Last year, Audi discontinued the long-range A4 in favor of it A5 Sportback As part of a plan to use odd-number designations for gas vehicles, and even-number designations for electric vehicles. Audi has since abandoned it strange The plan, but the A4 was still a casualty. Now, however, the A4 is back… as an electric car.
Audi CEO Gernot Dollner He said Autocar The company is developing a new A4 EV as part of “the biggest change in the company’s history.” Dollner has been very open about the fact that Audi has lost its way over the past few years, and he is trying to right the ship. Concept c It is Audi’s statement of intent, showcasing not only a future electric sports car, but also a new direction for the brand.
We’ll have to wait a few years for the A4 to return. The A4 will be based on Volkswagen Group’s upcoming Scalable Systems Platform (SSP), which won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest, Dollner said. The SSP platform will also underpin the electric Volkswagen Golf, among other models across the range. Currently, Audi uses the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture co-developed with Porsche for the A6 and Q6 E-Tron, VW’s MEB platform for the Q4 E-Tron, and Porsche’s J1 architecture for the E-Tron GT.
Audi will be late to the party with its compact electric sedan, both New BMW i3 and Mercedes C-Class EV It is scheduled to debut next year. Interestingly, Audi has decided not to just use the PPE platform to make a new A4, but is instead waiting for the improved SSP architecture. This new platform will be the first to reflect VW’s collaboration with Rivian to create a software-defined car, so the A4 should be a better competitor to the i3 and C-Class EV.
Photo by: Audi
The A4 will get styling inspired by the Concept C, Dollner said, so it should look very different from Audi’s current electric cars, which, unlike the E-Tron GT, are very bland. The new A4 should also get an interior truly worthy of Audi, if the C-model is any indication.
The A4 has been one of Audi’s most popular cars, first arriving in 1994 as a 3 Series/C-Class competitor. By contrast, the A5 is more recent, debuting in 2007 as a two-door coupe and eventually getting a four-door Sportback model. Instead of having four-door crossover models, Audi decided to focus on the A5 Sportback hatchback last year, eliminating slow-selling two-door models at the same time.
Bringing back a truly competitive A4 can’t come soon enough.
