Farewell Audi A6 Sedan and A7 Sportback, hello A7 Sedan

The Audi A7 Sedan, expected to be a direct replacement for the A6 Sedan, has been spied testing in Germany ahead of a likely 2025 debut.

While the A7 Avant was spotted testing in the snow earlier this year, this is the first glimpse that we have had of the sleeker sedan shape.

From a design perspective, the sedan is just about a carbon copy of its wagon twin from the B-pillar forward.

That means it shares the same low, streamlined stance, conventional headlight setup, and wide grille.

The roofline slopes down, however, and there’s a traditional sedan rear.

The sedan is equipped with the same full-width lighting assembly as the wagon, along with a dual exhaust layout.

This is different from the approach Audi took with the replacement for today’s A4 sedan. Today’s A4 Sedan and A5 Sportback are expected to be merged into a single liftback (‘Sportback’) model bearing the A5 nameplate.

As part of a shift towards electrification, all electric Audi models will be denoted by even numbers – like the similarly sized A6 e-tron – while all combustion-powered models will have odd numbers.

The A7 is expected to continue to offer petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid powertrains.

It’s less clear what will feature under the bonnet of the eventual S6, S7, RS6 and RS7 replacements, which are currently powered by twin-turbo V6 and V8 engines.

Upon launch the A7 Sedan will compete with the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

This won’t be the first time Audi has offered a sedan with the A7 nameplate.

While both generations have been offered exclusively in Sportback guise here and in Europe, in China there’s a long-wheelbase version called the A7L with a traditional sedan shape.

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