Having ruled out the possibility of the new A1 spawning a performance S model as before, Audi has now also confirmed that an even hotter RS model won’t he happening at all.
This, according to Audi Sport’s Managing Director Julius Seebach, who told Britain’s Autocar that no model will go smaller in engine size than the 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine used in the TT RS and RS3, as this “our heritage”.
Despite falling victim to the controversial World Harmonised Light-Duty Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) requirements last year, the five-cylinder will continue for the time being in spite of Ingolstadt’s increasing focus on electrification.
“For EU7 we have concepts for all our engines, but it’s just a matter of how much money I have to spend to reach the targets. For the five-cylinder we have a very, very, good concept to reach those standards,” Audi Sport Managing Director, Oliver Hoffman, was quoted by Australia’s motoring.com.au as saying at a media briefing in July.
It therefore means that the A1 40 TFSI, powered by the same albeit detuned 2.0-litre turbocharged engine as the Volkswagen Polo GTI, will remain the most powerful A1 in production today.
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