Audi RS 5 Avant: The Fast Wagon Gets a Battery
639 horsepower, a twin-turbo V6, a plug socket and room for the dog. Audi Sport's first plug-in hybrid has landed in Singapore.
There is a particular kind of person who buys a fast Audi wagon. They have a family, a golf bag and a mortgage, and they still want the quickest car in the condo carpark.
Audi has been building cars for that person since the RS2 in 1994, and the formula has barely changed: take a sensible estate, give it far too much power, send it through all four wheels, and flare the arches so everyone knows. The new RS 5 Avant keeps all of that, then adds something no RS has had before. A charging port.
This is Audi Sport's first high-performance plug-in hybrid, and it's on sale in Singapore now from $723,999 with COE. There's a Sedan too, for $10,000 less. We'll get to that.
Why the Avant Is the One
Let's be honest about what an RS Avant is really for. It's for the school run on Monday and the Sepang track day on Saturday. It's for loading a pram into the boot, then heading out for a proper drive while the rest of the house is still asleep. No sedan, however quick, quite pulls that off.
The previous RS 5 was a coupe and a Sportback. This time Audi has gone with the two body styles that make the most sense: an Avant wagon and a four-door Sedan. Both use the same running gear. But if you've ever looked at an RS 6 and thought "that, but smaller and less ostentatious," the RS 5 Avant is the answer to that thought.
V6 Fury, Electric Punch
Under the bonnet is a 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 making 375 kW on its own. Bolted to it is a 130 kW electric motor. Together, they produce a combined 470 kW (639 PS) and 825 Nm.
Hybrid maths: the two peaks don't simply add up, because the engine and motor deliver their maximum at different points. 470 kW is what you actually get.
What that means on the road is the bit we care about. The electric motor fills in the gap while the turbos spool up, so there's shove the instant you touch the throttle. Audi quotes 0 to 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds, which is supercar territory for a car with a luggage cover.
And then there's the part that makes this an easy sell in Singapore. A 22 kWh (net) battery gives you up to 87 km of electric driving in the city, by Audi's figures. For most of us, that covers a full week of commuting without the V6 waking up once. Plug it into an 11 kW AC charger and it's full again in about two and a half hours.
The Clever Bit at the Back
Fast Audis have a reputation. Brilliant in a straight line, brilliant in the wet, but a little too keen to push wide in a tight corner. Audi Sport has clearly heard that complaint.
The RS 5 gets what Audi calls quattro with Dynamic Torque Control. It's an electronically controlled setup on the rear axle that decides how much torque goes to each rear wheel, recalculating every five milliseconds. Send more to the outside wheel in a bend, and the car tucks its nose in rather than ploughing on.
In plain terms, this should be the most playful RS 5 yet. We say "should" because we haven't driven it yet. That's the first thing we'll test when we do.
Kitted Out for Singapore
Audi Singapore isn't making you tick the options list to get the good stuff. Both the Avant and the Sedan come standard with the Audi Sport package, which brings:
- 21-inch two-tone diamond-cut wheels in phantom black
- An RS sport exhaust, so the V6 sounds the part when it does fire up
- A raised 285 km/h top speed
The wheels alone change the whole look of the car. Combined with the wide RS stance, the RS 5 Avant has real presence for something that's still, technically, a family estate.
Avant or Sedan?
Same engine, same motor, same Audi Sport package. The only real question is the shape of the back end, and the $10,000 between them.
RS 5 Avant
The proper RS experience. More space, more versatility, more of that fast wagon swagger.
RS 5 Sedan
Sleeker and a little more discreet, with exactly the same 470 kW powertrain underneath.
For us, it's the Avant every time. Ten grand is a lot of money, but on a car at this level, the extra practicality and the sheer cool factor of a 639 PS wagon are worth it.
A Race-Season Debut
Audi timed the launch around its first year in Formula 1. The RS 5 Avant made its public debut on 1 October at Off the Grid by adidas and Audi at Funan Mall, while the Sedan went on show at the Audi House of Progress on Cross Street, right in the build-up to the Singapore Night Race.
"The all-new RS 5 represents the next chapter of Audi Sport's electrified high-performance journey as our first plug-in hybrid model."
Martin Bayer, Managing Director, Audi Singapore
Fans at Funan also got close to the Audi R26 F1 show car, and Audi Revolut F1 Team drivers Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg dropped by on 7 October. Not a bad way to introduce your first hybrid RS.
