New Audi A5 revealed: classy coupé morphs into saloon and estate
Crucial Audi A5 executive saloon gets mild hybrid power and a tech-heavy interior – plus plug-in hybrid models are on the way...
On sale November | Price from £42,000 (est)
As any football fan will know, sometimes a well-timed substitution can be the difference between winning and losing. In the case of the new Audi A5, it’s being subbed into the executive car market while its more traditional sibling, the A4, takes a well-earned breather.
If you’re currently picturing the A5 as a swish coupé rather than the saloon you see here, that’s because up until now, the A5 was just that. You see, Audi wants all of its electric models to have even numbers, so while the current A4 goes off for an electric refit before rejoining the squad in around 2026, the new A5 fills the combustion-engined gap.
The new car will be available in saloon and estate forms only, and will count the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes C-Class – plus their estate siblings – among its rivals. The estate version is called the Audi A5 Avant. A change of purpose means the current A5 coupé and A5 Sportback have been permanently retired to the locker room.
To go with its new positioning, the A5 gets new underpinnings, and while its design keeps some of the softer lines of a coupé, especially with its sloping roofline, prominent air intakes at the front aim to make the new model appear more sporty than before. LED lights come as standard at the front and rear, and drivers can customise the looks of both by setting personalised light signatures from the options list.
The A5’s engine line-up kicks off with a 148bhp 2.0-litre petrol, which officially returns 42.8mpg, with C02 emissions of 150g/km. If you feel like more punch, there’s also a more powerful version with 201bhp.
For high-mileage drivers, there’s a 148bhp 2.0-litre diesel which officially returns up to 60.1mpg alongside C02 emissions of 124g/km, or if you’d like to match luxury with performance, then the range-topping S5 model gets a 3.0-litre V6 petrol with 362bhp. Both the diesel and the S5 receive mild hybrid technology to help lower your fuel bills.
No matter which model you go for, it’s likely that an eight-speed automatic gearbox will be standard. Although they don’t form part of the launch line-up, at least one plug-in hybrid version of the Audi A5 will arrive later this year to take on the BMW 330e and Mercedes C300e – this will be of special interest to company car drivers thanks to an expected electric range of around 60 miles and low Benefit-in-Kind tax payments.
The A5’s steering has been re-worked to provide more precision over the old A4, but as in that car, drivers can specify adaptive dampers via the options list, allowing them to stiffen or soften the ride at the touch of a button.
Technophobes might want to look away now, because the interior of the new A5 is best described as being screen-heavy. There are three in total – an 11.9in digital instrument cluster, a 14.5in infotainment touchscreen and an optional 10.9in display for your front passenger to use to view media while you’re driving. If that all sounds rather distracting, then a head-up display can put the most pressing information right in your eyeline.
The A5 joins the Mercedes C-Class in being controlled through voice or touch, leaving the BMW 3 Series to be the only car from the German 'big three' to offer a rotary dial controller.
Like a number of other car makers, Audi is including ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence as standard, meaning drivers can ask questions of their car using natural language – though you’re unlikely to be able to use it to place a bet on the outcome of the next football match. Drivers can also pay to unlock certain features only when they need them – for example, you might purchase automatic high-beam assistance ahead of a long night-time drive.
Elsewhere, the A5’s roster of safety and convenience kit includes adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition which can adjust your speed to match, and a driver fatigue monitor.
The new A5 will be offered in Audi’s familiar Sport, S line and Black Edition trim levels, with standard kit likely to include an electric tailgate, wireless phone charging rear parking sensors.
We've had a chance to sit in the new A5 and, up front, it is indeed extremely similar to the new Audi Q6 e-tron. Which in some ways is good, because the fundamental driving position is sound and the touchscreen infotainment system is among the most responsive out there.
But the old Audi A4 was better in terms of interior quality. It's not that the A5 is poor; far from it. There are decent materials throughout, it looks swish and it's reasonably sturdy. But the last A4 was exquisitely put together from high-class materials – it was demonstrably better than pretty much all of its rivals. This new A5 is good but doesn't stand out from the crowd in the way that older Audis used to.
We've sat in the back and legroom is generous on both the saloon and Avant, but thanks to the extended roofline the Avant has noticeably better headroom for rear passengers; six-footers in the back of the Saloon may notice their head brushing the roof lining.
In that car, we managed to fit seven carry-on suitcases into its boot – the same as in the BMW 3 Series. Expect the A5 Avant estate to be at least as practical as the old A4 Avant, too – that is to say that your team’s luggage is unlikely to cause any problems.
Prices for the A5 saloon should start from around £42,000, which is a significant rise compared with the old A4, but means the A5 will sit neatly in between its 3 Series and C-Class rivals. Expect to pay around £44,000, meanwhile, for the A5 Avant.
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