Audi Sport plots electric performance car blitz

S and RS line-ups to transition to battery power only by 2026, spearheaded by RS6 E-tron

- FELIX PAGE

As Audi gears up to launch its final internalcombustion car in just five years’ time, the race is on to transition its Audi Sport division into an electric-only performance brand.

Audi Sport’s portfolio of petrol and diesel cars is larger than ever before, comprising uprated S and RS-badged versions of every model in Audi’s ICE line-up except for the A1 Sportback supermini. The hot E-tron GT, however, remains its only electric RS offering. The hot versions of the E-tron and E-tron Sportback SUVs wear just an S badge and the division has yet to show more potent derivatives of the new Q4 E-tron and Q4 E-tron Sportback.

That trend is set to reverse rapidly in line with Audi’s wider plans to offer more than 20 electric models worldwide by 2025 and for electrified cars to account for 40% of its sales.

The RS E-tron GT offers a glimpse at Audi Sport’s electric future and indicates how its offerings will be differentiated from their regular counterparts.

Crucial to the transformation plan will be maintaining the variety and completeness of Audi’s line-up (which today comprises 17 model lines) to avoid losing customers along the way, so a near-direct replacement for every current model is on the cards.

For example, the recently revealed A6 E-tron concept heavily previews the electric successor to today’s A6, and it will no doubt follow its predecessor in being offered with a performance rangetopper tuned by Audi Sport.

Although the A6 E-tron isn’t intended as an immediate replacement for the A6, it will occupy the equivalent segment in the EV market, and Audi bosses have all but confirmed that an estate version is on the way, too.