Audi has been lagging behind its compatriots in the premium space, achieving fewer sales in 2025, but that’s not the only problem it’s been facing recently. In 2023, the company decided to rename its entire lineup, with even-numbered models to represent all-electric vehicles and odd-numbered nameplates their combustion-powered counterparts. As a result, the car we knew as the A4 became the A5, but this only created more confusion, and with two-digit numbers being used to signify power output, customers’ minds were truly boggled. Audi realized the error of its ways and will revert to its old naming convention with the new gas-powered A6, and its CEO hinted to Australian media that it may do the same with the rest of its lineup.
Audi CEO Admits Renaming the Lineup Was a Mistake
Audi
“Yes, as we said earlier this year, that was a mistake, and we corrected it,” Audi CEO Gernot Döllner said at the Munich motor show in September, reports Drive. “We will go back to our old nomenclature: A is for flat-floor cars, Q is for SUVs, and then the number describes the size of the car or the segment of the car, full stop.” This will make understanding the lineup easier for both customers and the salespeople tasked with unpacking each car’s place in the range to those buyers, but what happens to the A5, which has already adopted the now-abandoned naming structure? Will it switch back to A4?
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“Yeah, that’s thinkable,” said the CEO, adding, “In general with the A6 as the anchor point, from there into the future we will be looking.” This could make the current A5 sedan stand out in decades to come as a rare and unusual version of a badge associated with two-door cars, but whether Audi resurrects the A4 name soon or not, its renaming debacle will be remembered as a resource-intensive marketing blunder.
Audi’s Rivals Also Have Special Naming Structures
Audi
Mercedes has also learned that giving EVs unique names doesn’t always work out. Its electric S-Class, the EQS, has been a poor seller, and the Stuttgart-based automaker has now decided to instead name vehicles traditionally, adding the “with EQ Technology” suffix to all-electric models. BMW did things differently, instead calling the electric 7 Series the i7, and is dropping the long-standing “i” suffix from combustion models like the M340i because customers associate that with EVs, although it was meant to signify fuel injection. The difference is that, while Mercedes gave its EVs unique, egg-like styling, BMW’s EVs have been almost indistinguishable from the designs of combustion cars. Mercedes and Audi have learned from BMW that giving customers the same car with different powertrains is the simplest way to encourage a switch to electric power. Hopefully, Audi’s upcoming design revolution will be complemented by an easily understood naming strategy.
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