In a recent interview to Autoevolution, the Ingolstadt automaker has confirmed that the Audi A4 will be making a comeback in two years – but only as an EV with up to 800 kilometers (500 miles) of range and no internal combustion engine on the list.
The new car will be built from the ground up on the company’s SSP platform and will be sold with the affix “e-tron” to avoid confusion. Customers will be choosing between RWD and AWD, but even the simplest powertrain will deliver no less than 400 PS (394 hp / 294 kW). The sported-up S4 spec will have approximately 500 PS (492 hp / 368 kW) and will sprint 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in four seconds, Audi CTO Rouven Mohr said in the interview.
From the visual perspective, the new A4 will drastically differ from the current generation. It will be heavily inspired by the company’s Concept C and the limited-run Nuvolari coupe. Once out and about, it will have to compete against the likes of Mercedes-Benz C-Class and BMW i3 for customers’ wallets.
As you may remember, there was a time when Audi decided to split its model naming scheme in half, landing electric vehicles with even numbers like 4, 6 or 8 and traditional ICE cars with odd numbers like 3, 5 or 7. That’s why we never got a new Audi A4: it arrived under the A5 badge (see the video above).
Audi has since admitted that it only managed to confuse the buyers, so it decided to ditch this naming scheme. Going forward, all EVs will simply get the “e-tron” affix.