Audi Australia preparing for its busiest 24 months ever

Audi Australia is gearing up for the busiest two years in its history as it looks to boost its electric car market share and enter the growing plug-in hybrid vehicle segment.

And the facelifted Audi RS 3 hot hatch that’s about to be revealed will be an important newcomer as the German brand’s local division looks to protect and even grow its share of high-performance model sales ahead of tougher CO2 emissions standards due to kick in next year.

Speaking at the launch of the expanded Audi Q8 e-tron range – which now includes a cheaper Q8 e-tron 50 and triple-motor SQ8 range-topper – Audi Australia managing director Jeff Mannering said the company was heading into unprecedented territory in terms of new model arrivals.

“It’s the busiest [period] in the history of Audi in the next 24 months of brand-new cars,” said Mannering, adding that “it’s not just facelifts, it’s nearly all new cars”.

“Somewhere around 20 different models are coming as brand-new cars in the next 24 months.”

Headlining the new arrivals is an upgraded Audi RS 3, the most affordable of the luxury brand’s go-fast RS model variants.

Mannering confirmed the updated hot hatch would be revealed soon – ahead of its likely Australian arrival in early 2025 – just as the government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) comes into play.

He said the facelifted RS 3 was “not too far away… there will be a new RS 3”.

“Worldwide we’re number four or number three in the world for volume,” Mannering said of Audi Australia’s RS model sales, adding that with the RS 3 “we could sell more if we had more”.

With CO2 penalties due to kick in mid-way through 2025, Mannering said the race was on to balance the Audi portfolio to allow models such as the RS 3 to be sold without topping up the government coffers.

“If the car came in January – I’m not saying it is – you’ve got six months to be able to be compliant with the NVES,” he said, stipulating that Audi Australia was planning compliance with the new regulations to avoid paying CO2 fines.

“It’s a really fine balancing act and we don’t have a lot of time,” he said.

Mannering said the NVES balancing act would come down to bolstering the Audi portfolio with more battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

“That’s where I have to consider how many BEVs or plug-in hybrids do I have to sell to be able to sell 1000 [RS 3s].”

And Audi has a lot of ground to make up in the EV space.

Just 2.8 per cent of the 19,039 cars Audi sold in Australia last year were powered purely by electricity.

In comparison, Volvo’s 2023 EV share was 35.5 per cent, BMW’s 11.4 per cent and Mercedes-Benz’s 13.1 per cent.

New EVs coming soon for Audi will include the recently-unveiled Q6 e-tron, which shares its underpinnings with the upcoming Porsche Macan EV.

Mannering believes the Q6 will play an important role, even if it will miss out on the fringe benefits tax (FBT) incentives that are capped at the luxury car tax threshold, which is currently $89,332.

“[It] sits in a segment that I reckon there’s a bit of a gap for us,” he said.

“Then other cars that will come that sit in different segments that will be full BEVs as well.”

One of those will likely be the new A6, which will bolster Audi’s EV line-up.

“In the next 18 months there will be another passenger car… that’s maybe full electric rather than plug-in hybrid,” said Mannering.

But PHEVs will also play a key role for Audi, with the brand’s local chief hoping to make them among the more affordable powertrain variants in an effort to encourage uptake.

“I think it has a place to play, especially with the new regulations,” he says of the PHEV drivetrains that Audi has previously struggled to make work.

The difference now is that Audi Australia has some leverage with head office to sharpen the pencil on new plug-in hybrids and use them to offset more CO2-intensive models.

Mannering describes PHEVs as a “good option… the offset on your heavy CO2 is important”.

He nominated the next Q3 PHEV as one option that could be among the more affordable drivetrains offered in the small luxury SUV.

Mannering also said the Q5 mid-size SUV – typically a big volume player for Audi – could also make sense for an expansion of the company’s PHEV offering.

“We have the higher-output TFSI motor as the ICE engine,” he said of the existing Q5 PHEV.

“There is another one available,” he added. “But you have to say how much less would it be and what’s the potential volume?”

Mannering said many future RS models would go down the PHEV route, teaming internal combustion engines with electric propulsion, which not only brings a power boost but also allows for electric-only running, which keeps the increasingly-important claimed average consumption numbers down.

Either way, the door is open for the entire PHEV product suite flowing from Germany, even if not all models will end up making it Down Under.

“We’re evaluating everything – everything that’s possibly available we have to look at,” said Mannering.

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