Audi RS6 e-tron project scrapped

The News

Audi has reportedly cancelled plans for an electric RS6, with company insiders citing an acute lack of interest from the super-wagon’s existing fanbase.

The Key Details

The Finer Details

According to Top Gear, the ‘RS6 faithful’ aren’t interested in a battery-electric version of Audi’s fabled performance wagon, with the same true of what previously would’ve been known as the RS7.

Instead, it seems the RS6 will retain an internal combustion heart, quite possibly the same twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre plug-in hybrid unit employed by Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini in their respective super SUVs.

Such a move would see the next-gen RS6 pump out more than 570kW/950Nm depending on the tune – more than enough to see off the latest 535kW/1000Nm BMW M5 – and leave the battery-electric A6 line-up crested by the 405kW/580Nm S6 e-tron.

The current RS6, for reference, burbles out 463kW/850Nm from a twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8, free of any hybridisation.

The Road Ahead

There’s no timeline yet as to when we’ll see a new-generation RS6 but given the standard and S-spec variants are already available in Europe, it should only be a matter of time.

We expect the mad wagon (and its sedan sibling) to debut sometime next year and land Down Under in 2027 as the main course to the smaller and six-cylinder RS5.

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