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The Audi RS5 coupe, discontinued in 2024, was a supercoupe that looked good and didn’t pretend to be more than it was—an executive car with more grunt than expected.
Now, Audi is hinting that a new RS5 might be in the making, but in plug-in hybrid form and in the greatest segment of them all, as a station wagon.
The new RS5 will be Audi’s “first performance plug-in hybrid,” according to a deleted LinkedIn post seen by CarScoops. Audi later confirmed the news in the form of a teaser image, which shows an RS5 Avant; the automaker said that the full reveal could be as soon as days away.
A plug-in hybrid RS5 would compete with the likes of BMW’s M5 and Mercedes’s AMG C63, both plug-in hybrid performance cars that have also gained weight with the addition of the electric power. For purists, that will be the biggest downside to the RS5 going PHEV, and a challenge for Audi engineers, who will need to build a car with the driving dynamics of a sports car in a package that will likely weigh over two tons.
The third-generation RS5 was powered by a 2.9-liter V-6 engine that made 444 horsepower, going from zero-to-60 in 3.5 seconds, and a PHEV version would likely make significantly more power, perhaps approaching or even surpassing the AMG C63’s 671 horsepower. The zero-to-60 numbers should get a boost.
Previous versions of the RS5 had a V-8 that was naturally aspirated, made 450 horsepower, and revved to 8,300 RPM, sounding like music. The twin-turbo V-6 in the most recent RS5 didn’t sound like much of anything in comparison, but it is still fondly remembered as a supercoupe that was one of the last of a certain kind of car. The PHEV version will bear the name, and likely line up well compared to its peers at BMW and Mercedes, but “performance plug-in hybrid” doesn’t have the same resonance, especially since it’s not trying to be track-focused. The Audi RS5’s reputation for being stealthily powerful, though, should remain intact.
Erik Shilling is digital auto editor at Robb Report. Before joining the magazine, he was an editor at Jalopnik, Atlas Obscura, and the New York Post, and a staff writer at several newspapers before…
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