The all-new Audi A5 ushers in a less bloated product line for the company.
It’s clear that dieselgate and electric vehicles has taken its toll on Audi – the luxury arm of VW Group. Last week, they made it clear that production of the Q8 e-tron and Q8 Sportback e-tron would end prematurely due to low demand, likely signalling the closure of their plant in Belgium. This week, the brand with the four rings has effectively discontinued 6 models and merged it into 2 models.
What Is The New Audi A5?
The new model being premiered is the Audi A5, and yes this is kind of a new nameplate. Previously, an A5 with four doors would be called the A5 Sportback, but this is not quite the same. First off, there’s the name – since its debut in 2007, the A5 has never gone without a suffix like Sportback, Coupé or Cabriolet. Secondly, there’s the bodystyle itself.
The Sportback bodystyle is defined by sloped roofline, a rear hatch that lifts up both the rear glass and trunk lid as a single assembly, and frameless windows for all four doors. In this latest iteration, the A5 is available as “Sedan” and “Avant” (wagon) and neither of these appear to have frameless windows and the sloped roofline is less aggressive here too but both retain a “5-door” with rear hatch layout.
Audi has essentially come up with a new 5-door sedan bodystyle to this new A5 to merge the roles of the outgoing A4 and the outgoing A5 Sportback. They had an opportunity to try something new as this vehicle debuted on an all-new chassis called the Premium Platform Combustion (PPC).
This also helps to explain the renaming of the model range as well. Audi’s latest nomenclature revision indicates that odd numbered models would signify combustion/hybrid vehicles while even numbered models would be reserved for pure electric cars.
Variants Of The New Audi A5
Essentially there are four variants of the new Audi A5 family at launch. The basic models are the A5 Sedan and A5 Avant. Performance models are the S5 Sedan and S5 Avant. All versions feature a mild hybrid powertrain with an 24PS electric motor on the transmission output shaft and a 48V onboard electrical system that enables limited electric driving.
Here are some of the engine options:
A5 Models:
2.0 TDI 204PS front wheel drive or all wheel drive
2.0 TFSI 150PS front wheel drive
2.0 TFSI 204PS front wheel drive or all wheel drive
S5 Models:
3.0L V6 TFSI 367PS all wheel drive
A dual-clutch automatic is available on the A5 while the S5 gets a strengthened S tronic dual-clutch transmission as well as a quattro sport differential with torque vectoring
