Audi A5 Limousine makes first meters as S5

Car manufacturers are certainly not afraid to suddenly stick model names that have been used for years on other types of models. Regularly, names that have been a household name for decades are even completely crossed out. Audi is also not afraid to shake up its naming conventions. For example, Audi CEO Markus Duesmann told our German colleagues at Autobild in March that the next generation A4 will be known as the A5. The car you currently know as A6 will similarly be renamed Audi A7. Why? To make way for electric models. Audi’s fully electric counterpart to cars such as the BMW i5 and the Mercedes-Benz EQE will be called Audi A6 e-tron and Audi A6 Avant e-tron.

The current generation Audi A4 Limousine.

What does Audi’s new model name strategy mean for the current generation Audi A5 and A7 Sportback? That is still the question. The Audi A7 Sportback may not return and it is not inconceivable that the A5 Coupé, Cabriolet and Sportback will more or less merge with the A4. With this, Audi actually merges the Coupé and Cabriolet versions with the sedan and Avant with which they share their technology. So don’t be surprised if the successor to the A4, which will soon be called A5, will consist of a Limousine, Avant, Coupé, Cabriolet and perhaps also a Sportback version. But whether it will actually turn out that way remains to be seen.

The current generation Audi A5 Sportback

In the first place, we do not yet dare to state with certainty that Audi will again introduce a Coupé and a Cabriolet in this segment. Such body styles usually only yield marginal sales success. The bigger question is how and whether the A5 Limousine and A5 Sportback can continue to exist side by side. It is quite conceivable that Audi will merge those two models into one model. On these spy plates we probably see the new A5 Limousine. Given the relatively far protruding sedan butt, this is clearly not a Sportback-like, although we do seem to see a Sportback influence in the roofline that slopes more strongly than with the current A4 Limousine. In short: it is still a small mystery how the A4 and A5 exactly merge into one A5 family.

The fact is that there will be no fully electric A5. Audi therefore has a new electric model in the pipeline that it will apparently call A4 or A4 e-tron. Under the new A5 family you will find a further development of the current MLBevo platform. The fact that the copy in the photos is a thicker S variant is revealed by the prototype, among other things, with two sets of double exhaust tailpipes and with its large skids and visible brakes, which is on the heavy side for milder motorized versions.