New Audi A6 wagon canned for Oz

Audi revealed its all-new fifth-generation Audi A6 Avant – or wagon, to Australians – last month, showing off a sleek new Euro design.

But the elegant load-lugger has Buckley's chance of coming to Australia.

As Aussie buyers look to SUVs instead of traditional wagons to provide the extra space required for family duties and leisure activities, the new Audi A6 will be offered exclusively as a sedan when it launches here early in 2019.

There will be exceptions, however, including the all-new version the vengeful Audi RS 6 and, probably, the next A6 Allroad crossover too.

Audi Australia says a lack of customer interest put the kybosh on the vanilla-flavoured Audi A6 wagon here.

"In terms of A6 Avant in Australia we're considering it but it's not highly likely," said Shaun Cleary, Corporate Communications Manager at Audi Australia.

He noted that a new A6 Allroad could fill the A6 wagon’s shoes here, in the same way the Mercedes-Benz All-Terrain has replaced the E-Class Estate in Australia.

"We do want to reduce complexity as well and with the A6 Avant in that segment, I think customers clearly saw an RS 6 Avant as more popular -- that's where they see an Audi wagon.

"Both RS 6 and RS 4 Avant have been hugely successful for us," he added.

Cleary wouldn't be drawn on when the new-generation Audi RS 6 will debut, nor whether it will continue to offer a V8 powertrain, but one thing's for sure, it will be a tyre-shredding technological tour-de-force.

"That I cannot talk about," said Cleary when we asked him about a hike in output from the current twin-turbo V8's gob-smacking 445kW/750Nm outputs, which is already enough to see the mega-wagon blast to 100km/h in just 3.7secs.

The new BMW M5 is now quicker, however, taking 3.4sec to reach the same speed.

The new Audi RS 6 will have to find more power reserves somewhere but Cleary refused to comment on rumours of an electrified powertrain for the next RS 6, despite all Audi A6 vehicles now being fitted with mild-hybrid systems.

Nevertheless, he conceded the $250,000 RS 6 Avant's arrival in Australia was a case of when, not if.

"Over the past few model generations the Audi S6 and RS 6 have been very successful in their own right, and particularly in Australia,” he said.

“We're a performance market and our customers have a huge appetite for everything RS and S, so it would be logical that we'd continue that strategy in future generations."

The arrival of the $170,000 Audi S6 sedan is expected before the RS 6, as per tradition, but Audi Australia appears to have rung the death bell for the 250kW/500Nm 3.0-litre turbo V6-powered A6 55 TFSI sedan variant.

Cleary said the only petrol-powered Audi A6 confirmed for Australia was a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol unit.

"[But] If there's was a more powerful [V6] petrol engine to join the line-up then that's something we'd very seriously look at," he said, alluding to the S6, which is likely to be powered by a detuned version of the RS 6's biturbo V8.

And if you were hoping Audi would deliver a sedan version of the new Audi RS 6 to match rivals such as the BMW M5 and Mercedes-AMG E 63, you may be disappointed.

"We get the same question about the RS 4 sedan and obviously we've had both those models in the past. However, when we have, we didn't have the RS 5 Coupe, RS 5 Sportback and RS 7 Sportback as well.

"We feel in our model range that's the best way to cover that market because obviously those models are design focussed and have a greater appeal to that kind of customer. At this stage there's no plans for an RS 4 sedan or RS 6 sedan."