Audi is renaming its models once again after customers found the previous naming system too confusing

Audi is changing the naming scheme across the line-up once again.

The German automaker is going back to the previous system because the new one was too confusing.

More to the point, customers simply didn’t like it.

And, well, you have to do what the customers want.

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The reason why Audi is going back to the previous system

Audi used to follow a simple strategy when it came to naming its cars.

You had ‘A’ for sedans and ‘Q’ for SUVs, and the bigger the number, the bigger the car.

The only exception, if we wanted to nitpick, would have been the A5, which was introduced as a coupe variant to the A4.

Either way, less than two years ago, Audi changed that system.

Since 2023, and until now, Audi has been using odd numbers of internal combustion cars and even numbers for EVs.

But it was confusing, so they’re going back to the previous system.

From now on, you’ll know that an Audi A is a sedan and an Audi Q is an SUV.

They’ll continue to use Avant, Sedan, and Sportback to distinguish between different body shapes, and they’ll use four acronyms/nameplates for four different types of propulsion.

Plug-in models will be called ‘TFSI e’, gas cars will be called ‘TFSI’, and diesel cars will be named ‘TDI‘.

Electric vehicles will be called ‘e-tron’.

The reason why automakers often use numbers and letters

There’s a very good reason why so many automakers just resort to simple combinations of letters and numbers.

It’s just a safe play.

The problem is when they pick fancy names, they sometimes get it right, with cars with cool names, but they more often than not get it wrong.

Through the years, we’ve seen some cars with truly horrible names.

And it’s not just about nice names versus bad names, sometimes you risk diplomatic incidents.

Remember when Mazda called one of its cars the ‘LaPuta’? It probably would’ve been better to just call it the Mazda La7 or whatever.