newsroom states that the UK launch for the electric, diesel and plug in hybrid variants begins in spring 2027.

What you can actually order now, the outgoing car

Those prices are from BMW's own February 2023 release and are nearly three years old, so treat them as the shape of the range rather than as today's figures. We could not reach current UK prices for the orderable X5 at all, which we explain further down, and our own BMW X5 lease page is kept to what BMW actually publishes for the same reason. The range has also moved on, with UK listings showing xDrive40i and xDrive40d variants, and BMW's own release mentions an xDrive40i in its emissions section while giving it no power or price in its specification table.

What was announced in October 2026, arriving from spring 2027

One more thing worth knowing about the new car's published figures. BMW's own UK release lists the X5 40d's CO2 and fuel consumption as to be confirmed in its specification table, while the body text of the same document claims up to 40.4 mpg under the current emissions standard and notes the model will be retested before UK launch. One document, two answers, which is a fair signal of how provisional all of this still is.

Only One Of These Three Is A Seven Seater

Large SUVs of this shape get compared as seven seaters almost by habit. On these three that is only true of one of them, and the detail is more awkward than a simple yes or no.

The Mercedes position is clearer once you look at how Mercedes writes about it. Its Swiss release never gives an explicit seat count but refers to when not all five seats are needed, which tells you the car is a five seater by default. Reporting of the UK range puts the third row with the AMG Line Premium trim, so getting seven seats in a GLE means moving up the range rather than ticking a box.

If the third row is the whole reason you are looking at this size of car, it is worth knowing that two obvious alternatives are seven seaters without conditions. The Volvo XC90 and the Land Rover Discovery both seat seven as standard, and both are worth putting into a quote alongside these three rather than discovering late that the X5 or the GLE needs a specific engine or trim to do the same job.

On the Audi, note where the information comes from. Audi UK does not publish a seat count for the new Q7 at all. Seven seats as standard comes from Audi's own New Zealand press release, which also describes a six seat layout with two individual middle row seats as an option that was still to be confirmed for that market. So there is a real possibility of a six seat Q7 in the UK that nobody is writing about, and Audi UK has not published the answer either way.

Euro NCAP: Only The Q7 Has A Live Rating, And The Scores Cannot Be Compared

This is the most useful section of this comparison and the one most likely to be wrong elsewhere, because two of these three cars are being sold on safety ratings that have expired.

Audi Q7, scored under the 2026 protocol

Audi says the Q7 is the first production model to score 100 per cent for Post Crash Safety, which covers things like how easily emergency services can reach and extract occupants and how the car behaves after an impact. Note there is no separate child occupant percentage under this protocol, so if you are looking for one on a current car, it no longer exists in that form.

BMW X5 and Mercedes GLE, scored under the older protocol, both now expired

None of this makes the X5 or the GLE unsafe. Both are modern cars with current safety equipment, and an expired Euro NCAP rating reflects the scheme getting harder over time rather than the car getting worse. What it does mean is that if independent, in date safety data matters to you, or to a fleet policy you have to satisfy, the Q7 is the only one of the three that can supply it today. That is a genuine advantage and it is worth more than the small differences in the old percentages.

Three Boots, Three Different Measurement Bases

Boot capacity is where this comparison falls apart quietly, because all three manufacturers measure and label differently and two of them leave out the figure a seven seat buyer most needs.

The BMW figure is the one to be most careful with. BMW publishes luggage capacity as a single range with no indication of which seats are up or down at either end, so 650 to 1,870 litres is not a seats up and seats folded pair in any confirmed sense. It is a range BMW has not explained. We are reporting it unlabelled because that is how BMW gives it. Note too that the plug in hybrid gives up 150 litres at both ends of the range to its battery, which is a real cost of choosing that version.

Mercedes publishes the most states of the three, and one of them has no equivalent anywhere else. The 825 litre figure is with the rear bench slid forward, which buys boot space by taking rear legroom. Neither Audi nor BMW publishes a seats slid forward state, so that number cannot be compared with anything. Setting a Mercedes 825 against a BMW 650 would be comparing a compromised seating position against an unknown one.

The honest summary is that these three boot figures cannot be ranked. If boot space is what your decision turns on, the useful approach is to tell us the load you actually need to carry and we will get the relevant figure confirmed from the funder's specification for the exact version you are considering.

Towing: Two Of The Three Publish Nothing At All

Towing is a common reason to choose a large SUV, and on these three the published data is thin to the point of absence.

All three of these cars will almost certainly tow at or near 3.5 tonnes braked, because vehicles of this size and type generally do. But almost certainly is not a figure to buy a car on. If towing capacity is part of your decision, that is exactly the kind of number we will get confirmed in writing from the funder's specification for your chosen variant before you commit, rather than you relying on a figure a comparison site has filled in.

What Each Manufacturer Does Not Publish

We would rather tell you what is missing than fill the gaps from somewhere else, because on a lease the specification in the funder's paperwork is the one that counts. The Audi list is unusually long for a car this new.

The Mercedes gaps are different in character. Mercedes publishes plenty, but it publishes different numbers in different documents. The GLE 450 e appears at 88 to 73 g/km in one release and 91 to 72 g/km in another, with the second document labelling its own figures as preliminary forecasts. Its power is given as 240kW or 326PS without saying whether that is the engine alone or the whole system, while reporting of the same car quotes 449bhp of system output. Those two cannot both be system output, so we are not printing either as one.

The Plug In Hybrids, And A Charging Figure Worth Checking

Two of these three offer a plug in hybrid you can order now, and there is a detail in the charging specification that affects whether the headline numbers are achievable at your house.

There is no plug in hybrid Q7 you can order in the UK at the moment. Interestingly, Euro NCAP's covered variants list for the Q7's current assessment reveals what is coming: two diesels at 220kW and 180kW, a 270kW petrol, and two plug in hybrids at 360kW and 290kW. So the petrol and the plug in hybrids are already certified but not yet on sale here, which is useful if you can wait.

On the X5 plug in hybrid, remember the seven seat point from earlier. BMW's own release ties the optional third row to the xDrive30d, so choosing the plug in hybrid may well mean choosing a five seater. And the battery costs you 150 litres of boot space at both ends of BMW's published range.

So Which One Should You Lease

These three are closer on paper than they are in practice, and the right answer depends mostly on two questions: do you need the third row, and does current independent safety data matter to you.

Our own pages for each are the Audi Q7, the BMW X5 and the Mercedes GLE, and each one goes through that car's specification in detail with the same approach to sourcing we have used here.

The Q7 comes out of this comparison better than it usually does, and for reasons that have nothing to do with how it drives. It is the only one of the three that is a seven seater without options, the only one with a Euro NCAP rating that has not expired, and the only one whose rating was awarded under the current protocol. Against that, Audi publishes remarkably little about it, which is frustrating but is a documentation problem rather than a car problem.

The X5's position is genuinely unusual and it cuts both ways. Buying into the outgoing car at the end of its life often produces the best rental of a group like this, because funders price a model that is about to be replaced accordingly. The trade off is that you will be in the previous generation for the length of your agreement, and the expired safety rating sits with the car you are actually ordering.

The GLE is the one that most needs a careful look at which version you choose, because the third row means moving up the range, and both the 450 d and the 450 e you can order today fall outside the scope of even its expired safety rating. It publishes the most boot states of the three, including one that no rival publishes, which makes it look more generous on paper than a like for like comparison would support.

We can price all three on the same term and the same mileage, which is the only way the cost difference becomes visible rather than theoretical. We will also tell you plainly where the outgoing X5 sits against the new one on timing if you would rather wait.

Compare all three on the same terms

Tell us the term, the mileage and whether you need the third row, and we will price the Q7, the X5 and the GLE across our funders so you can see the real difference.