While everyone is talking about the electric future, Audi hasn’t abandoned its fabled five-cylinder petrol powertrain. Audi Sport boss revealed that the turbocharged 5-cylinder engine has the potential for more power without electrification, hinting at an upgraded version of the RS3 hyper hatch.
As reported by Autocar, during the celebratory event for the 40th anniversary of Audi Sport, Managing Director Sebastian Grams said: “We have a perfect five-cylinder engine which is very unique in the market. We have a six-cylinder engine, and we will improve these technologies into the next step. I do not see a need to completely change the engines”.
Audi Sport boss also talked about the high customer demand for the RS3: “Honestly, 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. There’s still a way to go. We have done the RS3 Performance edition, which is faster, has more performance, bucket seats, and another calibration. You can see that we will really sharpen our products in the future.”
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The turbocharged 2.5-liter TFSI five-cylinder engine is currently powering the Audi RS3 Sedan/Sportback, the RS Q3 SUV, and the soon-to-be discontinued TT RS. The engine produces up to 401 hp (299 hp / 407 PS) in the Audi RS3 Performance Edition.
Audi has pledged to introduce its last ICE-powered model in 2026 before reverting to EVs. This means that the swan song of the Audi RS3 should arrive before that, likely based on the soon-to-be facelifted third-gen A3. The A3 family is expected to be replaced by an all-new fully electric compact hatchback and sedan coming by 2027 which will ride on VW Group’s new SSP architecture. The EV will reportedly spawn high-powered variants by Audi Sport, similar to the current S3 and RS3 models meaning that performance is not going anywhere.
