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Spyshots: 2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine

Audi has completely redesigned its big car family in the past year, so it's now time to facelift the A4 range. Our German spies captured the first of what's likely to be many images.
2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine 10 photos
Photo: CarPix
2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine2020 Audi A4 Starts Testing Its Facelift, Getting New TDI Engine
Sadly, the A4 won't copy the headlight design of the A6. It's stuck with those controversial units, which look like geometric apostrophes. Naturally, the graphics could receive some changes. But this early prototype doesn't reveal too many secrets.

The front bumper is, however, getting redesigned. We can see the grille, spoiler and the elements right below the headlights have evolved. While those look like a couple of speakers, they are actually the scanners for the ACC adaptive cruise control and active safety systems.

We're not entirely sure what's going on around the back. But the diffuser element with integrated exhaust tips (might or might not be fake) probably belongs to the A4 allroad quatto. The height of the suspension also supports this, but the rest of the body kit is wrong.

New engines? Well, we should see the mild hybrid technology from the bigger A6, A7 and A8 migrating to this executive compact. The technology saves up to 5% more fuel through a coasting function. That's on top of the ultra de-coupling AWD technology and whatever else Audi has planned.

The new EA288 Evo TDI engine has already been confirmed for the A4. This 2-liter offers between 136 and 204 horsepower. By using a 48V mild-hybrid setup, this lowers CO2 emissions by up to 10 g/km compared with the predecessor generation. Meanwhile, the power and torque numbers are increased by up to 9%. For example, the best A4 2.0 TDI currently makes 190 HP.

As diesel refuses to die in Europe, the A4 facelift is likely to receive the 286 HP version of the 3.0 TDI. We expect all these changes to also affect the A5 range about a year after the sedan and wagon.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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