New Audi S5 Sportback Will Be Way Sexier Than The Old One

Spy photographers in the Alpine mountains have captured the next Audi S5 with production bodywork and headlights, revealing a more sultry look for the sporty sedan. Audi is refining its lineup, renaming the range so that even numbers represent electric vehicles. As a result, what you’re looking at here is effectively the replacement for the Audi S4 sedan; the A4 will become an EV next year, and the A5 will cover whatever gas-powered niches the A4 would have previously filled, including that of the station wagon. With all of that being said, thisS5 is still an Audi Sportback model, not a true sedan, as the trunk is accessed through a liftback tailgate.

Dwindling Camouflage Indicates Advancing Development

The prototype seen here is still wearing plenty of camouflage, but these sharp images still reveal more than we have been able to see so far. At the front, the headlights are getting new graphics, and the Singleframe grille is adopting the same texture as the recently launched 2025 Audi S3. With that in mind, it’s safe to assume that the diffuser will be getting the same bold pattern at the rear.

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Speaking of the back of the S5, the taillights are more sculptural than before, narrowing towards the center of the trunk, where it appears either a light bar or prominent trim accent will connect either cluster. Lower down, we see evidence that the faux diffuser will be a large panel in the rear bumper, and since this is an Audi Sport model, a quartet of exhaust tips flanks either side.

V6 Expected To Live On

Spy videos capturing the exhaust note and engine tone have indicated that the V6 engine will live on, and this seems like a smart decision. Recent comments from senior officials in Affalterbach have suggested that Mercedes lost the interest of many customers when it dropped its excellent eight-cylinder engine for a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder in the C 63, and to avoid the same thing happening to the E-Class Coupé’s successor, the CLE 63 could get a V8. Audi would be wise to hang onto its hot vee engine configuration, which currently offers 3.0 liters of displacement, two turbochargers, and 349 horsepower. We predict a mild power bump, lower carbon emissions, and maybe even a hybrid element. A debut is expected in the second half of 2024, so we won’t have much longer to wait until Ingolstadt reveals what direction the S5 is going in.

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