Electric Vorsprung

The Audi A4 will make the switch to an all electric powertrain, three decades after its introduction, as the Ingolstadt brand gears up to contend with BMW, Mercedes, Tesla and a raft of new disruptors in the crucial electric executive segment.

Due on sale towards the end of 2025, the electric A4 will be sold alongside a new-generation combustion equivalent — evolved from today’s car but wearing the A5 nameplate in line with Audi’s new naming strategy, which allocates even numbers to EVs.

The electric car will be marketed clearly as a standalone product, despite its similar footprint and positioning, with a design that closely matches that of the A6 and Q6 E-tron EVs with which it shares Audi’s and Porsche’s new co-developed PPE architecture.

Audi technical boss Oliver Hoffmann has told Autocar that switching to the new platform means the firm’s upcoming EVs “have…