- All-new Audi S5 Sportback spotted testing in the Alps.
- Euro cars will reportedly continue with 3.0-liter diesel and U.S. models with 3.0-liter petrol V6.
- ICE-powered S4 won’t be renewed, but S5 will be offered in liftback and wagon forms.
You’ve probably experienced it yourself. Someone at work gets cut and you’re expected to take on their job as well as your own. That’s what’s happening to the new Audi S5, which won’t only replace the old S5, but the S4 as well.
Audi is switching all combustion cars to odd-numbered badges and dropping the A4/S4 sedan body style, so the new A5 and hot S5 Sportbacks are suddenly far more important than they were previously.
Related: Next Audi S5 Sportback Spied Looking To Kill Two Birds With One Stone
The Ingolstadt crew rarely does anything revolutionary with its sedan designs, and with the need to also appeal to more conservative A4/S4 buyers further complicating the brief, it’s no wonder that the new S5 looks very similar to the old.
That’s not a diss; we like the look of the old car. But non-Audi geeks might need to really pay attention to the details to tell old and new models aside. Those details include flush door handles, Audi’s latest segmented LED headlights, and a wider, shallow grille that gives the car a lower look.
This being the S5, the grille features a prominent large-scale mesh design set into a bumper with more sporty-looking egg-crate pattern plastics below it and vertical intakes positioned under each corner of the front bumper. The rear features the S5’s tell-tale two pairs of tailpipes, a tiny trunk-lid spoiler, and what we think is a horizontal light bar connecting the two LED taillights.
An evolution of today’s MLB Evo platform is hiding under the skin, and we’re expecting U.S. cars to also carry over the current S4/S5’s 3.0-liter V6, albeit with a higher horsepower count than the 349 hp (260 kW / 354 PS) in current models.
And despite the marked drop in demand for diesel vehicles in the EU, intel suggests the next Euro S5 Sportback will continue with a version of the 337 hp (251 kW / 341 PS) 3.0-liter turbodiesel V6 it currently uses (the European S5 cabrio takes a petrol V6). Whatever engines the S5 ends up with, you can be sure they’ll send their power to all four wheels via an automatic transmission.
