WTF Audi?

Audi will completely change its naming convention – but also keeps the old one

According to the company, “the new designations stand for the specific power output and apply both to cars with combustion engines and to E-Tron models with hybrid and electric drives.” But wait – there’s an interesting tidbit: “A special place in the line-up is occupied by the high-end, high-performance S and RS models and the Audi R8. … They will retain their classic names in reference to their top position in the model range.” Now let’s get confused. First off, we all know Audi traditionally uses a single letter, followed by a digit to reference the class and type of vehicle – the A1 is the smallest and the Q7 is the biggest SUV, with the A8 representing the flagship passenger car.

The company has now decided to add an additional marker – “a standardized nomenclature for the power output designations of its worldwide range of automobiles” with an additional introduction of two numbers. The A8 is the first to use the new standard. The range is between 30 and 70 – all standing for a certain level of power expressed in kilowatts. For example, the “30” will appear on every model with a power output of between 109 and 128 horsepower (81 and 96 kilowatts). The number “45,” meanwhile, goes from 226 and 248 hp (169 and 195 kW) and so on. At the top, the number “70,” is Audi’s performance class, with models delivering more than 536 hp (400 kW) – all numbers will be linked to the TFSI, TDI, G-tron, or E-tron badges that already appear on production models. “As alternative drive technologies become increasingly relevant, engine displacement as a performance attribute is becoming less important to our customers,” says Dietmar Voggenreiter, Board of Management Member for Sales and Marketing Audi. “The clarity and logic of structuring the designations according to power output makes it possible to distinguish between the various performance levels.”

(InAutoNews.com)