It was only a year ago when Audi unveiled the refreshed Audi A4, but the company has already overhauled the model again for the 2021 model year, with a power bump and newly-standard all-wheel drive.
I don’t really know why Audi bothered selling one model year of a now-under-powered base A4 to everybody, but the good news for those of you who haven’t bought one yet is that the base 188 horsepower four-cylinder has been reworked to make 201 HP now.
In my opinion, the A4 never had any business making any less, especially when something like the A3 exists. But I guess they got away with it.
The little power bump comes from a new 12-volt hybrid starter/generator setup on the new base A4, and the powertrain is carried over to the new base A5, dubbed the A5 40, just introduced for the 2021 model year. Yeah, there’s no way you can sell a car that looks like the A5 with less than 200 horsepower in good conscience.
The A4 45 powertrain now makes 261 horsepower from a tuned version of the same four-cylinder. Audi didn’t make any new claims about improved fuel-economy from the 12-volt hybrid setup, so we’ll have to wait and see what the EPA figures turn out to be for the upgraded engines.
With the improved standard features and power bumps comes a price bump for the 2021 A4, now starting at $US40,095 ($62,677). The introduction of the base A5 means the entry level model for that car now starts at $US42,795 ($66,898).
Editor’s Note: Australian pricing and availability is yet to be confirmed.
Via Car And Driver.