The 2025 Audi A5 Is the New A4 Because Audi Can’t Make Up Its Mind

Audi's bread-and-butter sedan is caught in an identity crisis as internal combustion models move to odd-numbered names.
Audi A5 Sedan
Audi

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Audi is once again restructuring its naming system, giving even-numbered names to its electric vehicles and sticking internal combustion models with odd numbers. That means despite three decades of history, the Audi A4 as we know it is dying and will become the A5.

The Audi A5 coupe might be dead, too. The new 2025 Audi A5 will come in two body variants globally: sedan and Avant, AKA a wagon. However, the Avant isn’t coming to North America, leaving us with just one body style. And that one sedan body looks, well … like an Audi. It seems to have a roofline similar to the old A5 Sportback’s, the face of the outgoing A4, and the rear end from every Audi e-tron model. It’s like someone prompted an AI image generator to combine every current Audi model into one sedan.

That’s not to say it looks bad—there are some interesting design elements, like the subtle ducktail spoiler, flush door handles, and hood lines. It just looks like a generic modern Audi. At least it separates itself from the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes C-Class by having a rear hatch, rather than a traditional trunk, just like the old A5 Sportback.

Inside, you’ll find an interior that’s nearly identical to the Q6 E-Tron’s. The steering wheel, triple-screen dash setup, and center console are nearly identical. Even the door panels are similar. It might be Audi’s most blatant copy-and-paste job since the late ’90s. Like the Q6, the new A5 has Audi’s latest digital gauge cluster, infotainment screen, and passenger display screen, from left to right.

Since the new Audi A5 will be internal combustion-only for the United States market, and we also won’t be getting any of Audi’s mild-hybrid powertrains, there will only be one engine choice: a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with 268 horsepower. However, if you step up to the hotter Audi S5, you get a 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 with 362 horsepower. Both cars get seven-speed dual-clutch “S-Tronic” transmissions, whereas the previous S5 had an eight-speed automatic. While Europe will get front-wheel drive models, the Audi A5 gets Quattro all-wheel drive standard in the United States.

This new Audi A5, which is essentially just an A5 Sportback that replaces the outgoing A4, will come to the U.S. sometime in either the spring or summer of 2025, though no official date has been announced.

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