According to the manufacturer’s name-giving logic introduced in 2023, Audi models with even numbers are electric, while those with combustion engines have odd numbers in their names. However, this nomenclature is history again. In March, there will be another new A6 with a combustion engine.
In 2023, the now deposed CEO Markus Duesmann announced a new nomenclature. “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,” Duesmann said in an interview. “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.”
Accordingly, the next generation of the A4 model series with a combustion engine was launched on the market last year as the A5. However, the A5 will remain the only model named according to Duesmann’s scheme. On 3 February 2025, Audi scrapped the scheme and announced “a differentiation according to size and positioning independent of powertrain type.”
Size and positioning
“This decision is the result of intensive discussions and also follows the wishes of our customers as well as feedback from our international dealers,” says Marco Schubert, Member of the Board of Management for Sales and Marketing at AUDI AG.
“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.”
In other words, Audi now listens to customers who do not want to deviate from traditional naming. While the differentiation based on the model numbers could have eliminated the e-tron suffix, it is likely to continue to be used.
“The necessary differentiation between models and variants in the portfolio is done using the body style (e.g., Avant, Sedan, or Sportback) and the – already established – powertrain code (e.g., e-tron, TFSI e, TFSI, or TDI),” Audi explains.
The remaining logic of the nomenclature remains the same: the letter A in the model name continues to stand for flat-bottom vehicles (sedans, breaks, coupes, etc.), and the Q for high-floor vehicles (mainly SUVs and their coupe derivatives).
“The numbers, currently from one to eight, enable a clear classification independent of the powertrain type,” says Audi. “Thanks to the orientation according to size and positioning, all-electric models can share the same combination of letters and numbers with combustion-engine vehicles.”
The world premiere of the new A6 with combustion engine is 4 March. “Thanks to the powertrain code, the A6 Avant TFSI, for example, will be clearly differentiated from the all-electric A6 Avant e-tron,” explains Audi. Will the recent A5 with combustion engines then become A4 again? No, says Audi: “No retroactive name changes are planned concerning models already on sale.”
Name-giving
Name-giving has always been a hot topic in the automotive industry. According to many marketing gurus, it can decide a car’s success. Hundreds of marketing managers, inside companies or as external consultants, are making a living from it, trying to persuade their big bosses about how hard they think and work by inventing the oddest or most complicated combinations.
Nevertheless, the automotive industry is overflowing with name-giving flops. This Audi backstep is just one of the many examples. Many years ago, Hyundai called us to their headquarters to explain how important it was that new Hyundais now had numbers in their nomenclature and that names like Tucson and Santa Fe were outmoded and old-fashioned.
Ten years later, Tucson and Santa Fe were back. We got practically the same marketing explanation for the opposite move, and when we asked if the same consultancy firm was asked for the reverse movement, the press room remained silent for several minutes without an answer.
Recently, there was quite some commotion when Ford named his coupe version of the electric Explorer Capri. A few years earlier, nobody understood why the first full electric Ford had to be called Mustang (with the suffix Mach-E).
Another example. Does anybody really understand the logic of the nomenclature of Mercedes or BMW nowadays? Mercedes invented EQ for its electric vehicles but wants to abolish it in future models. Potential buyers of both makes can’t possibly know anymore which engine or electromotor is in their future car if they buy an EQE 450+ or a 3-Series 330e. Are we too nostalgic, or did we just appreciate yesterday’s logic?
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