News / 23 March 2021 / Albert du Toit

New Audi RS Q8 for South Africa – A R2.3-million super SUV

The Audi RS Q8 will go on sale in South Africa from 1 April 2021.

The RS Q8 is the flagship SUV for the brand and is differentiated through exclusive exterior and interior elements, along with a big engine.

Audi has accentuated the athletic look of the RS Q8 through the fitment of an octagonal singleframe grille with honeycomb pattern, flanked by immense air intakes and standard tinted HD Matrix LED headlights.

RS-specific trim strips on the body widens the SUV by 10mm at the back and 5mm at the front, an RS sill encompasses the exterior, and 23-inch wheels lend it an imposing stance.

At the back of the slanted roof sits a functional spoiler, and an RS-specific rear skirt with oval tailpipes concludes the exterior revisions.

When buying your RS Q8, you will have a choice of one solid and eight metallic exterior paint finishes, along with a selection of styling packages that will see bits such as the grille and blades change according to the selected option.

The interior of the new flagship SUV, according to Audi, follows a “deliberately clean design”.

A slim instrument panel features prominent horizontal lines and the top MMI display nearly dissolves into the black surface once switched off.

Special RS displays show information on things such as tyre pressure, torque, output, temperature, lap times, and g-forces.

They also provide a shift light that prompts the driver to change gears at the optimal time, while the standard heads-up-display offers easier viewing over some of these features.

To keep in line with its status in the Audi line-up, the RS Q8 is treated to Valcona leather seats with heating and ventilating functions.

Furthermore, the centre console, gear selector, and steering wheel are covered in Alcantara, while the upper side of the instrument panel – including the heads-up display cover, door panels, and armrests – are all covered in black Nappa leather.

The RS styling package then sees to it that red contrast stitching is placed on the knee pads, steering wheel, floor mats, gear selector, and seat belts.

When the seats are folded down, this SUV can hold an impressive 1,755 litres of cargo.

Features

The RS Q8 is equipped with the MMI navigation plus infotainment system as standard.

This system enables the full suite of Audi Connect services, alongside the standard smartphone mirroring, Bluetooth, navigation, and entertainment features found on a premium vehicle from this brand.

Audi Connect can be used for functions such as online traffic information, point of interest search, sat nav, and live weather updates – and includes Car2X services.

The latter serves to provide safety and service features in the event of an emergency, and will allow an emergency safety or service call to an Audi call centre.

The system will also save personalised driver settings for up to six drivers, and additional functionalities – accessed through the MyAudi App – include a car finder, remote unlocking, and speed and theft alerts.

A long list of safety features is then fitted as standard, and includes:

Efficiency assist
Intersection assist
360-degree camera
Lane change warning
Adaptive cruise assist
Exit warning and rear-cross traffic alert

Performance

At the heart of this super SUV lies a 4.0-litre, bi-turbo, mild-hybrid V8 engine that produces 441kW and 800Nm of torque between 2,200 and 4,500rpm.

This engine is mated to an 8-speed tiptronic gearbox, which sends 40% of the power to the front wheels and 60% to the rear through the Audi quattro permanent all-wheel-drive system.

Consequently, the RS Q8 can reach 100km/h in 3.8 seconds, 200km/h in 13.7 seconds, and an electronically limited top-speed of 250km/h.

The mild-hybrid system then increases efficiency by storing up to 12kW of power that would otherwise have gone wasted, and cylinder-on-demand technology can further assist with this by switching off four of the eight cylinders when they are not needed.

In addition, the standard adaptive air suspension with controlled damping will let you adjust ride height by up to 90mm, while also keeping the hefty body as level as possible under all conditions.