Audi Q3 RS confirmed - but it won't be badged RS

Audi Q3 RS confirmed - with 300bhp but no RS badge

Audi has confirmed that it will be producing a Q3 with an RS engine, but that it won’t be badged RS. In fact no Audi Q will get the RS badge.

Back in June we reported that Audi are working on a quick Q3 with something around 300bhp. We didn’t think it would get to market as the Q3 RS (Audi will want to protect the RS badge) but it would almost certainly arrive. Which seems to have been confirmed.

Car Dealer Magazine managed to grab Audi Production Manager Rob Morris at the launch of the new entry-level Q3, and bent his ear about an RS Q3.

Rob was happy to confirm that Audi will be launching a quick version of the Audi Q3 within the next eighteen months, and although it will have about 300bhp – and an RS engine – it won’t get the RS badge. Instead, it will be an engine option for a Q3 in S Line Spec.

Our original report on the Q3 RS came after Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said a Q3 with the RS engine from the Audi TT was very much in Audi’s plans, but he didn’t confirm or deny the RS badge. But at least we now know Audi are willing to make ‘hot’ SUVs, but without the RS moniker.

It seems that Audi will be using the 2.5 litre 5 pot engine from the TT in detuned form, with around 300bhp on tap. That should be enough to make the Q3 more than a little nippy, but will it be as nippy as the Range Rover Evoque Sport we expect to see?

That question was something Audi PR boss Jon Zammett commented on to Car Dealer. He’s reported to have said:

If and when Range Rover puts the 2.5-litre Volvo engine in the Evoque, we will need to compete.

Now maybe Jon knows something we don’t, but it seems far more likely Land Rover will opt to stick a more powerful version of the Ecoboost lump in the Evoque, or even the new V6 being developed for the new Jaguar sports car.

But whatever Land Rover do with the Evoque, Audi are going to be ready to play, with a 300bhp Audi Q3 S Line.