Audi is finally canning its confusing naming scheme

If you’ve had trouble deciphering Audi’s model naming system for the past seven years, don’t worry, so have a lot of people. That’s why it has now decided to revamp the way it names its cars.

For context, in 2017, the German carmaker switched to a double-digit naming scheme based on the power output of its model variants, ranging from ’30’ for cars that make between 81kW and 95kW, all the way up to ’70’ for cars with 400kW or more.

Those numbers are now on the way out, meaning models like the Q5 55 TFSI e will read a lot easier. With that, we can expect simpler names like Q8 e-tron.

But how will we differentiate between each model variant? In the case of the electric all-wheel drive Q6 e-tron, it gets the ‘quattro’ designation, while its spicier performance variant will be called the SQ6 e-tron. A rear-wheel drive model is expected at a later date and will simply be called the Q6 e-tron.

“For smaller and bigger batteries we could think about a suffix behind the ‘6’ – for example ‘Performance.’ And so we don’t need the numbers anymore, so we won’t show them,” Florian Hauser, Head of Sales & Product Marketing at Audi, told Auto Express.

As for Audi’s petrol and diesel-powered models, the aforementioned two digit designation badges will be removed from the boot, but it isn’t known whether they’ll be erased from online configurations and brochures just yet.