German Car Forum

A look at Audi's future.

Come and join us for a look at Audi's future. It's not so far away, the Audi A5 Coupé is the first sign of it.
If you wanna know where the Audi brand is heading, sit down, relax and join us on this carpet ride.

Hardly another brand moves as fast as Audi: new models, more emotional design and a technology, which will originate in a totally new line-up, from Audi A4 to Audi A8, based on a new component system architecture. First harbinger of this philosophy: the Audi A5 Coupé.

Large, smooth surfaces, combined with circular shapes and peppered with a big front grille, called the Audi single-frame - the Audi design was finished. Certainly a prescription of success, which increased the popularity of the brand enormously. But with the evolution of automotive design, Audi is going to move away from the Bauhaus design.

Audi’s design boss Walter de Silva is already dreaming for quite a while about a stronger emotionalisation of the brand: away from the reduced Bauhaus design of the 1930‘s to perfectly formed curves, which will not only let men’s hearts beat faster.

All of you who like this type of figure will find something in the portfolio of Audi by the end of 2007 –
which comes in size of the Audi A5.
The Audi A5 closes the gap between Audi A4 and Audi A6. However not as classical sedan, but as a peppy 2+2 coupé in the 4.60-meter-class, which combines its sporty attitude with a breath of luxury.

The Audi A5 is however not only the harbinger of a further developed design philosophy, it is above all the most important technology carrier, which Audi had so far. "It is the most intelligent, which we made, ever!" said Audi’s boss Dr. Winterkorn, describing the transition taking place here to a large modular component system, on which all model lines from A4 to A8 will be developed in the future.

This new model politics was born mainly because of the need for an improved pedestrian protection, required by law. Keeping the old model architecture would have lead to nearly a meter long front overhang for the A4.

The consequence: The differential will be installed in future in front of the clutch, just like in the Audi A8, whereby the engine can move further to the rear. The front axle - as in the A8 a four-steering wheel construction - moves further forward, while the hood can be arranged around ten millimeters lower. The advantage of this castling: The front overhang will be even shorter than now, around 15 centimeters.

The Audi A5 will only be available with six cylinder engines (3.2 and 3.6 liter FSI), the Audi A4 will see a new generation of four cylinder FSI with up to 2.0 liter engines. In contrast to VW, Audi is not going to offer so-called twincharger engines (turbo plus compressor).

The already known multimedia interface (MMI) from the Audi A6 will be introduced to the Audi A4 and Audi A5 as well and we will see more multimedia functions.

The new strategy has far-reaching consequences at Audi: The slimmer production structure, based on the new component system architecture, will save costs and will accelerate the manufacturing of new models up to 40%. But it seems like that nobody needs to worry about his job at Audi: Dr. Winterkorn already announced a spectacular fireworks of new models, starting in 2006 with the Audi RS4 Cabrio and Avant, Audi S8 with a V10 engine from Lamborghini, the Audi S3, the Audi A6 Allroad, the Audi S6, the supersports car Audi R8 and as the most important novelty the TT Coupé, including the TT roadster in 2007.

Future models will be: A successor of the Audi A2, which will inherite some of the ideas of the Audi
Shooting Brake concept from Tokyo, the Audi Roadjet shown in Detroit will be placed besides the Audi A6 Avant in the upper middle class as flexible alternative with increased seating position. In addition there will be the Audi Q5 as competitor to the BMW X3.

And on top there will be new editions of the Audi A6 and Audi A8 in 2009 and/or 2010. Both will grow clearly. The Audi A6 will break through the five-meter mark with a plus of ten centimeters. The Audi A8, which will receive a V12 diesel engine, will be enlarged to 5.10 m - and still remains a close relative to the Audi A4, thanks to the new modular building method and the new component system architecture.


Source

AM&S Article

Sounds like a very bright future. The only thing is that the A5 Coupe isn't going to have anything more than a 6-cylinder engine? That doesn't sound right.

M

Initially it will have 6 cyl engines only but later on 4 and 8 cyl will be available also.

I hope so. That design deserves a V8/S version for sure.

M

make that an RS version

The headlights in that cgi look way better than the real ones.

a very bright future to say the least

So there's going to be an A5 cabrio and an A4 cabrio, that doesn't make sence to me!

It looks like Audi are dramatically increasing there range which is good!

A5 cabrio is the replacement of A4 cabrio but there will be a A3 cabrio also.

VERY interesting that Audi will not make use of twincharging technology for its cars. Says a lot about the forthcoming S3 then eh?

I suspect the A5 cab will replace the A4 cab...