Audi readies A5 Sportback for U.S.

SAN DIEGO -- Audi is readying plans to sell the four-door A5 Sportback in the U.S. next year, giving the luxury brand a smaller counterpart to its rakish A7.

Without mentioning the Sportback by name, Audi of America President Scott Keogh said the company will add a new A5 body style in the second quarter of next year for the nameplate’s redesign.

The four-door Sportback variant of the A5 is the only variant that hasn’t been sold in the U.S., where it’s available as a coupe or convertible.

“I feel confident that there will be another variant of the A5 that will be a real home run,” Keogh told Automotive News on the sidelines of an A4 media event here. “There’s one we don’t have.”

Keogh didn’t provide powertrain details for the redesigned A5 lineup, but expect volume models of the car to use the reworked, 252-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder powering the redesigned A4 that arrives this spring.

Launching the A5 Sportback will give Audi a smaller counterpart to the A7, the A6-based four-door sedan with coupelike styling that has generated U.S. sales of more than 7,800 a year, on average, since it was introduced in 2011.

It will also give Audi a head-to-head competitor to the BMW 3-series Gran Turismo.