Welcome to the 2026 Audi RS5, Audi Sport’s first foray into the world of plug-in hybrids and also the most complex car the company’s RS division has ever made, according to chief technical officer Steffen Bamberger.

The 503hp 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 is joined by a 174hp electric motor, fed by a 25.9kWh battery for a total system output of 630hp and 799Nm of torque. It also gets RS-specific front and rear axles, a faster steering rack, sports suspension that sticks with steel springs but has clever twin-valve dampers, and bespoke tires with the option of 21-inch wheels and bigger rims on the rear. The body structure is 10% stiffer than the regular A5’s, though the same PPE platform obviously underpins it.

There’s also the option of carbon ceramic brakes —they measure 440mm up front and 410mm at the rear (only the Bentley Continental GT Speed and the Lamborghini Urus can match that), and weigh 30kg less than the standard steel discs. Maximum brake feel and minimal fade are key attributes here. There’s magic going on, for sure, and Audi Sport boss Rolf Michl is big on tactility and character, which bodes well.

PHOTO BY TopGear.com

The car looks as awesome in the metal as in photos. Head-on, it gives the rather undernourished-looking A5 the mother and father of all glow-ups. It’s even better from the rear—check out its shoulders and those planet-sized exhaust exits. They sit further inboard because of the exhaust’s L shape and muffler.

It’s up against old foes, the BMW M3 and the Mercedes-AMG C63, but in terms of presence and visual execution, we reckon the RS5 has the edge. The sedan, too, not just the Avant.

Much of the exterior is new, and it’s 40mm wider overall. The new aero elements are finished in gloss-black or an optional carbon design, and there’s an RS matrix light signature. The rear lights also feature a ‘checkered flag’ pattern. Thankfully, the design team stopped short of tuner-style self-parody.

PHOTO BY TopGear.com

Audi will never deviate from its signature quattro all-wheel drive recipe, but the new RS5 introduces what you might term a side(ways) hustle: It combines a Torsen center differential with what it calls Dynamic Torque Vectoring on the rear axle—a world first, says the company. The center diff might be a throwback to quattros past, but it’s state-of-the-art here, with a preload function so that it’s always partially locked. The result is a torque split that varies between 70/30 and 15/85 front to rear—an unusually extrovert figure for an Audi with quattro functionality, and a pointer to the RS5’s more...shall we say, indulgent personality.

How does that work? This is where the electrified rear transaxle comes in. A water-cooled permanent-magnet e-motor operates as a high-voltage actuator to provide electromechanical torque vectoring to each of the rear wheels. It takes just 15 milliseconds, can cope with hefty torque loads (up to a theoretical 1,966Nm), and does its thing on and off throttle and under braking.

OTHER STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:
Opinion: Honda Cars PH has missed the mark with the Prelude’s pricing
Confirmed: The Toyota Urban Cruiser will make its PH debut in March

Has Audi created a high-tech sledgehammer to crack a traction-related nut? Perhaps. But there’s a genuine bandwidth here, and the promise of agility and interactivity to go with Audi’s trademark insane grip levels. And remember, the RS5 can also travel roughly 80km in pure electric mode, which is double the distance most people do in a day.

PHOTO BY TopGear.com

The engine has been carried over from the previous RS4, but the engineers reckon about 60% of it has been improved (power output from the engine is up 59hp on the old RS4). The turbo’s geometry has been revised, there are new water-to-air intercoolers to reduce intake temperatures, and it runs on a Miller combustion cycle for enhanced efficiency. There’s also a revised fuel-injection system.

The new RS5 will do 0-100kph in 3.6sec and 285kph all-out (with the Sport pack fitted). Audi claims 31.4km/L combined, but even with the battery discharged, the RS5 should be good for 12.3km/L. And while it might be packing 630hp overall, its plug-in hybrid status obviously reduces its CO2 emissions and makes it much less punitive in terms of taxation.

As for the electric bit, it’s clever. The battery lives under the cargo floor, and improved chemistry means that its power output remains impressive even if its state of charge is low. Thermal management has been improved, so it’s less temperature sensitive. The battery doesn’t just power the primary e-motor, it also supplies up to 8kW to the motor in the torque vectoring unit.

Here’s where it gets more complicated: The RS5 would feel half-baked if the battery’s state-of-charge was sub-optimal, so in RS Sport and RS torque rear (aka drift) modes, the SOC is held at 90%. Pumps, fans, and heat exchangers keep things at around 20°C, the temperature at which the battery does its best work.

PHOTO BY TopGear.com

In Hybrid mode, the battery is always being topped up, although you can select a preferred SOC using a digital slider. There’s also a Boost mode, triggered by a button on the steering wheel, that summons up everything the car’s got for 10sec. You get a countdown on the instrument display.

But let’s discuss the elephant in the room: The RS5 is unavoidably chunky. It has eaten some pies, and then gone back for seconds. In Avant form, it weighs 2,370kg, a daft figure for something in this segment, but that’s what you get when you add a second powerplant. That’s half a ton more than an M3 Touring.

Of course, the RS team is adamant that the changes to the suspension and the DTV combine to serve up a car that feels much lighter and more agile. Like a car that doesn’t have a chunky hybrid apparatus, in other words. Being a PHEV, there are obvious benefits in terms of emissions and energy consumption. The RS5 wants to have its Black Forest gateau and eat it. To hell with the diet.

2026 Audi RS5 on the road

PHOTO BY TopGear.com

Michl says that the aim was to deliver a car with real bandwidth. It’s a complicated machine, the RS5, but he insists that it should be easy for the driver to get on top of. More than ever, then, this is a car for all seasons, a hooligan that keeps a pair of slippers in the cupboard.

But it definitely still takes some getting used to. The ingredients are certainly spicy, and long gone are the days when you could plonk a big-capacity engine into an existing chassis and sprinkle a bit of elastokinematic fairy dust over it. Harmonizing all the disparate elements is a major challenge.

But the RS5 instantly feels gym-honed and hard as nails. We’re straight in at the deep end, driving sedan and Avant versions in a final sign-off drive with the Audi Sport guys in Morocco. Our first taste of the car is at the semi-permanent street circuit Moulay El Hassan near Marrakech, a venue used most notably by Formula E. It’s tight and unforgiving, and not the sort of place you’d bring a whale of a car that had issues with body control or understeer.

PHOTO BY TopGear.com

RS vehicle dynamics wizard Roland Waschkau slaloms the RS5 through cones before drifting it back around in a cloud of tortured hydrocarbons. In the hands of an average driver, getting slidey still takes technique. The trick is to maintain momentum as the yaw increases, then give it the full send at the end.

And it works: In RS ‘torque rear’ mode, it does a very accurate impression of a WRC car, maybe even the Audi S1 Hoonitron driven by the late Ken Block....

Topgear.com.ph

Message History

Delivery option(s)