Last week we got our first look at the facelifted Audi S3 and speculated that it wouldn’t be long until we saw the first spy shots of its more sensible A3 brother. And as if by magic, here they are.
Though both the A3 and S3 will be introduced for the 2024 model year, it’s likely that Audi will stagger the introduction, giving us the non-sporty version first, sometime later in 2023. And though the European-market hatchback seen here won’t be making its way to North America, the front-end styling changes will be shared with the sedan that is making the trip.
Naturally, the S3 will continue to stand out from the crowd more clearly thanks to its quad exhausts and performance trim, but the A3 will look a little sharper than it has done in the past thanks to a trick new set of digital-look DRLs.
Instead of consisting of a single LED strip, like the DRLs on the current car, the facelifted DRLs seem to be made up of at least 24 small LED squares that can be illuminated individually. This means they can be fired as a single strip, to show a turn signal, or lit up to make different patterns, perhaps as a welcome greeting when the driver approaches the car.
Related: 2024 Audi Q7 Set To Get A Life Extension With Another Facelift
We’re sure Audi has some bumpers tweaks in store for us, though the camouflage wrap on the front and rear makes them harder to spot. Two things we can say are that the grille mesh appears to have a new design and that the rear bumper on the facelifted S3 we spotted last week showed more changes over the 2023 car than this A3 does.
It’s possible that this prototype hasn’t been updated with the latest bumper, or it could be that Audi is just playing it safe with the redesign. But even if the final bumper design turns out to be almost identical to the current setup the redesigned rear LEDs will make it easy to recognize the newer car.
There might be a few minor trim changes inside, but we’re not expected to see any radical updates to that or the engine line-up, which starts with a modest 108 hp (110 PS) 1.0-liter 3-cylinder petrol engine in ’30 TFSi’ European cars and includes a 148 hp (150 PS) 1.5-liter inline-four, a 2.0-liter diesel making the same power, and a 242 hp (245 PS) PHEV with 37 miles (60 km) of electric range. In the U.S. however, the sole engine could well be the 201 hp (204 PS) 2.0-liter inline-four offered in the 2023 car.
