2026 Audi RS5 Review: 640 Horsepower, a Family Hatch, and One Very Heavy Compromise

Audi’s 2026 RS5 is the kind of car that grabs your attention long before you’ve had time to think about whether it actually makes sense. It’s fast, expensive, clever, and loaded with enough technology to remind you that Audi still knows how to build a serious performance machine. But once the initial excitement fades, the RS5 starts to feel like something more complicated than just another fast German car. It feels like a perfect example of where modern performance cars are heading, and not all of that is good news.

Part of the confusion starts with the badge. Audi has reworked its naming system so combustion-powered cars now wear odd numbers while electric models take the even-numbered spots. That means the model line that buyers once knew as the A4 now lives under the A5 name. As a result, this new RS5 carries a familiar badge while quietly stepping into territory once occupied by the RS4. It’s a simple corporate decision that somehow manages to make an enthusiast icon feel slightly disoriented.

That sense of identity confusion continues with the body style. The new RS5 Avant is essentially the spiritual replacement for the old RS4 Avant, only with a different name. The more interesting version is the so-called RS5 Sedan. Audi may prefer that label, but this is not a traditional sedan in the old-school sense. It uses a large rear hatch, giving it the practicality and flexibility of a Sportback, even if the brand seems reluctant to say that out loud. For buyers who won’t get the Avant in their market, that’s actually a meaningful advantage. It’s easier to load, more useful day to day, and more versatile than a standard trunk setup. Still, there’s something amusing about a car that benefits so heavily from hatchback practicality while pretending it isn’t one.

Under the skin, Audi has gone all in on complexity. The big headline is 640 horsepower, a number that instantly puts the RS5 in serious company. Power comes from a twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V6 paired with a plug-in hybrid system that adds electric punch and sharper response. On paper, it’s exactly what you’d expect from a next-generation RS model: big power, instant shove, and enough performance to make almost anything else on the road feel ordinary. Audi says it can hit 100 km/h in just 3.6 seconds, and there’s little reason to doubt it.

But there’s no escaping the catch. This thing is heavy. Really heavy. The new RS5 tips the scales at more than 2.3 tons, which is an eye-opening figure for a car in this class. At roughly 5,070 pounds, it’s carrying around the kind of weight that used to belong to much larger luxury grand tourers. That’s the core contradiction of the new RS5. Audi has created a brutally capable performance car, but it’s also dragging around a huge amount of hardware to achieve it. The result is a machine that feels impressive and slightly excessive at the same time.

The reason for that excess has less to do with passion and more to do with the world the car was built for. In Europe, especially in markets like Germany, plug-in hybrids can make far more sense on paper than traditional combustion-only performance cars because of tax advantages for company-car users. That gives the RS5 a strange kind of real-world logic. It isn’t just a fast car for enthusiasts. It’s also a performance car designed to work within modern emissions rules, tax structures, and corporate purchasing decisions. That may not sound especially romantic, but it explains a lot about why Audi built it this way.

To Audi’s credit, the company seems to understand the biggest criticism aimed at performance hybrids. Plenty of cars can post big power figures when the battery is fully charged, only to feel less special once the electric reserve drops. Audi says the RS5 has been engineered to avoid that problem. Even at a very low battery state of charge, the car is designed to maintain strong performance, and in its most aggressive driving modes it actively works to preserve enough battery energy to keep delivering its full punch. It may not be the most efficient way to use fuel, but it does suggest Audi wanted the headline number to mean something in the real world, not just on a press release.

The plug-in hybrid setup does offer genuine benefits beyond performance. The battery is large enough to provide useful electric-only range, which means some owners will be able to handle short commutes or city driving without touching the V6 at all. That gives the RS5 a split personality that will appeal to buyers who want one car to do everything. It can be quiet and efficient during the week, then loud and aggressively quick when the road opens up. The strange part is that Audi pairs this sizable battery with AC charging only. There’s no DC fast charging, which feels like a surprising omission in a car this advanced and this expensive.

Inside, the RS5 is a mix of progress and frustration. Audi has made at least one move that drivers will appreciate immediately: physical scroll wheels are back on the steering wheel. That might sound like a small detail, but after years of touch-sensitive controls that looked futuristic and worked terribly, it feels like a rare moment of common sense returning to the cabin. It’s the sort of fix that makes daily use noticeably better.

Unfortunately, not every lesson has been learned. The glossy black trim still looks sleek in photos and terrible after a few minutes of actual use, collecting fingerprints and dust almost instantly. More annoying is the fact that important climate controls remain buried in the lower section of the touchscreen. In a car capable of this much speed, forcing the driver to hunt through a screen for basic comfort settings still feels like an unnecessary ergonomic mistake.

Then there’s the kind of premium-brand nonsense that increasingly comes with modern luxury cars. The RS5 already sits deep in six-figure territory in Europe, yet owners can still be prompted to spend extra money on digital add-ons like infotainment themes and display backgrounds. On one hand, it’s a minor issue. On the other, it perfectly captures the mood of the modern luxury market, where even after paying a huge amount upfront, the car still finds small ways to ask for more. Some buyers will laugh it off. Others will see it as a symbol of where the industry is heading, and not in a good way.

That’s what makes the 2026 Audi RS5 so interesting. It is genuinely fast, undeniably versatile, and technically impressive in the way modern Audi performance cars usually are. It offers real electric range, everyday practicality, and the kind of all-weather pace that will make it deeply appealing to a certain kind of buyer. But it also feels like a car carrying the full burden of its era. Regulations, electrification, tax incentives, software upselling, and engineering excess all show up here in one very expensive package.

The new RS5 may be one of the most capable cars Audi has built in years. It may also be one of the clearest examples of how complicated performance cars have become. It’s thrilling, useful, and brilliantly engineered, but also heavy, overthought, and full of compromises that would have seemed ridiculous not that long ago. That doesn’t make it bad. It just makes it honest. And maybe that’s the real story here: the future of performance is no longer simple, and the RS5 wears every bit of that complexity on its sleeve.