2025 will be the year when Audi is going to launch its final new model powered by a combustion engine. The next A4 will be arriving before that, effectively meaning the B10-generation model will serve as the swan song for TFSIs and TDIs. Given the typical life cycle of around seven years, it means you still have until around 2030 to get the midsize luxury car with cylinders and pistons.
The revamped A4 is expected to debut towards the end of the year or early 2023, and in the meantime, it's been spotted testing in snowy northern Europe. We are pleasantly surprised to see the car has a smaller singleframe grille attached to what looks like the full production body.
Gallery: 2023 Audi A4 Avant winter spy photos
The disguise could be playing tricks on us but the front fascia appears to have a cleaner design. For example, the vertical air curtains in the front bumper are quite thin and the fog lights have likely been integrated into the main clusters. Speaking of which, the sleek headlights are the production ones and already show different LED graphics than the current A4's.
Those basic taillights are certainly not the final ones. A small, rectangular cutout in the tailgate's camouflage reveals where the reverse lights are positioned and also gives away the true width of the rear lights. There seem to be horizontal lines between the taillights, suggesting the new A4 will have an LED light bar or at least a wide trim piece.
The dual exhaust setup hints at a potent powertrain for what appears to be a larger vehicle. Images of the inside are not available in this batch, but we can already notice there's (thankfully!) no infotainment sticking out from the dashboard anymore. Judging by the license plate, it's the same test vehicle caught in early December 2021, but now with winter shoes to tackle the snowy climate.
We are a bit puzzled as to why the sedan hasn't been spotted yet, but surely Audi will unveil the A4 in saloon guise first. There's also the possibility the Four Rings plan to show the more practical Avant from day one to mirror Mercedes and its latest C-Class, but that remains to be seen.
Head of technical development Oliver Hoffman has announced the next A4 will get Audi's best combustion engines to date, complete with "more electrification, for sure, to meet the regs." Back in September 2019, the peeps from Ingolstadt revealed the next RS4 Avant will be a plug-in hybrid.
