Audi A4 emerges from makeover as sparkling A5

The battle between the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class has raged on for decades. Now Audi has a new strategy to take on its German rivals and it involves a big change in this era of electrification. The A4 is no more, at least for now. Instead, it lives on as the A5.

It’s the end of one of the longest chapters in the history of the company with the four rings. The origins of the A4 go back as far as 1965 to the first Audi 80, a model that used engines from Mercedes-Benz. In the 1970s it was restyled by the famous designer Giorgetto Giugiaro and shared much of its underpinnings with the Volkswagen Passat. In the 1980s it spawned a coupé version that was extensively reworked and blasted on to the world’s rally stages as the mighty Audi S1.

In the late 1980s the designers made the 80 all curvaceous with both sedan and coupé versions, but we also saw the introduction of the convertible. An evolution of the design in 1995 saw the end of the 80 badge and the A4 was born. Over the years it has given us some great models and lived through the Dieselgate scandal of the past decade, but it is that crisis within the halls of the brand’s Ingolstadt headquarters that in many ways pushed the car world into an electrified future.

To reflect that, Audi is shaking up its model ranges. It’s much simpler than when they introduced numbers that no-one understood, apparently to reflect power outputs, we think. In a welcome U-turn, Audi is ditching that strategy, thank goodness. Its new plan is simply to make its even-numbered models pure electric and the odd numbers traditional petrol or diesel, with some electrification in the form of mild hybrid or plug-in hybrid.

The A4 will live on, but as a battery-electric vehicle on the new Premium Platform Electric (PPE) that we will probably see make its debut in 2025. It’s really just semantics though, because the new A5 is the new A4 in all but name.

Light shows

It will go on sale in SA in May 2025, initially only as a sedan. For now, it means the axing of the three-door coupé and the Sportback five-door coupé, but the designers have not ignored these popular models and have given the new A5 a sort of notchback profile with a large tailgate similar, a big boot and plenty of interior versatility. The new Premium Platform Combustion (PPC) has allowed it to grow slightly in all dimensions too, most notably with more legroom for those in the back seats.

Automotive design nowadays is as much about the lighting as the curves and lines and the A5 has light shows all over the place. Up front you can have the latest customisable LED daytime running lights, but the fun stuff is found in the new Organic LED (OLED) lights at the back. You can select a number of different light signatures, changing the patterns through a menu in the touchscreen. The lights are also designed for the future of car-to-car and car-to infrastructure communication, providing the possibility of messaging. For now, that is limited to triangles to represent a hazard warning, but more will be introduced over time as legislation allows.

There are many interior lighting options too, giving you the ability to change the ambient lighting to suit your mood. The front passenger can do this through a rather pointless, optional, passenger touchscreen on which they can also stream video that the driver can’t see. Given all the criticism levelled at Mercedes for going overboard on the screens, it’s odd that Audi has added this screen, but then Porsche and Ferrari both have one so maybe they feel it reflects a more upmarket choice. Still, it seems like a bit of a blot on what is otherwise a nicely designed dashboard.

That screen is in addition to a large central touchscreen with multiple menus, a digital instrument cluster with more menus and the largest, brightest head-up display in any car. The 85% larger head-up display is so good and can contain so much information that the other screens feel superfluous when you are driving.

Superb performance

That brings us to the driving. At launch in SA there will only be petrol models, no diesels. All regular A5 models will use the 2l TFSI engine with the choice of 100kW, 150kW and 200kW. The first two will be front-wheel drive with the 200kW getting quattro all-wheel drive. Then there will be an S5, which sports a 270kW 3l V6 and brand new mild-hybrid electric vehicle (MHEV) technology. Audi engineers have improved the MHEV system to allow it to run for a distance in our electric mode.

The brand-new engine also means the S5 can have a dual clutch transmission (DCT) for the first time. The performance is superb, with the transition between petrol engine and electric power seamless. Quattro provides the incredible grip you would expect of it, and power delivery is more than enough to make you glad for the comfortable sports seats that hold you well as you push through the corners.

We spent more time exploring the mountains above the French Riviera in the regular models though, finding the 150kW version to be the true sweet spot.

Audi’s engineers have dialled back the electronic assistance on the steering, adding a more mechanical connection instead. It provides more communication to the driver and feels more natural.

The suspension is excellent at soaking up the bumps and after years of chasing BMW in the dynamic stakes, Audi is finally there. It’s a great car to drive if you love driving, but equally it is composed and comfortable at urban speeds, delivering the executive feel that has always been Audi’s edge over its rivals.

Audi SA will only be able to confirm pricing closer to the local launch next year, but we expect it to be competitive against its German rivals.

Plug-in hybrid models will follow as we suspect and an even mightier RS5.

Insiders at the launch wouldn’t confirm if we will see the return of the three-door coupé, Sportback or convertible versions, but they also wouldn’t say we won’t. What SA definitely won’t be getting is the Avant, which comes as sad news to fans of the station wagon genre.

Some will see the new A5 as the end of a legacy for the A4 that goes back decades. In reality, the spirit of the A4 lives on in the A5, but for those who yearn for the A4 badge, that battery-powered model will be electrifying our roads soon enough.