- Audi has unveiled e-hybrid PHEV versions of its new A5 sedan and Avant wagon.
- Electrically-assisted 2.0-liter delivers up to 362 hp and 68 miles of electric range.
- Audi has a wave of other PHEVs coming this year, including the A6 sedan and Q5 SUV.
Plug-in hybrids used to be the worst of both worlds, offering feeble electric ranges and then ruining your ICE powertrain’s MPG numbers when the battery had run dry because you were lugging around that redundant hybrid hardware. But modern PHEVs are genuinely useful. The new Audi A5 PHEV has a WLTP-rated EV range of 68 miles (110 km).
Combining a 249 hp (252 PS) 2.0-liter turbocharged four and a choice of two different electric motor outputs, the e-hybrids generate either 295 hp (299 PS / 220 kW) or 362 hp (367 PS / 270 kW). The milder version gets to 62 mph (100 kmh) in 5.9 seconds, regardless of whether you choose the liftback sedan or Avant wagon body style, while the punchier model does the job in 5.1 seconds but is limited to the same 155 mph (250 kmh) top speed.
Related: New Audi A5 Costs $3,600 More Than The A4 It Replaces
Comparisons with the old A4 PHEV are impossible because there wasn’t one, causing Audi to miss out on many sales to business drivers. The new A5 gets a 25.9 kWh battery and can be charged at 11 kW, meaning you can fill a completely flat battery in 2.5 hours. Quattro all-wheel drive is standard, and Audi lets you tweak the regenerative braking performance using the steering wheel paddles.
The official 68-mile range makes the A5 PHEV longer-legged than its BMW 330e rival, which is only rated at 62 miles (100 km), and that after BMW added a bigger battery to boost the range from 37 miles (60 km). But so high are the standards in the newly improved plug-in class, that other PHEVs still outshine this new Audi.
The A5’s Mercedes C300e rival is one. Despite being much older than the A5 and packing a smaller battery, it’s rated at 71 miles (114 km), though in fairness, a 6.2-second zero to 62 mph time means it’s much slower than the Audi, and the range soon tumbles if you add big wheels.
But sticking within the VW empire, the new European-spec Tiguan hybrid, which is surely both heavier and less aerodynamically efficient than the A5, claims up to a 77-mile (124 km) EV range. So the A5’s numbers look good, but you wonder if they could have been even better.
The A5 PHEV can be ordered in Europe from the end of March, starting at €62,500 / £48,950 for the lower-power sedan (the UK doesn’t get the more muscular one). And the assisted A5s are far from the only plug-ins Audi is launching this year. PHEV versions of multiple models, including the new A6 and Q5, are scheduled to appear before the end of 2025.
