Audi to bid adieu RS-badged ICE cars in mind-blowing fashion. Details here

German automaker Audi is pushing hard to go fully electric in the next decade, as it has promised to be a purely electric brand by 2033. But before that, Audi plans to bring some extraordinary internal combustion engine-powered cars to the market, as indicated by the automaker's head of design Marc Lichte. He said that the final range of Audi RS badged cars with internal combustion engines will come as mind-blowing machines.

Not only ICE-powered RS models, but the pure electric models from the brand with RS badge too would come as equally impressive, claimed the Audi official. "I promise you, both EVs and ICE will be impressive. Especially the last-generation ICE RS models, they will be bwoah… mind-blowing," he said to the British automotive publication Top Gear. It is clear from his comment that before Audi gradually switches to electric vehicles, conventionally powered performance cars from the brand will go out with a bang.

However, the Audi design boss refrained from sharing further details about the upcoming RS models. The next-generation RS4 and RS6 are expected to come with plug-in hybrid powertrains. The R8 is going away, and so is the TT RS. The RS Q3 and its Sportback sibling are unlikely to retain the five-cylinder engine in their next-generation avatar. Hence, it is evident that the days of pure ICE models with an RS badge are numbered.

In another interaction with Autocar UK, Audi's design chief has also revealed that the automaker is working on the next generation A8, which will premiere in 2024 as the production version of the Grandsphere. Lichte has revealed that the production model will be very close to the original concept. However, he further stated that it won't be a carbon copy of the Grandsphere concept. It could come as the Audi A8 E-Tron and be underpinned by the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture, which Audi has co-developed with Porsche.