Audi rearranges model names and announces new EV

The rumours are true. Audi is putting its model names in a new order. To that end, odd numbers will be reserved for combustion engines and even ones for those with electric powertrains. And the German carmaker is planning a model below the Q4 e-tron.

“The successor to today’s A4 will be called the A5, and today’s A6 will be called the A7. The A4 and A6 will then be electric,” Audi CEO Markus Duesmann tells German magazine Auto Bild. However, Audi does intend to retain the name e-tron for electric vehicles. “At Audi, e-tron stands for 100 per cent electric and is a well-established term. We want to stick to that,” adds Audio CTO Oliver Hoffmann.

Duesmann also confirms plans for a new model below the Q4 e-tron. Following Audi’s logic, this should be called Q2 e-tron or A2 e-tron. Audi had renamed the electric SUV, formerly known as e-tron, Q8 e-tron.

In the second half of 2023, the Ingolstadt-based company will present the Q6 e-tron, its first model based on the premium platform Electric (PPE). However, like its PPE sister model Porsche Macan, the Q6 e-tron will not be delivered in 2023, as initially planned, but rather in 2024, VW Group CEO Oliver Blume recently explained.

According to Duesmann, Audi plans to launch more than 20 new models and model revisions by 2025, more than ten of which will be electric. “This will be the biggest model offensive in the company’s history,” says Duesmann.

However, the Audi boss also confirms that the carmaker isn’t ready to say goodbye to the combustion engine quite yet. According to him, the “best combustion engine models are still to come” and the company is working on a new combustion engine platform. “From 2024, we will also launch a specific combustion engine platform for our last generation of new combustion engines in parallel with the new electric models,” says Hoffmann.

autobild.de (in German)