Once upon a time, an Audi naming strategy snafu was a simple one. Remember the introduction of badges like 35, 40 and 50 for power output? The ones nobody understood? Sorting that out looks like a walk in the park against this latest refresh. Not so long ago Audi said that, going forward, its even-numbered cars - both ‘A’ and ‘Q’, so like A6 and Q6 - would be electric only. And that was already in evidence with the new e-tron versions of both. Models that were retaining combustion power of any kind would be sold only as odd numbers, so the car that was the S4 became the S5. The replacement for the current RS6 was likely to be an RS7 Avant, that sort of thing.
It made some sense once up to speed - right up until it didn't. Now the strategy is being binned. Following “intensive discussions and also… the wishes of our customers as well as feedback from our international dealers”, according to Sales and Marketing board Member Marco Schubert, Audi is removing the link between alphanumeric name and drivetrain technology. So an A6 can be petrol, electric or hybrid, for example, as can any other A- or Q-badged Audi going forward.
The models will be designated in the old-fashioned way: TFSI for a petrol one, TFSI e for a plug-in hybrid petrol model, e-tron for all-electric, TDI for d… you get it. That will apply to all models, whether hatch, saloon, SUV or wagon. Indeed to make sure everyone has this new message nice and clear, a new A6 with a combustion engine - the model that up until today was an electric car - will be introduced on March 4. That’ll be the A6 Avant TFSI, to sit alongside the A6 Avant e-tron. Given the history around the badge, we’d have to imagine that this move means the RS6 moniker can be retained (a future plug-in was going to be an RS7 Avant), though nothing is confirmed for the moment.
Audi’s announcement also said that no retroactive name changes will take place for those cars already on sale, so an S5 won’t go back to being an S4. That headache can wait for facelift time at the very least. Or the RS4/5. Schubert 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.” Almost like it didn’t need too much meddling with in the first place.
On the other hand, the sales situation really has been tough going, especially as widely reported for electric - and notably for Audi. In 2024 just 164,000 of 1.7m global sales were EV, and 108,000 of those were the Q4 e-tron, so it just doesn’t make sense for entire model families, particularly those with decades of heritage attached, to be limited to a drivetrain technology that isn’t selling as expected right now.
Sales across the globe were down last year - 21 per cent in Germany, 13 per cent in the USA, 11 per cent in China - and electric vehicles suffered in all of those. Hard to see them changing in the immediate future, either. So little surprise that the new naming convention, which prevented Audi from (re)installing petrol engines in half the range, had to change along with its powertrain strategy. Let’s hope for the sake of all our brains this one sticks around a little while. Expect more on the A6 (with an engine) in due course.
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