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Audi dropping its short-lived odds-and-evens model names

One could generate a fair bit of electricity with all this back-pedalling – or is it 𝘵𝘸𝘰 could..?

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Less than 10 years ago, Audi revealed a confusing change to its engine variant naming, but this year's new A5 range marked the end of that.

Now, the still-new 'evens for electric, odds for oldschool' model naming plan is also into the bin.

It was almost exactly two years ago that the then Audi boss Markus Duesmann told Germany's Auto Bild about its new hodgepodge hopscotch naming plan.

"In the future it will be like this: the odd numbers will be the combustion engines and the even numbers will stand for the battery-electric vehicles. The successor to today's A4 will be called the A5 and today's A6 will be called the A7. The A4 and A6 will then be electric."

(Duesmann resigned not long after that interview, replaced by Gernot Döllner, although Forbes reported at the time that Duesmann was pushed.)

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As of today, that plan is done.

The company is returning to its trusty model that will once again align names with their style and size – although the latter has just-as-often been used to set body styles apart.

Where once there was a Cabriolet in the A4 range, for example, there was later the A5 Coupe, Cabriolet and Sportback – the latter effectively a 'liftback sedan' – to sit alongside the A4 sedan and Avant wagon.

Exactly how Audi would apply the Sportback name varied, though: the A7 Sportback was similar in concept to the A5 Sportback, with its coupe-like roof over a four-door body, whereas the A3 Sportback is a vaguely wagon-esque hatch rather than a 'four-door coupe', and it retained the A3 name. It could hardly take the A4 name, after all.

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New A5. Click above for more photos.

Last year, Audi gave us a new-generation A5 range that would officially replace the A4 as the brand's mid-sized combustion model (albeit with electric assistance in most variants).

Even then, Audi's odd plan was to have the A4 debut as an exclusively all-electric range.

Indeed, Audi executives confirmed to this writer at the A5 launch event that the now seemingly redundant e-tron name would continue, worn on every next-gen A4 model – as though in recognition that nobody but Audi would know the even-numbered name meant 'all electric'.

I'd love to say my grilling at breakfast is what drove this week's reversal, but Audi board member Marco Schubert insists the decision was made to "follow the wishes of our customers as well as feedback from our international dealers". Fine.

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New A6 E-Tron. Click above for more photos.

What happens from here is still a little unclear. Audi says the "first" new model returning to the old ways will be the new A6, to be revealed on March 4.

Rather than debut as an all-electric range, per the new-old plan, it will once again be offered with a combustion engine, alongside the electric A6 E-Tron unveiled in August last year.

And then? Insert shrug emoji. No matter what, though, Audi says "no retroactive name changes are planned concerning models already on sale".

Will we still get a new A4?

According to an Autocar report in late 2023, yes we will, sometime this year – but whether it will still be electric-only is unclear, as is just how it'll differ from A5 that was supposed to replace all combustion versions of the A4.

Dizzy yet? Close your eyes for a while, and then... watch this space.

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