- Audi has been spotted testing an RS version of its Q5 SUV.
- Pictures show a wider track, drilled discs and oval tailpipes.
- It should get the new RS5’s 630 hp plug-in hybrid drivetrain.
For a brand that loves to fill niches, Audi has for years left one glaring hole in its lineup. It’s given us RS versions of the Q3 and Q8, but never the Q5, which has always topped out at the SQ5. But now it looks like an RSQ5 might finally be happening.
Spy photographers have snapped a mean-looking Q5 prototype testing in Germany, and while the R&D team wasn’t so daft as to stick on any RS lettering on, there are some big clues as to its identity.
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Because while the front and back bumpers with their exaggerated air intakes and small rear diffuser look the same as the ones on the SQ5, this particular SUV has a much wider track. Wide enough to need stick-on arch extensions, although they’ll be replaced by Audi’s trademark wide RS fenders come production time.
Other hints that we’re looking at more than an SQ5 are the drilled brake discs and the two hunks of metal tucked under the nasty fake mesh grille below the rear license plate. The SQ5 has two pairs of tailpipes but recent RS Audis have featured a pair of oval pipes, and that’s what we see here. They’re minus the absurdly oversize chrome finishing trim seen on the new RS5 sedan and wagon, though again, that’ll change in time for the debut.
630 HP Of Hybrid Power
The exhaust trims aren’t all the RSQ5 will share with the RS5. We’re expecting to see the sedan’s entire 2.9-liter, twin-turbo hybrid V6 drivetrain make the jump, which would give the hottest ever Q5 630 hp (639 PS) and 608 lb-ft (825 Nm) to play with. That’s a big jump from the 362 hp (367) and 406 lb-ft (550 Nm) of the 3.0-liter, mild-hybrid Q5, and should get the RSQ5 to 62 mph (100 kmh) in around 3.7 seconds, going by the RS5’s 3.6-second figure.
Unlike the mild-hybrid S5 and SQ5, the RS5 is a plug-in hybrid, whose 22 kWh net battery gives it a 50-mile (80 km) electric range, and contributes to a shocking 2,370 kg (5,225 lbs) weight in Avant wagon form. That could mean the RSQ5 coming in at around 2,450 kg (5,400 lbs) if it keeps the same battery – though if it does the range won’t be as long.
Drift Mode
Hopefully, Audi will also drop in the RS5’s new center differential that helps banish understeer together with an electromechanical torque vectoring rear axle. And while they’re at it, let’s have the sedan’s RS Torque Rear drift mode and the boost button that gives you maximum power for 10 seconds.
We can’t see the RSQ5’s interior in these shots, but it’ll retain most of the SQ5’s core features, like the 14.5-inch infotainment touchscreen and 11.9-inch Audi Virtual Cockpit gauge cluster. You can be sure of plenty of feel-good RS touches though, including thick sports seats and red RS-specific steering wheel buttons when the rapid SUV debuts either later this year or early in 2027.
