Audi introduced Monday that it’ll upend a naming scheme introduced final yr and have internal-combustion and electrical automobiles share nameplates.
In an effort to suit extra electrical fashions into its conventional alphanumeric format, Audi beforehand stated it could assign odd-numbered designations to combustion fashions just like the A5 and Q5, and reserve even numbers for EVs together with its present E-Tron suffix, as with the A6 E-Tron and Q6 E-Tron. However that is now not the case.
Numbers will as soon as once more refer solely to a mannequin’s dimension and positioning within the lineup, Audi stated in a press launch. The letters A and Q will stay as differentiators between automobiles and SUVs, respectively, slightly than powertrain sort, that means electrical and combustion fashions can now share the identical alphanumeric mixture, Audi confirmed.
2025 Audi SQ6 E-Tron
Powertrain-specific branding comparable to E-Tron, TFSI for combustion engines, and TFSI e for plug-in hybrids will proceed, together with body-style nomenclature like Sportback (used for fastbacks) and Avant (wagons), Audi confirmed.
“This choice is the results of intensive discussions and in addition follows the desires of our prospects in addition to suggestions from our worldwide sellers,” Audi gross sales and advertising boss Marco Schubert stated in a press release. The return to the earlier nomenclature is extra “intuitive,” permitting prospects to extra simply choose a mannequin’s place within the lineup, Schubert added.
Along with making issues simpler for patrons to know, the revised naming scheme higher accounts for the quite a few plug-in hybrids Audi has stated it should introduce as a hedge towards an unpredictable EV market. They may in any other case fall into the hole of a naming scheme that divides all fashions into electrical or internal-combustion.
2025 Audi Q5
The primary mannequin affected by this alteration would be the next-generation gasoline Audi A6, which might have been badged as an A7 underneath the earlier nomenclature. As a consequence of be revealed Mar. 4, will probably be styled as an A6 TFSI, whereas its electrical companion mannequin will maintain its A6 E-Tron nomenclature.
However whereas they now share a reputation, it is seemingly that the 2 fashions might be based mostly on totally different platforms. The A6 E-Tron is predicated on the Premium Platform Electrical (PPE) additionally utilized by the Q6 E-Tron and electrical Porsche Macan, however as that is an EV-specific platform, the gasoline A6 will seemingly use the Premium Platform Combustion (PPC) launched with the most recent Audi A5 and Q5.