Audi hints at a final power-crazed farewell for current RS3

Audi Sport’s reaffirmation for the continuation of its multi-award winning 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine has ignited speculation of a final power switch-up before it goes plug-hybrid and then fully electric by 2030.

Original promise

Back in 2019, Ingolstadt’s then Sport division, Oliver Hoffman, said the Four Rings would do whatever it takes to keep the powerunit that powers the RS3 and the outgoing TT RS alive in spite of the difficulty presented by the Euro 7 emissions regulations Europe will adopt in 2025.

“For EU7, we have concepts for all our engines, but it’s just a matter of how much money I have to spend to reach the targets. For the five-cylinder we have a very, very, good concept to reach those standards,” Hoffman said.

More to come

On the back of design boss, Marc Lichte, telling Britain’s Top Gear in February this year that the brand’s final non-electrified RS models would be “mind blowing”, current Audi Sport head, Sebastian Grams, said the five-cylinder can be improved without any electrification intervention.

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At present, the unit, which carries the internal name EA855evo, comes in three states of tune; 294kW/480Nm in the TT RS, 294kW/500Nm in the RS3 and 299kW/500Nm in the RS3 Performance revealed last year.

“We are really happy that the customers are jumping on that car like hell and we are not, let’s say, finished with the car… We have the five-cylinder and we will definitely increase the five-cylinder for the next step. We will improve that,” Grams told Britain’s Autocar when asked about the likelihood of there being an enhanced version of the RS3 above the RS3 Performance.

“There’s still a way to go. We have done the RS3 Performance edition, which is faster, which has more performance, which has bucket seats and another calibration. You can see that we will really sharpen our products in the future.”

End of the end

The apparent confirmation of the five-cylinder’s retention until at least 2026 when Audi ends combustion engine propulsion, will result in it becoming the division’s smallest engine in lieu of four-cylinder powerunits not forming part of its future product strategy.

“We anticipate that all production of internal combustion engines cars will stop in 2033. With the logistic chains and typical stock levels around the country, we could see the last Audi with ICE engine being sold in 2034, Audi South Africa boss, Sascha Sauer, told The Citizen two years ago.

The brand’s electrification process, which has already started with the inclusion of 48-volt mild-hybrid systems, will go up a gear next year when the next generation RS4 Avant becomes a plug-in hybrid and the RS6 Avant an EV called the RS6 e-tron.

As it stands, little else is known as to much power will be eventually be extracted from the five-cylinder engine, although expectations are that Audi will provide hints either as teasers or official information before the end of 2023.

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