S stands for stealth. You gained’t discover a lot efficiency automotive braggadocio in Audi’s new S5 Sedan (liftback) and S5 Avant wagon.
In fact, each are sporty variations of their newly launched A5 Sedan and A5 Avant siblings, however there’s no overt show of spoilers and wings, fats tyres or growling exhausts right here. If you need that, look ahead to the brand new RS5. The brand new S5 is quick, however not furiously so. A stealth efficiency automotive.
The brand new S5, which replaces the S4 in Audi’s lineup, has nothing to do with the earlier S5 Coupe and Sportback.
As a substitute – as with the brand new A5 sedan and wagon – its nomenclature displays a brand new Audi naming technique that dictates inner combustion engine mannequin strains are given an odd quantity suffix, and all EV mannequin strains an excellent quantity.
Like the brand new A5, the brand new S5 is an even bigger and extra quietly subtle automotive than its predecessor. Constructed on a revised model of the Volkswagen Group’s versatile MLB automobile structure dubbed PPC, the brand new S5 boasts an 80mm longer wheelbase, and is 67mm longer, 13mm wider, and 11mm taller general.
PPC stands for Premium Platform Combustion, which concurrently hyperlinks it to and separates it from Volkswagen Group’s PPE (Premium Platform Electrical) electrical automobile structure.
Although bodily very completely different, each PPC and PPE share the E3 scalable end-to-end digital structure that’s deliberate to be deployed throughout all Volkswagen Group manufacturers.
The S5 is provided with a model of the structure known as E3 1.2 that makes use of 5 high-performance computer systems to manage all automobile features, together with drivetrain, driver help, consolation, and security programs, in addition to infotainment and back-end networking.
As with the A5, the brand new S5’s longer wheelbase, broader and flatter grille, and light-weight bar extending throughout the rear make the automotive look wider and extra planted than its predecessor.
Visible variations over the usual A5 embrace bigger air intakes both aspect of the grille, a function shared in case you order an everyday A5 with the S Line package deal, and the usage of aluminium-look finishes on the grille, the outside mirrors, and the aspect sills (until you order the black exterior package deal, which makes all of them black).
On the rear the S5 Sedan will get a small lip spoiler on the bootlid and the S5 Avant a discreet roof spoiler, and each get two exhaust shops both aspect of a redesigned fake diffuser.
The sporty liftback and wagon additionally come commonplace with a singular 19-inch wheel design, and a solid 20-inch wheel is obtainable as an choice.
The S5 provides the identical trick lighting {hardware} because the A5, with elective matrix LED headlights and OLED tail-lights that allow house owners to select from eight completely different digital gentle signatures.
The OLED tail-lights function six panels with 60 individually controllable panels per section that may generate a brand new sample a number of instances a second, permitting the show to look animated.
How does the Audi S5 examine?
View an in depth breakdown of the Audi S5 in opposition to equally sized automobiles.
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S5
How a lot does the Audi S5 value?
The Audi S5 is predicted to reach in Australia within the first half of 2025.
Audi Australia has but to verify S5 pricing, however European costs counsel will probably be noticeably dearer than the outgoing S4, which retailed for $110,715 to $113,215, not the least as a result of the S5 comes outfitted with a pricey new enhanced mild-hybrid system that’s been designed to enhance fuel-efficiency.
To see how the Audi S5 stacks up in opposition to its rivals, try our comparability instrument
What’s the Audi S5 like on the within?
Audi’s panoramic curved show, which features a 11.9-inch configurable digital instrument cluster and a 14.5-inch MMI touchscreen show, dominates the S5’s inside, stretching virtually two-thirds the way in which throughout the sprint.
An extra 10.9-inch show for the entrance seat passenger is obtainable as an choice, although it seems an afterthought in an in any other case coherently executed cabin.
The mixing of the entrance door-handles with trim parts that stretch from both aspect of the sprint makes the inside look wider, whereas ambient lighting strips that dive behind the screens, mixed with oblique lighting beneath, make the screens seem to drift within the cabin, particularly at night time.
An elective lighting strip that runs alongside the bottom of the windscreen does options completely different colored LEDs which can be used to welcome occupants into the cabin and sign when the A5 is locked or unlocked. Flick the indicator stalk, and the related finish of the lighting strip pulses inexperienced in time with the indications.
The S5 comes commonplace with a multifunction sports activities leather-based steering wheel that’s been flattened on the prime and the underside, presumably to make it look ‘sporty’.
The irony is, sporty drivers will discover it annoying to make use of, the modifications in rim circumference making it tougher to easily work the wheel on tight and twisting roads.
Different commonplace goodies embrace sport seats that supply extra lateral help than the common A5 seats and are trimmed with contrasting stitching and embossed S logos.
A sports activities seat plus package deal that comes with diamond quilting, built-in head restraints, air flow, therapeutic massage, and ornamental trim with illuminated S lettering, is obtainable as an choice.
The S5 additionally will get a singular elective head-up show that gives what Audi calls S-Mode, displaying pace, the gear chosen, and a G-meter.
What’s underneath the bonnet?
The S5 is powered by a revised model of the 3.0-litre turbocharged petrol V6 that’s powered numerous Audis since 2015.
Dubbed EA839 evo, it includes a redesigned turbocharger with variable turbine geometry to enhance increase at low revs, revised consumption ports and the next compression ratio, and two oblique water-to-air intercoolers.
The engine, which drives all 4 wheels by way of a lighter, redesigned seven-speed dual-clutch S-tronic transmission, produces 270kW of energy from 5500rpm to 6300rpm, and 550Nm of torque from 1700rpm to 4000rpm.
These are will increase of 10kW and 50Nm in contrast with the model that powered the outgoing S4, although the upper outputs happen over a barely narrower rev band – 800rpm versus 1000rpm by way of peak energy, and 2300rpm versus 3150rpm by way of peak torque.
The engine can also be fitted with Audi’s MHEV plus enhanced 48-volt mild-hybrid system, which contains a belt alternator starter, an e-motor mounted adjoining to the engine and transmission that acts on the transmission output shaft, and a water-cooled 1.7kWh lithium iron phosphate battery.
The system can present as much as 18kW and 230Nm on demand and might recoup as a lot as 25kW by way of deceleration and regenerative braking.
The belt alternator starter is used to begin the engine and ship electrical vitality to the battery.
As a result of the e-motor – powertrain generator in Audi-speak – acts immediately on the transmission’s output shaft, the facility it provides or recuperates doesn’t must undergo the transmission, permitting it for use on each front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive fashions. It might additionally help the interior combustion engine at speeds of as much as 140km/h.
Although it permits the S5 to drive quick distances of electrical energy at low speeds, the MHEV plus system is designed to not ship as a lot electrical driving vary as attainable, however to make sure the battery is emptied and crammed in quick cycles.
This, Audi says, permits probably the most vitality to be recovered and used effectively for propulsion. The lithium iron phosphate battery is vital in all this: its chemistry permits for hundreds of speedy cost and discharge cycles with solely a minimal affect on capability, Audi claims.
We discovered the MHEV plus-equipped A5 TDI diesel we drove on the launch in France to be not as easy because the non-MHEV plus four-cylinder TFSI petrol-engined A5 (although the expertise is obtainable for the petrol engine, Audi selected to not supply it for value causes). The handoff between electrical and inner combustion energy appeared clunky at instances.
We didn’t discover the impact within the MHEV plus-equipped S5, presumably as a result of the upper torque output of the three.0-litre V6 petrol engine – 550Nm versus the TDI’s 400Nm – softened the affect of the torque immediately despatched by way of the driveline by the e-motor. “Mixing energy is rather a lot tougher than mixing braking,” an Audi engineer later conceded.
Audi claims the brand new S5 is 0.2 seconds faster to 100km/h than the outgoing S4, stopping the clock at 4.5 seconds on the way in which to an electronically restricted prime pace of 250km/h.
That makes the S5 simply 0.1s faster to 100km/h than the all-wheel drive Mercedes-AMG C 43 4Matic. However it may well’t match BMW’s M340i xDrive, which nails 100km/h in simply 4.3s.
To see how the Audi S5 stacks up in opposition to its rivals, try our comparability instrument
How does the Audi S5 drive?
The BMW M340i xDrive is likely to be faster in a straight line, however after hurling the S5 alongside the difficult roads within the hills above Good within the south of France, we’re unsure we’d wager in opposition to the Audi within the twisty bits.
Merely, the S5 steers higher than the BMW, with extra sensitivity on the entrance axle whereas providing constant grip into and thru corners.
Given the basic imbalance of S5’s powertrain structure – which, following many years of Audi custom, has the longitudinally mounted V6 situated forward of the entrance axle centreline – that’s a exceptional achievement.
However, says chassis traits engineer Peter Knauer, a key aim of the A5 and S5 growth program was to take away understeer and enhance steering really feel.
“All Audis have been understeering automobiles,” Mr Knauer says. “We actually wished a impartial feeling automotive.” He dared us to seek out understeer on our take a look at drive. We tried. On actual world roads it’s just about non-existent.
How did Mr Knauer’s group do it? All the steering system has been stiffened to enhance really feel. Entrance wheel camber has been elevated, and the subframe bushings have been adjusted on the rear axle to minimise the delay within the build-up of lateral power between the entrance and rear axles. The rear axle management arms have additionally been stiffened to enhance help from the rear axle.
However the actual distinction, Mr Knauer says, is within the damper tuning, and particularly of the electronically managed adaptive dampers.
Audi has turned itself inside out through the years to dial again the understeer in its MLB-based automobiles. If making MLB-based Audis faster into corners and faster by way of them was so simple as damper tuning, why wasn’t that finished earlier than? “That’s an excellent query,” Mr Knauer smiles.
We have been impressed with the response and grip from the front-end of the common A5 quattros, all of which have been fitted with the identical 20-inch wheels and 245/35 Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres because the S5, in addition to the decrease Sport suspension with digital damper management that’s commonplace on the S5.
The S5’s front-end is much more authoritative, and the usual sports activities rear differential, working with the torque vectoring by brake system, helps rotate the automotive noticeably faster on turn-in.
On prime of that, the additional oomph from the V6 and the MHEV plus hybrid system means you possibly can dial in some extra weight switch if you put the facility down when you clip the apex.
Within the Dynamic drive mode and with the seven-speed transmission set to handbook, the S5 is a fast and balanced sports activities sedan. The brake-by-wire system seamlessly blends regenerative braking from the e-motor with mechanical braking whereas providing good, constant pedal really feel.
What do you get?
Australian specs for the 2025 Audi S5 haven’t been confirmed simply but.
2025 Audi S5 highlights:
- MMI panoramic show with 11.9-inch configurable instrument cluster and 14.5-inch central touchscreen
- Satellite tv for pc navigation
- Electrically opening and shutting hatchback
- Wi-fi cellphone charger
- 19-inch alloy wheels
- LED headlights
- Audi Assistant with over 800 voice management features and Chat GPT
Non-compulsory extras embrace:
- 10.9-inch passenger show display
- 20-speaker, 810W Bang & Olufsen 3D audio system with head restraint audio system
- Panoramic glass roof with switchable transparency
- Electrical steering column adjustment with reminiscence operate
- 20-inch alloy wheels
- Matrix LED headlights
- OLED tail-lights with energetic digital gentle signature
- Dynamic interplay inside lighting
Is the Audi S5 secure?
The Audi S5 has not but been examined by Euro NCAP or ANCAP, however comes with all the standard energetic and passive security programs and is obtainable with subtle driver help programs.
Along with digital stability management, anti-lock brakes and a full array of airbags, commonplace security options embrace:
- Rear parking help with distance show
- Cruise management
- Lane departure warning
- Consideration and fatigue detection
In Europe, elective security options embrace:
- Emergency Help, which reacts to a scarcity of driver exercise by warning the driving force visually, acoustically, and haptically – if there’s no response, the automotive brakes and steers itself to a standstill
- Lively Entrance Help, which mixes 4 help features: Entrance Emergency Brake Help, Evasion Help, Flip Help, and Entrance Cross Visitors Help
- Parking Assistant Plus, which allows absolutely automated parking and reversing
- Visitors sign-based speed-limiter with pace adjustment
How a lot does the Audi S5 value to run?
In Australia, all new Audi fashions are lined by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre guarantee. When it comes to servicing, Audi supplied three- and five-year servicing packages, with service intervals set at 12 months or 15,000km.
Audi claims the S5 consumes between 8.0 litres per 100 kilometres and seven.4L/100km on the WLTP mixed cycle.
To see how the Audi S5 stacks up in opposition to its rivals, try our comparability instrument
CarExpert’s Tackle the Audi S5
Audi’s S fashions have lengthy tried to strike a steadiness between efficiency and worth, driving thrills and on a regular basis useability. Whereas some have mastered the transient higher than others, the brand new Audi S5 completely nails its mission.
Refined and understated, that is an Audi that’s fast and entertaining if you need it to be, but easy and cozy if you want it to be.
Keen on shopping for an Audi S5? Get in contact with one in all CarExpert’s trusted sellers right here
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