When the 2025 Audi S5 was revealed this week, one of the automaker’s technical cutaways seemed to hint at a departure for the sport sedan: That it would forgo the traditional Torsen-type Quattro system for a “Quattro Ultra” setup, more like Audi’s non-enthusiast offerings, that only sends power to the rear wheels when slip is detected. This understandably seemed to rankle Audi fans, but we now have confirmation from the automaker that the new S5 will solider on as it did before, with traditional Quattro all-wheel drive.
Correction Wednesday, July 17, 2024, 6:30 p.m. ET: The original version of this story stated the 2025 Audi S5 would use a Quattro Ultra all-wheel-drive system, based on an official Audi document. Audi did not respond to The Drive’s questions by publication time. Audi later informed The Drive that the contents of the article were incorrect; the entire piece has since been updated to reflect this. Per Audi, “the B10 S5 employs the same standard quattro with sport diff as today’s B9 S5 with the S sport package,” while Quattro Ultra will remain on the A5, as before.
First, a little history. Quattro has typically worked by using a Torsen center-locking differential that sent 60% of available power to the rear axle and 40% to the front axle. The center Torsen diff was always viscous-coupling, so it was durable, reliable, and consistent. For decades, most Audis with longitudinal engines used such a system.
However, in recent years, Audi switched its less powerful ‘A’ models over to what it calls “Quattro with ultra technology.” Instead of a Torsen diff, the Quattro Ultra system is 100% front-wheel drive until the system detects slip, upon which it uses an electronically controlled clutch pack to send some power to the rear wheels. Yet it can never send more than half of available torque to the rear, like a traditional Haldex setup. For normal Audis, that’s perfectly fine. However, Audi never used the Ultra system in performance cars with longitudinal engines—only its smaller cars with transverse engines, like the Audi S3.
Audi
It seemed we were setting up for the new “B10” S5 to mark a shift, as the first of its kind with a longitudinal engine and Quattro Ultra. The diagram above clearly names it, and the associated release touts the S5’s “all-wheel-drive clutch” as well as the new model’s reduction in carbon emissions against the old. These details, plus the switch to a dual-clutch S-Tronic gearbox (the sort historically used with Quattro Ultra), all appeared to point to the change. Thankfully, we now have official insight that that’s not the case, as an Audi representative has confirmed the following to The Drive:
“Quattro ultra only comes on the B10 A5, not the S5. The B10 S5 employs the same standard quattro with sport diff as today’s B9 S5 with the S sport package. The B10 S5 comes standard with a rear sport differential, which means the quattro system is fully engaged all the time (like the torsen setup). It does not and cannot disengage the rear axle.”
That’s good news. While there are great performance cars out there with Haldex-style setups, like the Volkswagen Golf R and Audi’s own manic RS3, the new S5 would be a markedly different beast with such a switch. Rear-biased powertrains are the enthusiast preference after all, and despite the S5’s wealth of new tech, it’s refreshing that’s something that isn’t changing.
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