As a child, the Audi C5 RS6 Avant was one of the whales we just never got here in America. Shafted. Left out in the cold. The sedan came, it was rad, but it was no Avant. This was after the sting of the B5 RS4 never making the journey across the Atlantic. Insult and injury. But Audi made good and gave us the forbidden fruit with the current RS6 Avant, which just left production. Lightning is going to strike twice.
On the latest episode of The Drivecast, Audi of America Senior Vice President of Product Management Filip Brabec exclusively told The Drive, “If there is globally an RS6 Avant, then it will come to America,” when asked if the next-generation RS6 Avant will come to the U.S. market.
Listen below from the moment Brabec addresses the next-generation RS6 Avant, whether it was a success, and whether it will come to America.
Good news, Fam. There’s going to be a new RS6 Avant. We’ve seen it, you’ve seen it, there are spy photos of it on The Drive. It’s expected to feature a plug-in hybrid V8 powertrain with a ridiculous amount of power and the 2027 RS5’s new trick quattro all-wheel-drive system. And if you are curious about what it will look like, well, just take a look at the new A6 Allroad, squint real hard, lower it, and give it some RS design bits.
Getting the last (current?) RS6 Avant here wasn’t an easy task. Getting any RS-badged model to the U.S. wasn’t an easy task. Brabec noted, “You know, something that, yeah, we call it forbidden fruit sometimes, you know? And, and we worked also a lot on that car. And lo and behold, and it came and you asked me if, you know, if we considered a success, 100%. It superseded any kind of internal expectations. “
Brabec said, “The expectation was already very, very good. I think we were ambitious in the planning. I don’t think that we were, we submitted to Audi anything that we had to apologize for, but I will tell you that despite that, it, even that exceeded our, our internal expectations.”
Given the RS6 Avant was deemed a success that exceeded even Audi of America’s internal expectations, Brabec didn’t hesitate to say, “If there is globally an RS6 Avant, then it will come to America.” We win, Friends.
It gets better for RS-badged wagon fans.
When asked if the RS5 Avant might come to the U.S. Brabec said, “I will tell you, I mean, we’ve been, you know, if we, didn’t bring certain cars in the past, some of those were not due to lack of trying. So I will say that in the beginning. And I can’t go into every detail what went into each and every decision, but I will definitely tell you that we have, that we have tried various times. And so I would say that from the standpoint of a market potential and success story, definitely, we see the potential there. And, we’re kind of working through the process and, you know, we have nothing to announce today. But, you know, stay tuned, I would say.”
I noted to Brabec that was a long way of not saying the word no to which he responded, “Not a no is fair. Not a no is fair.” He’s saying there’s a chance.
Brabec did give the caveat that the RS6 is the current focus though. “But, you can also imagine that, of course, our emphasis is on the RS6 because it was in the market. We, we obviously wanna have continuity. We don’t wanna come into the market, drop out- drop in and, you know, get out. So we obviously have something for the fans there, and we, of course, wanna consider that a priority one, and that will continue to be the priority one for us,” Brabec said.
The next-gen RS6 Avant is a lock for America. Now it’s time to get real loud if you want the RS5 Avant so Brabec can point to yet another RS-badged wagon’s success in the U.S. market.
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The post The Next Audi RS6 Avant Is Coming to America. It Might Not Be Alone appeared first on The Drive.