There won't be a 4-liter V8 engine with twin turbos in the next Audi RS6, which actually won't have that name at all.
The next Audi RS6 will have to do without the familiar V8 engine. The change is primarily due to Audi's new naming strategy, where even numbers are reserved for electric cars and odd numbers are models with a combustion engine.
The new Audi A6, S6 and the upcoming RS6 are all electric cars. However, the Germans are also using this as an excuse to drop the 4-liter V8 engine from the model range.
The successor to the current A6 with combustion engine is therefore called the A7. The top model in the A7 series will be the RS7. But it will be without a V8 engine and twin turbos.
The upcoming Audi RS7, on the other hand, will be a plug-in hybrid, like the new BMW M5. But unlike the muscle car from Munich, which has eight cylinders between the front wheels, the Audi RS7 will, according to Car Magazine, be equipped with a mere 2.9-liter V6 engine.
And it's not just a guess taken out of thin air. There's video evidence to back it up. The upcoming Audi RS6, which is actually an RS7, has been spotted several times, although Audi is still trying to camouflage it.
There can be little doubt about the sound from the exhaust, however. It is an electrified six-cylinder affair. The sound is further dampened by the statutory particulate filters, which have also been mandatory on petrol cars in the past few years.
For fans of Audi's V8 engine, this is of course disappointing news. But it is still more cylinders than Mercedes thinks is enough for the current C 63 AMG.
The car, regardless of which version you choose, only has four cylinders. And the people from Stuttgart have lost customers because of that. The AMG boss himself admitted this in a new interview. Read more about it here .
Car enthusiasts can take comfort in the fact that PHEV technology has the potential to deliver a sporty driving experience. BMW says that the plug-in hybrid was not their first choice, but rather the only way to keep the V8 engine alive under increasingly stringent emissions regulations.
Whether this gives reason for optimism on behalf of the combustion engine is immediately a more open question. The new Mercedes C 63 AMG has in any case been criticized for being both too heavy and a very boring ride. Also when it comes to the sound. However, the AMG boss does not believe that any of his customers buy an AMG for the sound.
