No RS Versions for Audi Q5 and Q7

Marketing activities are becoming more and more important in the automotive world. This trend has led to much more than just badges and campaigns. One example that demonstrates the implications of this is the fact that multiple performance divisions, belonging to various automotive producers, have forgotten what they had promised in the past, choosing to make sales-targeting compromises.

This is how the Mercedes ML63 AMG and the BMW X5M/X6M were born. Don’t get us wrong, we have nothing against SUVs with supercar-like engines, we’re just saying that these kind of vehicles should have been marketed separately in order to keep the spirit of the automakers’ go-fast arms pure.

However, it seems that there is one premium German automotive producer that isn’t willing to trade heritage for sales. We are talking about Audi, which was expected to be working on RS versions for its Q7 and Q5 SUVs. Fortunately, it seems like the “RennSport” badge will never find its way to an SUV, as autoblog.it writes.

Stephan Reil, Audi’s General Manager of Development, told the aforementioned source that the carmaker gives the green light to a new RS project only when this is technically possible. In other words, if a vehicle isn’t focused on offering the ultimate performance, it won’t be marketed as an RS car.

We’ll remind you that the Audi Q5 and Q7 rumors were fueled by the introduction of the Q5 Custom Concept, a factory-tuned, sporty (both in terms of styling and power), version of the Q5, which was presented last year.