Note: This article was first published on 23 February 2026.
The land of Audi RS has been eerily quiet of late, leading us to wonder just what is going on at Ingolstadt. Happily, they clearly have been hard at work because the new Audi RS5 looks like it could be one of the performance cars of the year – and it’s only February.
The new RS5 is available as an estate and as a saloon, and the first thing you’ll notice about it is its flared fenders. Audi says to accommodate the wider tracks, the RS5 is 9cm wider than a standard A5. Along with the lower ride height, this gives the car a muscular, purposeful stance. I also think it looks the absolute business in red.
The big news is obviously the powertrain. This is Audi RS’s first-ever hybrid car, and it’s a plug-in hybrid, which means you can charge it at charging stations. Underneath the hood, the familiar 2.9-litre bi-turbo V6 now puts out 503hp, which is roughly the same as BMW’s M3 Touring. This is paired with a 130kW electric motor, bringing the RS5’s total output to a whopping 630hp and 825nm of torque.
The electric motor draws power from a 25.9kWh battery that’s positioned under the boot floor. The sizeable battery gives it a decent electric-only range. Audi claims the new RS5 can travel up to 84km on electricity alone, which means it’s entirely possible for most owners to complete their daily commutes without ever firing up the V6 motor.
There are positives and negatives to this arrangement. The upside is that the RS5 is blisteringly fast. 0 to 100km/h now takes just 3.6 seconds, and the top speed is 285km/h. The downside is weight and space. This new car weighs over 2,300kg, which is over 600kg more than the model it replaces. That’s a lot.
And because the battery is mounted under the boot floor, the new car has just 361 litres of boot space. That’s 27% less than the last RS4 Avant, which had a carrying capacity of 495 litres. Fast Audi wagons have always prided themselves on practicality, so this will probably hurt the new RS5’s appeal.
