BETTER PARTSAudi is changing the name structure again, with one very important change
The A4 and A6 will soon no longer be the cars you know
The German brands in particular have lost their way a bit when it comes to car names. For several years now you have no longer been able to tell from the name what kind of engine is in the car and electrification has made the names more unclear and longer. The only thing you can really be sure of at Audi is that an Avant is a station wagon. And fortunately it remains that way. However, other things will change.
At the moment things are really going in all directions. The name Sportback used to refer to the five-door version of the A3 or A5. Now it is also the version with the lower roofline of the Q4 or Q8. And the Q8 has now become two models. It is not only the sportier version of the Q7, but also the electric SUV. Even more confusing: there is a version with a sportier roofline.
All electric Audis are given an even number
It will take a few years before the offering is streamlined again, but Audi tells Autocar that they do have a clear plan for the name structure. Oliver Hoffman, the technical boss at Audi, says that all electric Audis will have an even number in the name and the other engines will have odd numbers. The Audi A6 will therefore always be electric, just like the A4 or the A8. These cars also receive the addition 'e-tron'.
A6 always electric, A5 always with petrol or diesel
So Hoffman says that the full name is A6 e-tron, but just by saying A6, you should already know that it is electric. There will undoubtedly come a time, once electric cars are the norm, when the addition will disappear. The Audi A5 will therefore have a petrol engine and it will replace both the old A5 and the old A4 with a petrol engine.
Audi will probably not change the entire range next year. Until the A8 dies a natural death, it will remain available with a petrol engine. Little by little, models will disappear and be added until the supply is tight. If they don't change their minds again in Ingolstadt before then.
The numbers behind the names remain
Nothing is said about the numbers behind the names, so we just assume that they will remain. The number indicates approximately the power. A model name with '30' after the name has between 110 and 130 hp. One with '50' has between 253 and 313 hp. Everything with '70' has more than 545 hp. Perhaps some more figures will be added with the electric future.
And for the rest?
Furthermore, Audi's name structure is quite simple. The addition e-tron now stands for fully electric cars and will soon only be seen on models with even numbers. The TFSI models are the cars with petrol engines. And 'TFSI e' means it's a plug-in hybrid. We no longer have to explain what a TDI is. However? By the way, Audi has stopped supplying diesels in the Netherlands for a while.