Audi has backtracked on plans to give its electric and internal combustion-powered cars separate model names.
The previous strategy would have seen EV models given even-numbered designations, with the odd numbers reserved for petrol- and diesel-engined cars.
The idea was to make it easier for customers to distinguish between powertrain types at a glance, but it led to some confusion among customers.
Last year, the Audi A4 saloon and Avant were rebadged as the A5, ending 30 years of tradition. Audi had previously used the A5 name for related coupe and convertible versions of the A4.
Following customer feedback
According to Marco Schubert, member of the board of management for sales and marketing at Audi AG, the company has listened to feedback about its original plans.
Schubert said: “This decision is the result of intensive discussions and also follows the wishes of our customers as well as feedback from our international dealers”.
He added: “Our nomenclature now provides all customers worldwide with an intuitive orientation in our portfolio. We choose the names of our models in a way that reveals size and positioning at first glance.”
It means the ‘global alphanumeric’ model name will revert to being used to demonstrate size and status in the Audi range, regardless of powertrain.
Crunching the numbers
What drives each Audi will simply be indicated by the addition of TFSI (petrol), TDI (diesel), or E-tron (electric) after the model name.
As a result, a model in the Audi A4 family could potentially be driven by battery electric power or an internal combustion engine, depending on the designation applied.
To demonstrate this, Audi will launch a new Audi A6 Avant TFSI next month, with a petrol engine beneath its bonnet. This will be sold alongside the existing electric Audi A6 Avant E-tron.
There are no plans to rebadge existing models already on sale, but Audi will likely update the names of its cars and SUVs with future facelifts.
Audi previously attracted criticism for giving each model a two-digit ‘power badge’ that related to horsepower instead of the more usual engine size.
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