On September 19, Audi CEO Gernot Döllner revealed that due to technical challenges with the Volkswagen Group’s next-generation electric vehicle architecture—the Scalable Systems Platform (SSP)—the A4 e-tron will not enter production until at least March 2029. This represents a delay of approximately nine months compared to the mid-2028 target Döllner had set in October 2025. According to sources cited by Germany’s Handelsblatt, production could be further postponed to late April or early May. The company revised this timeline after Audi CTO Rüven Möller stated that the production date “did not require adjustment.” Döllner attributed the delay to development hurdles rather than a need to completely redesign the A4 e-tron itself. The new model will draw design inspiration from the Concept C and is planned for simultaneous launch as both a sedan and an Avant wagon, serving as one of the first vehicles built on Audi’s dedicated EV platform. Reports indicate that during SSP development, Volkswagen adjusted its technical roadmap by upgrading the onboard electrical system from 12V to 48V—a change that consumed several additional months without prior allocation in the original development schedule. The internal combustion engine version of the A4 was discontinued in 2024 and replaced by the all-new A5. Döllner previously pledged that the A4 would return as early as 2028 in the form of an all-electric SSP-based model. Volkswagen unveiled the SSP platform in July 2021, intending it to eventually replace both the MEB platform—used by models like the Q4 e-tron—and the 800V PPE architecture underpinning the A6 e-tron and Q6 e-tron. Under the latest timeline targeting spring 2029, SSP implementation will lag roughly three years behind Volkswagen’s initial 2026 target. The automaker has also reduced the originally planned eight SSP variants to four. Other SSP-dependent models have also been affected by the delays. The all-electric Golf and T-Roc may now be pushed back to 2030, while SSP-based models incorporating Rivian technology are scheduled for launch “in the late 2020s.”