It appears that Audi Sport is planning on taking its RS models a step further with electrification. According to a report by Motoring, Audi’s product and technology head, Ekkehard Kleindienst said “RS models will be coming with a plug-in hybrid powertrain,” offering customers a “quiet new driving experience.” The move is consistent with the brand’s electrification strategy, he added.
Audi will also be expanding its regular, non-RS line-up of cars with more plug-in hybrid variants. Based on the report, all Audi PHEV models are set to get the quattro all-wheel drive system, and the electric motor is sandwiched between the engine and transmission. The battery will be mounted under the boot floor for most, if not all models.
Compact to mid-size models (non-RS) are tipped to get a four-cylinder plug-in hybrid powertrain, while larger cars like the A8, Q7 and Q8 will get an electrified V6 engine instead. Their RS counterparts, meanwhile, are likely to get an even more potent V8 PHEV system, which in the case of the RS Q8, is an upgrade over the current 4.0L mild-hybrid V8 unit.
Audi says its current PHEV and battery technology offers around 59 km of pure electric range on a full charge, but it is working on increasing battery density to hit the 80-km target. Company hybrid powertrain development manager, Ogus Eksi said: “We’ve got two key targets to pursue – we want to extend electric range and also retain current every-day usability.”
“Now, the electric range, and the extension thereof, is close to 80 km, depending on vehicle type. Which means in future models we will increase the energy density of our batteries, so the dimensions of our batteries remain the same.”
“With the higher electric range and capacity, of course we’re also considering to ramp up the charging capacity (currently 7.4 kWh) so that as a customer you need not take longer than 2.5 hours to charge the battery fully,” Eksi added. When plugged into a standard 230-volt (10 A) outlet, it takes 6.5 hours to fully charge the 14.1 kWh battery pack.
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This car is designed to meet specific German income tax regulations. In Germany, the users of a company car have to pay income tax for private use on 3/1000 of the cars list price per month.
For plug-in hybrids, they have to pay income tax on 1/1000 of the cars list price per month only.
The tax office won’t check if “plug-in” function is actually used, so it makes sense to offer sports or luxury cars with plug-in hybrid to keep the costs for the users low (most premium cars in Germany are registered as company cars, for example only 3% of all newly registered A8s in Germany are in private hands).