Audi Chairman Bram Schot has made it his mission to reduce model complexity as he has previously said the company has been “involved in too many projects” and this has to change.
At the time, he announced Audi would focus “key projects” and examine its portfolio for “customer relevance.” This effort has already killed the TT – which will be replaced by a new “emotive model in the same price range” – and it appears more vehicles are on the chopping block.
In an interview with Autocar, Schot said “Do we want to have a normal saloon and a sportback? We’re discussing this currently for a specific model.” While Schot declined to say which car he was talking about, it’s most likely the A5 Sportback as the A7 Sportback was recently redesigned and Audi is finalizing plans for the next-generation A4 which is expected to arrive in 2022 or 2023.
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This isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors about the death of the A5 Sportback either as an earlier report suggested the A5 and A7 Sportbacks would eventually be replaced by a single five-door hatchback based on the MLB platform.
That remains unconfirmed, but the A5 Sportback isn’t as popular as the standard A4. Audi doesn’t break down sales of specific models, but the A4 lineup – which consists of A4, S4 and A4 Allroad – has been responsible for 17,657 sales in the United States through August of this year. The A5 lineup – which includes the A5, S5 and RS5 Coupes, A5 and S5 Cabriolets as well as the A5 and S5 Sportbacks – has been responsible for 15,676 sales over the same period. Given the A5 family is significantly larger than the A4’s, Sportback sales only make up a fraction of those 15,676 units.
Given this, it wouldn’t be too surprising if Audi were to concentrate its efforts on the next-generation A4 and skip the A5 Sportback altogether. That’s not official, but it could make sense especially at a time when consumers are embracing crossovers and BMW axed their somewhat similar 3-Series Gran Turismo.
