This is Your First Glimpse of the Audi RS5 Avant

From RS4 to RS5

Audi‘s whole odd-even naming convention has drawn some ire over the years to a point that the company (finally) admitted it was a bit of a misstep. The A4 is now the A5, and the A5 Coupe and Convertible we all know and love is no more. That also meant the performance derivatives follow the same naming, so S4 is now S5, and soon, RS4 will be RS5.

Clear as mud? Good. That aside, an RS Audi model is always something worth looking forward to, and it a new RS5 was always going to be an inevitability. The only question now is when it’ll arrive.

Blink or You’ll Miss It

The answer to that question is very soon. In fact, Audi ‘accidentally’ published some details about the car on LinkedIn already. The post has since been taken down, but as they say, the internet never forgets. But more recently, Audi has finally given us a first glimpse of the car, but only to a few who saw a certain Instagram post.

That’s right, Audi teased the RS5 Avant via Instagram Stories instead of reels. The story has since expired, but not before a few folks were able to get a screencap. It’s a blink or you’ll miss it moment, and a pretty interesting way of giving a car a sneak peek and rake in more followers to its social network channels.

What’s Been Confirmed

Given the body style offerings of the current A5, don’t bank on a coupe or convertible version. The Avant is pretty much confirmed at this point, and the sedan/Sportback version has been spied a couple of times already. No surprises there.

However, the one of the details mentioned in the since-deleted LinkedIn post was regarding its powertrain. The post said “The new Audi RS 5 is also nearing its debut and will be our first performance plug-in hybrid,” and it’s expected to use an electrified version of the 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 used in the outgoing RS4. We still miss the V8 from the original RS4 and RS5, but there’s no chance of that coming back in this day and age. At least it’s not likely to use a four-cylinder PHEV setup, right?

What we want to know is what kind of Quattro system the future RS5 will use. Fingers crossed it will be the traditional Torsen arrangement instead of the Haldex-like ‘Quattro with Ultra Technology’ system that standard A5s use these days.

A New Dawn of Compact Luxury Performance Sedans

About 20 years ago, the Audi RS4, BMW M3, and Mercedes-Benz C63 packed V8s under the hood. Today, with ever tightening emissions control in big markets, the V8 has been swapped for less cylinders and more electrification. Mercedes-AMG tried it first, and let’s just say that the customers responded by going elsewhere.

Now, it’s Audi and BMW’s turn to find out if plug-in hybrid performance compact luxury sedans will (or will not) resonate with buyers. It’ll be a tough balancing act, for sure, but at least we can largely confirm that those cars will pack turbo-sixes instead of boosted-fours. In Audi’s case, it would be nice to get the RS5 Avant stateside, too.