Four-cylinders not part of next generation Audi Sport models

In what has been seen as a swipe at Mercedes-Benz’s recent switch to four-cylinder engines for its new generation of AMG models, Audi has announced that it won’t be following the same route for its incoming S and RS models at any stage.

While still represented by the S3 as its smallest engine performance model at present, Ingolstadt’s Head of Marketing at Audi Sport, Constantin Dressler, in a likely response to the electrified Mercedes-AMG C43 and all-new C63 S, told cnet.com that while electrification will feature prominently in the next S and RS model, “we won’t do four-cylinder”.

The announcement likely stems from the Four Rings confirming earlier this year that only brand-new electric vehicles will be produced by 2026, in the anticipated run-up to internal combustion engines becoming entirely obsolete by 2034.

Until 2019, the now axed S1, based on the original A1, had been Audi Sport’s smallest model with outputs of 188kW/350Nm from its 2.0 TFSI engine.

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A replacement, based on the current A1 that will be dropped before 2025, never materialised as a result of not only costs, but also space limitations related to the MQB A0 platform that also underpins the Volkswagen Polo, T-Cross, Taigo/Nivus, the Virtus/Polo Sedan, as well as the Seat Ibiza and Skoda Fabia.

“With that platform, it’s difficult. You remember the first series of the A1 quattro was very expensive to build. The S1 was also not easy to do because it was done later, it was not originally on the platform,” Audi’s then Head of Communications, and former DTM driver, Peter Oberndorfer told defunct online publication caradvice.com.au three years ago.

“It was quite an investment. It was a great car but nowadays we have to focus more and more [on other developments] and it’s getting more and more difficult.”

Despite Audi confirming earlier this year a renewal of the model that uses the S3 as a base, the A3, for fifth a generation in 2027 or 2028, this model is unlikely to utilise an internal combustion engine, meaning the current iteration will prevail until then as the only four-cylinder model in Audi’s performance line-up.