Future pure-electric Audi RS models to have an "amazing" future

It's a trade off so we need to perfectly design that. This is exactly what my head of R&D [Steffen Bamberger] is doing brilliantly with the team: to find the perfect balance out of how much weight you're putting in, where you're putting the weight, how you're playing with these components, batteries, all the the heavy parts in the car and putting them in the right place.

BMW M has gone on record saying they don’t feel like their customers are particularly concerned about the lack of noise. But are you confident of keeping your fan base in this move to an EV?

I think we have a perfect example with the RS e-Tron GT. This was our first high performance EV out of Audi Sport and you can already see that people who drove the Audi RS6 before are moving into the electric world [and are] completely open for the electric world. 

We believe that sound plays a major role also in electrification. Therefore, we also decided to bring a specific RS sound to the RS e-Tron GT. This is not like a combustion engine - it's transformed into the electric world but also shows the performance.

Do you feel like you’re there yet?

There’s more to come and we need to sharpen that. We are learning. We are happy that we had the chance to position such a car in the market, before our competitors came, to learn and get feedback from the customers.

One thing I want to say is regarding the fan base. Yes, you need to adapt to the customer fan base you already have. But secondly, you need to take into account that you have a target group that is growing into your products.

So in five to 10 years, you have our S customers who are coming out of the digital age and maybe they are not missing the [engine] sound. You need to look at what target group you are aiming for.

What lessons have you learned from the RS e-Tron GT that you’re applying to this 2030 target?

Performance is not a problem at all. Secondly, with the Audi E-Tron GT and the RS, we also need to bring a specific differentiating design and we need to make it more sharp. So, edgy, sporty - people love to have these elements in the electric age. 

Also, what kind of digitalisation topics you're bringing into your cars. Today, people are paying attention to hardware stuff, like rims, seats, exterior parts. But what is the mirror to that on the digital side? You need to create value to the customer from that side.

Are you excited about the prospect of RS-branded SUVs?

We have our Audi RS Q3 and Audi RS Q8 which are very well accepted in the market. But we will definitely also bring more SUV models in the RS segment and also in the electric world. We have 16 different models within the RS portfolio and we are trying to offer the perfect product to different customer groups.

But we don’t want RS ‘inflation’. So not each product should be an RS. 

Will Audi Sport do its own version of the SSP platform, like Porsche is rumoured to be doing?

What I can say is, we are trying to use the synergies in the [Volkswagen] Group. We are trying to use the same platforms so we are not developing our own platform for Audi Sport. We try to make it perfectly aligned with our mother, with Audi. And then we try to bring all the requirements into the platform to have the perfect baseline to make an RS model.

Does that make a successor to the R8 more difficult?

Our biggest wish is to have a successor of the R8. Christmas is coming, maybe I can have a wish like everyone. If you’re asking if we need to do it, it depends on other things inside the group. We cannot decide these things alone. Therefore we have a board of management in Audi AG and we have a lot of tasks to fulfil in different fields. We are looking for different kinds of concepts. It needs to fit our strategy in the right direction of electrification.

How far advanced are plans for an electric TT?

I cannot comment. Today, the Audi TT is an icon. And what we want to show with the Iconic Edition is, let's say, the ultimate TT you can get. And what the future brings depends exactly on what you asked before, on the platform strategy of the future. We, as Audi Sport, always fight for perfect, high performance products in the different segments. Let's see what the future brings.

Now that Audi is committed to Formula One, does that mean budgets will be tighter for road cars?