Talking of the hybrid system, it could end up making quite a difference to cars like this. Low-speed running is where a powerful petrol engine gets very inefficient and doesn’t even give you back much in sound or character. If you can shut it down and run on electricity instead, that’s a win-win.
Indeed, in our limited testing, the S5 seemed capable of 40mpg when taking it easy. The regen is very gradual and the motor emits quite a characterful whine when operating.
The rest of the time, the hybrid stuff just fades into the background and you have a proper engine – one that doesn’t need plugging in to work properly. The tech’s promise of good throttle response mostly materialises, the engine picking up nicely. And it sounds good: not mind-blowing but tuneful enough, with more grit than Mercedes’ and BMW’s ultra-smooth straight sixes.
Naturally, there’s plenty of performance, and the ’box responds well to the paddles. It doesn’t really provide any meaningful improvements over the old auto, though: the shifts are a touch soft when you’re going for it, it upshifts automatically at the redline and it’s occasionally slightly clunky in town.
I also had a quick spin in the entry-level petrol and the four-wheel-drive diesel, but annoyingly the launch event was suboptimal. Alpine roads were great for testing the S5, less so for getting a feel for what the regular A5 will be like on the daily grind. All test cars were also fitted with adaptive dampers, an option that won’t be available in the UK. So for now we will have to be brief.
With 148bhp, the basic A5 gets out of its own way well enough, but it just doesn’t have much in reserve and sounds quite strained and thrashy when you inevitably have to push it. Upgrading to the 201bhp version therefore seems sensible.
Audi’s engineers told us that they hadn’t put the hybrid system on the 2.0-litre petrol to keep costs down on what is the entry-level offering, which checks out when you look at the price premium for the diesel.
The latter is the nicer engine, though, with plenty of accessible torque. For a diesel, it’s pretty refined and, thanks to the hybrid system, it will quite often shut down to sail or run on electricity, then come back in smoothly.