Audi Commits to a New RS6 Wagon for the US, RS5 Avant Still Undecided

Filip Brabec, Audi of America's Senior Vice President of Product Management, didn't wobble when The Drive asked him directly about the next RS6 Avant's American chances. His answer: if the wagon gets built for the world, it gets built for the US. That's a promise, not a maybe — as long as global production gets the green light. Final decisions are still being settled in Germany.

The confidence is earned. The outgoing RS6 Avant just wrapped production having cleared Audi's own US sales expectations, and Brabec admits those targets weren't soft. He described the planning as ambitious; the car beat it anyway. He also framed the move as part of a longer game — Audi wants continuity in America rather than dropping in and out of the market, a shift from the days when its wagons appeared and vanished, including the A6 Allroad's long-awaited return.

On the machinery, Audi is staying quiet on numbers. The next RS6 Avant is expected to pair a V8 with a plug-in hybrid setup, a bigger electrification step than the car it replaces, but no final output figures have been released. The all-wheel-drive hardware is expected to come from the 2027 RS5, which pairs a twin-turbo V6 and an electric motor for 630 horsepower and 609 lb-ft, reaching 62 mph in 3.6 seconds. That system runs rear-biased quattro with a locking center differential and electromechanical rear torque vectoring, defaulting to a 40:60 front-to-rear split.

Audi of America has also said separately that new electrification steps are coming across the lineup in months, not years, though it hasn't named which non-RS models get them — or whether that timing lines up with the RS6 Avant's plug-in hybrid debut.

Then there's the second wagon. Asked whether the RS5 Avant could join the RS6 Avant in US showrooms, Brabec wouldn't commit and wouldn't shut it down. His phrasing, repeated when pressed: “Not a no is fair.”