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When the Audi RS6 Avant finally arrives in the United States for the 2021 model year, everyone is here Motor1.com enthusiastic. Americans finally got the chance to experience one of the fastest and most capable station wagons in the world, and we’re now even more excited to know the new generation RS6 Avant is on the cards. Of course, it won’t be coming soon, but it’s good to know that the high-speed train from Ingolstadt has a future.
The current generation RS6 Avant will retire towards the middle of the decade and its successor will arrive in late 2025 or early 2026. In an interview with wheel, former head of Audi Sport and current head of R&D at Audi, Stephan Reil, basically confirmed that the new performance car will be powered by a hybrid powertrain. Additional details are unknown, although the way the RS6 Avant will evolve is likely the biggest model transformation in history so far.
“Of course this [hybridization] is the way to go, in the next generation I can tell you it will have more hybridization,” Reil said of the publication. “This is our way to a fully electrified car.” To some extent, even today the RS6 Avant is electrified – a powerful 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine powered by a mild hybrid system – but its successor will rely on plug-in hybrid technology.
When the C9-generation Audi RS6 Avant arrives in 2026, it will be the company’s last high-speed train to feature a combustion engine. We don’t know if there will be a V8 under the hood, but Stephan Reil tells wheel the replacement will be purely electric. Executives look back at the evolution of the previous generation RS6 Avants when it comes to future models.
“It started about a generation after C6 that CO2 emissions became increasingly important. Then on the C7, we downsized from the V10 to the V8, we brought cylinder deactivation, and on the C8 we now have a 48-volt mild hybrid system.”
This year, Audi is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the RS6 Avant. Recently, our team had the opportunity to explore all generations of RS6 Avant and spend a wonderful day in the Canadian Rockies on a fast train. It’s really hard to say which generation is the best – we love them all, frankly – but Motor1.comSenior Editor Brett Evans seems to have a soft spot for the second-generation RS6 with a V10 engine. See more in the video below.
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