For a whole 7 years, Audi has insisted that you solve a puzzle, almost like a mathematician, to find out the brand's model names. It's over now.
Audi has regretted that seven years ago it started calling its cars 40 TFSI, 40 TDI, 50 TDI, and we could keep going.
Essentially, the drivers – and thus Audi's customers – had to have a doctorate in number magic to find out which car they were actually sitting in. At least if it was/are cars with the famous four rings.
In fact, the model names were so bad that customers have been complaining about it ever since the model designations were introduced in 2017.
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Our colleagues at Bil Magasinet tried in August 2021 to decipher what the heck Audi was actually covering up with the mildly confusing pile of names. Read more about it here .
But now it's over. And this applies to both electric cars and fossil cars. This is what Florian Hauser, marketing director for Audi's electric car division, tells Auto Express .
According to Hauser, the numbers, which previously covered the engine size – and then the cars' power – have played their part. They are simply not necessary anymore. But Audi is actually changing the model designations more than that.
Last year, Audi's then-director Markus Duesmann told, shortly before he was fired, that the next A4 would become an A5. Just like A6 becomes A7.
Audi has therefore not completely abandoned the idea that their customers should ideally be among the world's smartest. At least if the brand's naming is to make any sense.
In fairness, it must be said that Audi is far from the only brand that has over time made a huge fool of itself when it comes to model names.
Nio, which after just 18 months is packing up and disappearing out of Denmark, actually ended up in the ranks of Audi's legal department back in 2022. All because the Chinese had copied quite a lot.
However, we had to go all the way into 2023, because a German court ended up ruling Audi. The decision meant that a Chinese brand was banned from using a number of model names in Europe. Read more about it here .
