Yahoo Business Insider recently sat down with Audi of America President Scott Keogh at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The interview provides great insight into Audi of America. After all, Audi has just wrapped up incredible 2015 with them selling 202,202 cars for the first time in their US history. After exceeding the 100,000 mark just five years ago. Those first 100,00 units took 40-years.

There’s no doubt that Audi sales will continue to climb especially on the backs of the hot selling A3, Q3, and Q5. The Q5 has been dominating Audi sales for some time now. 2016 will see the introduction of the all-new A4 and Q7, which are both high volume vehicles for Audi.

For Audi, the North American market will continue to be a challenge especially with 17.5 million cars already on the road. To stand out car companies like Audi will need to continue to step up their products and services to be able to survive.

Higher sales volumes for Audi also allows them to introduce more niche cars into the markets like North America. The first step in this equation involves long-time Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann replacing current Head of Audi Sport (quattro GmbH) Heinz Hollerweger. Keogh would not comment if the move has any correlation to the plans for the brand. However, he indicated that Audi Sport will play a much bigger role in the companies product portfolio. Winkelmann is a strong leader and has the experience to help Audi Sport succeed.

Keogh revealed to Business Insider that “You are going to see a lot more high performance ‘RS’ models from Audi Sport in the US,” Keogh went on to say “We think this is a brand we have not taken enough advantage of.”

Audi has always struggled with how to market and explain what quattro GmbH means to customers. The RS cars that Audi brought to America have been successful. However, Keogh believes that they can do better.

Currently, only the RS 7 is available in North America on the all-new R8 arriving in the Spring. Keogh said that he expects the TT RS, and RS 3 to join the US lineup. He is also working to bring the C8 RS 6 Avant to the US market when it debuts. We’ve also heard rumblings that both the B9 RS 5 in Coupe and Sportback models will be available in North America.



When asked about the role Audi Sport RS models will play in North America, and if they will finally give Audi an answer to BMW M and Mercedes’ AMG, Keogh replied with a firm “Yes.” He admits that Audi has not taken full advantage of the Audi Sport name. Audi has had so much success in customer racing at the track that they forgot to commercialize the Audi Sport name. BMW and Mercedes have done an excellent job of introducing most of the M and AMG cars to the North America market.

However, it is important to note that both BMW and Mercedes have sold significantly more cars in North American than Audi in the past. Those sales numbers allow BMW and Mercedes to take risks on lower margin models — such as performance models and wagons. Currently, Audi of America has very few answers to the high-performance competition.

However, the performance models that they have released to the North American market have continuously beaten the competition in all media comparison tests. We expect the next few years in North America to be very exciting for Audi, and we look forward and hope that the continued growth allows them to take more risks and deliver the performance cars we all want to see on the roads in North America.

So how do we think the next few years will look like for Audi Sport in North America?

Rumors are floating around that Audi is reworking the EA113 inline-five found in the previous generation TT RS and RS 3. The new version will use an aluminum block and produce around 400 horsepower. We expect both new generations of the TT RS Coupe and the all-new RS 3 Sedan to arrive in North America.

The Audi A5 Sportback is highly successful in across the rest of the world. However, due to some design elements concerning rear passenger safety, it was never sold in North America. We expect the new B9 A5 Sportback to arrive in North America. Along with the A5 Sportback, the S5 Sportback and RS 5 Sportback should also arrive. The RS 5 will most likely house a 450-horsepower twin-turbo V6 engine. We also know that a new RS 5 coupe was shown off to Audi General Managers.

The RS 4 will most likely continue as an avant only and will not make it to North America.

Our Expected Audi Sport North American Lineup:

Audi RS 3 Sedan

Audi TT RS Coupe

Audi RS 5 Coupe

Audi RS 5 Sportback

Audi RS 7 plus

Audi R8