Audi has jettisoned plans to give its electric and internal combustion-powered cars separate model names following customer feedback.

The previous plan to denote EVs with even-numbered designations and combustion engines with odd numbers “no longer applies”

The carmaker said its previous plan to give even-numbered designations to electric vehicles and denote combustion engines with odd numbers “no longer applies”.

The strategy was announced last year and was springboarded with the new A4 petrol and diesel saloon and estate, which were rebranded as the A5, replacing the previous A5 coupé and convertible models with the same name.

Audi said at the time that the new strategy would support its plans to have a battery electric vehicle in every core segment of its model portfolio by 2027. The brand is in the middle of its “most ambitious” new model initiative, renewing its entire model portfolio with a fleet of new battery electric as well as internal combustion vehicles.

But the approach seems to have drawn criticism from car buyers and dealers alike.

It means the current naming system, using ‘A’ designations for “low-floor” traditional models and ‘Q’ branding for “high-floor” SUV vehicles will remain in place. Petrols will continue to be marked out as TFSI models, diesels as TDIs, PHEVs as TFSI e and fully electric models as e-tron.

Audi said “no retroactive name changes are planned concerning models already on sale” – so the A5 will retain its new branding.

But the upcoming combustion-engined A6, which will be revealed globally on 4 March and was due to be rebranded as the A7, will keep its A6 name and just be marked out from the all-electric A6 Avant e-tron with TFSI and TDI badges.

Audi sales and marketing boss Marco Schubert said: “Our nomenclature now provides all customers worldwide with an intuitive orientation in our portfolio. We choose the names of our models in a way that reveals size and positioning at first glance.”