Audi A5 Sportback world premiere on 16 July?

A couple of weeks ago an Audi A5 Sportback was spotted at the University of California San Diego. The car was on site for a photoshoot which lasted a few hours. Unsurprising, then, that the car was noticed by a few astute students. In fact, quite a comprehensive eye witness account from one of the students can be read at Fourtitude. The fortunate chap was given a front row seat too, being invited to take a seat inside the new saloon.

This is a bit of an educated guess, but I have a feeling we might be seeing a world premiere of this car on 16 July—the date of Audi’s official 100th birthday celebrations.

Why do I think that? Firstly it’s clearly an important date for the manufacturer, so much so that German chancellor Angela Merkel will be in attendance. Further to that, if you take a look at the Audi 100 Years microsite the text under ‘The party > The birthday’ section reads, “The guests in Ingolstadt can expect a world premiere on July 16: In front of the eyes of almost 2,500 guests of honour, Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board at Audi AG, will be unveiling a new Audi model.”

Sure, it could be the R8 V10 Spyder that makes its debut, or even this R8 mystery test mule. However, the A5 Sportback has been around the traps internally for some time now and the timing makes sense. Especially after the release of a teaser image and video that were published in mid June, or, one month to the day from Audi’s birthday event.

On the other hand, is the A5 Sportback worthy of a premiere at such a prestigious event? I guess we’ll find out next week.