Future of famed Audi Sport five-pot hangs in balance

Audi Sport technical boss Steffen Bamberger has described the costs involved with adapting the German performance brand’s iconic turbocharged five-cylinder engine to comply with upcoming Euro 7 emissions regulations as ‘horrible’ and says a decision on its future will be made late next year.

According to Bamberger, Audi Sport’s trademark 2.5-litre turbo-petrol engine requires extensive modifications to meet the strict new emission law set to be introduced in Europe from late 2026 or early 2027.

These include the addition of water injection, an electrically heated catalyst, an exhaust with up to five times the volume of the current unit and a 48-volt electrical system to power all the new auxiliary emission components.

“The costs involved are truly horrible to comply,” Bamberger told carsales, before adding that there is plenty of support within Audi Sport to throw its in-house combustion engine a lifeline to ensure it lives on.

“In my opinion, it’s one the best engines I’ve ever worked on in 20 years of engineering,” he said.

Audi’s first five-cylinder petrol engine was introduced 45 years ago in the second-generation Audi 100 of 1976 and was also produced in diesel form.

In its current form, the 2.5-litre turbo-five powers the Audi TT RS and RS Q3, and the most powerful version of the breed will debut in the new Audi RS 3, which produces 294kW/500Nm and arrives Down Under in early 2022.

Audi has already announced it will introduce its final new combustion-powered vehicle in 2026, before it ceases production of all petrol and diesel vehicles in 2032.

To share the high price of electrification and reducing exhaust emissions, Bamberger said development costs could be shared within the Volkswagen Group, which could see the five-cylinder turbo engine star under the bonnet of models from SEAT’s Cupra performance brand or perhaps even a Volkswagen model.

Audi Sport’s development chief said he will closely monitor the ever-changing political attitude towards internal combustion engines and that the decision on whether to invest in hybridising the five-cylinder engine could be sealed if cities like Berlin go ahead with their proposed bans on petrol- and diesel-powered cars.

Given the costs involved, there’s little appetite within Audi’s performance sub-brand to upgrade the turbo-five engine for just three years of production (2027-2030) before the potential collapse of ICE-powered car sales in Europe due to upcoming bans.

Despite the prospect of losing his beloved 2.5-litre turbo engine, Bamberger said he’s excited about the transition to EVs. In fact, he is such a fan of battery-powered cars that his daily driver is now an Audi RS e-tron GT.

“Now imagine a small car like this [RS 3] with the power of an e-tron RS. Wow, that would be something,” he enthused.